i^ L <<:c:^«e: <^ «:cc<: c ..f^f cc3c . ' to ^ -^c coiElc <^, < rr c - c <: «: < <^^ «P ^ cc ccc CC <; ■ cc ..''C c c •- ^^ cc '^'> c c«e -^,hap. .- \l^ora^i3l^^ ^°' \i UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. c cc . ^c«:'c <- c c .< 5j_^ - -^ . ^rc" c:cc«^c c C c «. C- •^ c <-<<«- c • c «■ ■ r C C' C Cf C C - . *v^ ^ccc . cc ^< ^ cccf c cc 3:. ^_^^ ■ rCCcccC CC cr <: cC^ <^^^^i?>3^--^.^ cccccc ccc c: <«: <:cc<|Ci^oc ,7W„r.- rc.« c cccc t5C cccc ' • cjC" <:• ' cc ^ -- ^c<^.c..-cci .< CC_^. ' cc Cc CO^ f c« c:<: Cc ccc^^ <::^ c c^fcr c OCT C C"C C\«^; C C C (^ y. " Q. — Which one was that ? A. — The one from the President. " Q. — Did he apply to Mr. Grinnell at once for the general order busi- ness? A. — At once; at the time he came, and with the information he gave Mr. Grinnell of his going to be appointed collector. " Q. — Had you understood from Mr. Leet before he left Washington that he intended to ask for it? A. — I had. He came and talked to me on the subject before. " Q. — He had conversed with you about that ? A. — Yes, sir ; and told me what he thought he could make out of it. " Q- — What did he think he could make out of it ? A. — Sixty or seventy thousand dollars a year ; and from that, together with the labor contract, he calculated he could make somewhere not far from $100,000. He ex- pected and attempted to get the labor contract in the public stores, and this Mr. Haw was to be ostensibly the party to get the contract. So he told me last night. I know nothing further than that. " Q. — The labor contract in the public stores ? A. — Yes, sir. " Q. — And out of these two businesses Mr. Leet thought he could make $100,000? A. — Yes, sir." A "PARTY PLUM. 53 duties shall not have been paid, and permits for their landing and removal obtained within forty-eight hours, to be so stored. In consequence of this rule, the importer is obliged to pay a full month's storage on his goods, al- though they may not be in store twenty -four hours, which is quite likely to be the case. When the enormous amount of importations at this port is taken into account, it is easy to understand how it is that a month's storage upon every package amounts, in the yearly aggregate, to the princely sum which this monopoly has been estimated to annually yield. It was this ^^ party pluni^' as it has been aptly termed, that Col. Leet was anxious to secure, and so well assured was he of ultimately obtaining it, that the natural hesita- tion of Mr. Grinnell to comply with the demands of one who was altogether unknown in political or commercial circles, was quickened by the tJircat, that, " if he (Leet) could not get what he wanted from Mr. Grinnell, we should have another collector" of the port of New York more ready to comply with his wishes !* An arrangement was at length effected by which Leet was to receive the amount of five thousand six hundred * The following statement of Mr. Lindsay, in reply to a question of Mr. Bayard, relieves us of all doubt upon this head : " Mr. Bayard — Q. — When did Mr. Leet first threaten Mr. Grinnell with removal from the office of collector if his demands were not complied with? A. — It was soon after he came here with his letters — some few weeks ; he did not succeed ; Mr. Grinnell consulted with myself, and, I think, one or two other friends — my impression is, but I am not positive, that one gentleman was old Mr. Blatchford — in reference to giving Mr. Leet the whole of the general order business ; we advised him as his friends, or I did, at any rate (I can speak for myself), that it would be very impolitic, because it was a matter that the politicians sought for and looked after ; and we told him in substance that if he did give it to him entire it would bring great discredit not only on him but on people still higlier in posi- tion, on account of the close relations Mr. Leet had with them ; Mr. Grin- nell decided to give him only that portion of it ; after that Mr. Leet was earnest and determined to get the entire general order business, together with the public store labor contract ; he told me repeatedly that if he could not get what he wanted from Mr. Grinnell, wc should have another col- lector here, and he could get all he wanted." 54 THE WHITE-HOUSE MILITARY MESS. dollars a year out of the profits of the " General Order business," without giving any personal attention to it or furnishing any capital.* Under ordinary circumstances an arrangement so one- sided might be regarded in no other light than that of a shrewd business transaction; but when it is taken into consideration that this young protege of the President, armed with his letter of introduction, presented himself before the new Collector, and with a " Stand and deliver " air, demanded of him the most valuable contract at his disposal, not so much as a favor, as a right, which it would be well for him to recognize, the case presents altogether a different aspect. And, when added to all this, it is taken into account, that at the period of these disgraceful transactions, Col. Leet was still in the military service, under full pa}^, his absence from duty being merely temporary, and that he belonged to the " uiess," with Generals Porter and Bab- cock, who, together with General Dent, served as secre- taries to the President, and formed what is known as the "military ring," it is impossible to escape the conviction that the plan and purpose of this whole business were of the same piece with other equally indefensible enterprises which have had the powerful upholding of the Executive. *■ We quote further from the testimony of Mr. Lindsay : " Q. — You speak of Mr. Leet's receiving some $5,600 per annum from the general order business? A. — Yes, sir. " Q. — Was that in the way of a salary, or as the result of a business? A. — As the result of a business. " Q. — Did he give any personal attention to that business ? A. — Not any at all. " O. — If it was done as a business it was done by his agents ? A. — Done by his partners, I should judge, by arrangement ; Mr. Bixby was a partner of his, because they divided the overplus. " Q. — Did he devote any of the time which he was under obligation as an officer of the Government to use in the service of the Government to this general order business ? A. — No, sir ; only going often to Washington. "Senator Pratt — Q. — Did Col. Leet put any capital in this business? A. — Not a dollar. " O. — Did he render any personal services to the warehouses? A. — Not that I ever knew of, sir." leet's income. 