shall sit in private and hear all the case duly laid open before them, by competent council to be appointed by the gentlemen themselves, one of each side, who, after properly explaining and setting forth all the facts in the case, shall retire, and the court shall make out, in writing, such an award as on their HONOR they shall think JUST; and this shall be binding alike upon Col. Wilson and Gen. Chambers, and esteemed an honorable adjustment of their difficulty. Geo. W. Chambers, James Guthrie, A. Throckmorton, W. C. Galt, W. H. Pope." Gen. Chambers refused to submit the case to the arbitration of a court of honor, alleging that the principal controversy concerned the honor of his country, that he felt a perfect assurance that he was right in the position he had assumed in its defence, and that he would not submit to any settlement of the matter which would, in the slightest degree, compromit the honor of his country. He remarked at the same time, that so far as the question affected himself personally, he had no objection to the reference. After maturely reflecting on the matter, we determined to acquiesce on our own responsibility, in its referenee to a court of honor in the following manner: "The undersigned, friends of Gen. T. J. Chambers, having been requested to give our answer, on their own responsibility, to the above proposition made by gentlemen entitled to great consideration, beg leave very respectfully to say, that they are very wiUing, nay, anxious, that the difficulty referred to, should, if possible, be settled without the expected hostile meeting; especially as Col. Wilson has a family greatly interested in the continuance of his life, and more especially as they are strongly impressed with a sense of the great value of their friend Gen. Chambers' life and services to his country during her present struggle for national existence. "The undersigned are therefore perfectly willing that the board of honor be constituted, to be composed of four of the gentlemen who have signed the proposition; two to be named by the undersigned as friends of Gen. Chambers, the other two by A. C. Bullitt, Esq. and Capt. Russell, as the friends of Col. Wilson; and these four to have the right to choose a fifth person as umpire in case of an equal division; which court may take the whole
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