5



fully established. But the verdict was a foregone con-
clusion.
   Mladison was at this time looking for re-election, and it
 was all-important to him to find a scapegoat for the in-
 efficiency of his administration. Dearborn, the man who
 of all others had a personal interest in the condemnation
 of Hull, was made president of the court-martial. Those
 witnesses who, under the influence of Cass, testified against
 Hull were all rewarded with promotion in the army,
 though many of them had never seen a battle. Those who
 testified in his favor received no promotion.
   (Gneral Hull's own papers, containing his correspondence
with the government, which would have helped to exon-
erate him, had been burned with the vessel in which they
were sent from Detroit to Buffalo. After the trial he re-
peatedly asked for copies of these letters, but was refused.
It was twelve years before he at last obtained them from
John C. Calhoun. He then wrote a series of letters in the
Boston Statesmian, which entirely changed the feeling toward
him. Letters and testimonials came to him from every
part of the country, and a dinner was given to him in
I3oston, and another in his native town, Derby, Conn.
  Unfortunately, during the twelve years that General
Hull was unable to obtain copies of the papers from Wash-
ington, the garbled accounts of the surrender had gone into
print, and few persons care to look up facts or to change
a preconcelveel opinion.
  Any one who desires a little fuller information on this
subject will find it in the volume, " General Hull's Military
and Civil Life," which may be procured from the Public
Library in Boston and at the Boston Athenaeum. In the