55 The proof is clear that in addition to the $5,600 which Leet drew from the General Order business, carried on by his partner Bixby, his army pay amounted to $4,000, making.a total of $9,600. Mr. Lindsay's testimony upon this point is as follows : " Senator Casserly — O. — What was Mr. Leet's salary in the War Department? A. — I am only able to give the impression I had, which I formed from his own conversa- tion. I presume the records will show the facts. I think about $4,000 a year. Q. — " In addition to $5,600 from the general order busi- ness? A.— Yes, sir. I think his rank was Lieutenant- Colonel, or Major; I am not positive. That will show for itself, of course. " Q. — How long did he remain in the War Depart- ment after Mr. Grinnell's appointment as Collector? A. — I am not able to tell you. Perhaps from some of Col. Leet's letters I may be able to fix when he resigned from the army. It was some months after that, I think. I have letters that ma}', perhaps, refresh my recollection on that subject. " O.-^Are you sure he remained in the War Depart- ment drawing salary as a clerk after he became inter- ested in this general order business? A. — I am sure that I sent checks myself to him while he was in the War De- partment for the proceeds of the general order business, and if it is your wish I can produce the checks with the endorsements on the back of them." We are of the opinion that some of our mutilated volunteers, of good business training and large experi- ence, would be quite satisfied with less than one half of Col. Leet's income. How far Generals Porter and Babcock are implicated with Col. Leet, in his raid upon the Custom House, we shall not undertake to say, inasmuch as the testimony upon this point is, at the best, indecisive and conflicting. If, on the one hand, we are to give credit to the state- ments of the two secretaries themselves, we must con- clude that they not only had no interest with Leet in any of his New York transactions, but that they were pur- 56 left's recipe to make money. posely kept in ignorance of them until after the report of the first, or, as it is commonly called, the Patterson Committee of investigation.* There are, however, some facts and circumstances of a suspicious character, which point to these gentlemen. The busijiess qualifications of Col. Leet, of the U. S. A., then fresh from the staff of the General of the Armies, enabled him to complete his arrangement with Bixby in so short a time as to be scarcely missed at the mess-table, to which he returned in no very communicative mood. At any rate, we have the evidence of his messmates to the fact that he never alluded to his New York affairs in their hearing. Nor is it to be wondered at, that one possessed of a valuable recipe, '' hozv to make $5,600/^;- anmun by doing nothing,'' should be a little slow about imparting it to others, and especially to those who, with some reason, might insist upon sharing in its avails. But Leet too well understood the value of his ''Letters Patent " to allow himself to be put off with one-fourth of the "general order" business, nothwithstanding Mr. *The following is an extract from General Babcock's testimony, as given before the second committee of investigation ; " Question by the Chairman — Please state )'Our present position ? A. — I am am.ijor in the Engineer Corps, U. S. A. Am on duty as Secretary of the President since his inauguration, and since June last on duty as engi- neer in charge of public buildings and grounds, to which has been added the Washington aqueduct. I have no interest whatever in general order business in New York with Col. Leet or with Mr. Stocking, or with any in- dividual, nor have I ever received a cent in any way, shape or manner, from the Custom House office. " Q. — Were )'ou one of the mess connected with Gen. Porter and Col. Leet? Did you mess together? A. — Yes, sir; that is, Gen. Porter and I were living together, and we invited Col. Leet to come and live with us in the spring of 1S69, after his family left Washington. "Q. — Did you then have any knowledge that Col. Leet had any interest in the general order business? A. — I had not. " Q — When did you first have that knowledge? A. — I did not know it until the publication of Patterson's report. " Q. — Was Leet, at the time he messed with you and Porter, engaged in the War Department? A.