Point Military Academy, and had served for ten years as an officer of artillery of the U. S. Army, and tendering his services to the Executive of this Commonwealth in any military capacity. I am not aware that any acknowledgment was ever made of this communication.

During the month of June I received another note from Mr. Wyman, dated at the Parker House, Boston, he having in the meanwhile returned to America. This letter was assigned to a member of my staff, to whom Mr. Wyman was referred for consultation. It was at that time that I first heard that there was said to be a cloud of some sort upon Mr. Wyman's character; and having little leisure myself to enter into quasi-judicial investigations as to personal character, I passed over his name in the appointments which I then was making. The nature of the reports against him were not then stated to me, and although I was soon after advised of them, yet there are things asserted in your letter of January 1 as "notorious facts" of which it is only through yourself that I have knowledge.

Very shortly afterward Adam W. Thaxter, esq., of this city-- doubtless known to you as one of the most distinguished merchants of Boston--brought the name of Mr. Wyman very urgently to my attention, both personally and in a letter dated June 20, in which he requested me to call on himself if Mr. Wyman should "need an indorser," and stated that in his opinion Mr. Wyman, if appointed a colonel, would "do credit to his native State." And on July 1 Mr. Thaxter further presented to me a communication in writing, signed by Captain Thomas J. C. Amory, of the Seventh Infantry, U. S. Army, and Captain Louis H. Marshall, of the Tenth Infantry, U. S. Army, both of whom had served in the Army with Mr. Wyman, and who were, if I remember, the only U. S. Regular Army officers then on duty at this city; and signed also by Charles G. Greene, esq., Franklin Haven, esq., William Dehon, esq., William Parkman, esq., Honorable George Lunt, Honorable Benjamin F. Hallett, Henry L. Hallett, esq., P. Holmes, esq., Edward F. Bradlee, esq., Joseph L. Henshaw, esq., Peter Butler, esq., Thomas C. Amory, esq., and J. P. Bradlee, esq.-all of these, gentlemen of this city, who are doubtless known to you by reputation, and with some of whom I cannot doubt that you are personally acquainted-in which communication these gentlemen requested the appointment of Mr. Wyman as a colonel, and certified that they "believed in him" as "a gentleman, a man of worth, an accomplished officer and brave soldier, and that a regiment under his command would yield to none in the service for discipline, high tone, and efficiency," and also that they felt convinced that "under all circumstances" he "would do honor to his State and to his country." These gentlemen further stated that they made this request in full knowledge of the existence of the rumors and influences against Mr. Wyman's reputation; and nevertheless, with such knowledge, they earnestly "urged" him "as one to whom the honor of Massachusetts may confidently be trusted."

About the same time Mr. Wyman addressed to me a communication in writing, denying the truth of the prejudicial rumors in circulation against him, and although admitting that it was true that he had formed a matrimonial connection with a lady who had eloped from her husband by reason of that husband's brutal treatment of her, yet stating also that he had not seen the lady for the year preceding, nor for the year after her elopement. This communication, I find, upon referring to it, amounts also to a denial of the truth of much that is stated by you in your letter of January 1, as "notorious facts" derogatory to Mr. Wyman's