— He was. He remained on duty in the War Department until February or March, 1870, when he resigned, to take effect the following Sep'ember. HE DEMANDS MORE AND GETS IT. $7 Grinnell had so far obliged him as to change the place of storage from Hoboken to New York, so that the Bixby warehouses might be brought into immediate requisi- tion. Lcet had started out to get the whole of this business, and nothing less would satisfy his demands. xMr. Lindsay, the medium through whom his negotia- tions were conducted, was continually besieged with letters dated at the White House, and otherwise, some- times coaxingly, and at others with threats of Executive displeasure and interference. The following note was preliminary to a dinner-party conference at " Willard's," at which, according to Leet's testimon}', Grinnell, Porter, Babcock, and Leet himself were present : " Executive Mansion, " Washington, D. C, Sept, 6, 1869. " My Dear INIr. Lindsay : Porter will be glad to see you, and as he is going out to dinner at 2 o'clock, it would be well to come over. I will speak to Dent and ask him to admit you immediately to Porter's room. " Yours, Leet." At this little entertainment the whole matter of the "general order" business was talked over, and resulted in further concessions to Leet, who was apparently satis- jfied. But in .a little while he lit upon the old sore hunofrier than ever. Indeed, he would never allow it fairly to scab over. The burden of his war-cry was still " T/ie IV hole of the business or a new collect or T He did not get the tvhole, but in course of time New York did get a new collector in the person of Thomas Murphy ! Tiiere is but one power in the land that can make these changes, and the bellicose colonel had not " reckoned with- out his host." If there is any blemish upon the official record of Moses H. Grinnell, it is that he yielded too much to the impu- dent demands of Leet, whose claim upon any share of the 58 MR. grinnell's head in the basket. patronage at the bestowal of the Collector, was a barren pretense. But that Leet came directly from the Presi- dent to Mr. Grinnell, to impart to him authoritatively the knowledge of his appointpient, and to set up his claim to the most lucrative place nominally at his disposal, as if its concession were a part of a compact between the Execu- tive and his appointee, has been made as clear as noonday. That Mr. Grinnell foresaw the difficulties in his way and endeavored to escape them., even going so far as to offer Leet $5,000 a year during his Collectorship, if he (Leet) would quietly return to Washington, and receive his money by regular installments, we have the authority of Leet himself for saying. But no, every offer of compro- mise and all remonstrances upon the part of Mr. Grinnell, were answered by Leet with a flourish of his credentials ?ind a demand for his " pound of flesh !" Denial of his claims was pointed out to Mr. Grinnell to be official suicide, and over and over again the warning was rimg in his ears, " All to me or nothing to you." Step by step the ram- pant colonel advanced, more and more he gained, until his share of the spoils amounted to Tweiity-five thousand dollars a year ! Still he was dissatisfied, and demanded more, more. Like the famous student of Sangrado he had profited by his great master and believed in bleeding every time ! But if Mr. Grinnell had been bullied into turning over to Leet and his business associates, the lion's share of the cartage and storage business, he was still able to prevent in great measure, the extortions afterwards prac- ticed upon importers, by fixing comparatively reason- able rates for the cartage to, and storage of merchandise in the public warehouses ; and firm in the belief that the President of the United States could not be induced, even at the solicitation of one of his military favorites to inter- fere in a matter of this sort, he placed his back to the wall and manfully refused to be driven from his position ; but whilst he was yet contending with his insatiable persecu- tor, the arm of the Executive was put forth and he was lifted quite over to the other side. CHAPTER VI. Mr. Grinnell's successor. — Honest Tom Murphy. — Leet prepares to swal- low him whole. — Leet's influence with the President. — His extortions complained of by the merchants directly to the President, to no pur- pose. — His enormous profits under Murphy. — The voters called upon to abate the evil. Of the successor of Mr. Grinnell, so much has ah-eady been given to the public through the medium of the press, that little is here required to be said. If his early advan- tages were few, the opportunities which the rebellion offer- ed for speculation in army supplies had not been neglect- ed by him, and very many of our war-worn veterans in the field who were compelled to draw upon the commis- sary stores for their uniform, caps, will call to mind the rapidity with which the army-blue faded in the sun to a dingy red, as well as other good-for-nothing features of that warlike head-gear, only comparable to \\\q paper shoes which sympathized with them so extravagantly. There was a soldier's heartiness in the imprecations which the men at the front showered upon the heads of the unknown contractors, who contriving to retain their monopolies by concealing their names, grew rich and infamous at the same time ! It was not thought possible then, that when the whole country should be redeemed from a state of war, the superior business qualifications of this class of men would be called into requisition to fill the high offices of honor and trust at the bestowal of the Executive ; but such at least has been the good fortune of Mr. Thomas Murphy ! It has been cruelly hinted that the little matter of thirty thousand dollars invested by Mr. Murphy and a couple (59) 6o LEET REMOVES TO NEW YORK CITY. of his friends, in a cottage for the President at Long- Branch, first drew the attention of General Grant to the unquestioned abilities of Mr. Grinnell's successor ; but surely those who have given credence to this report, could not have known of Mr. Murphy's valuable public services in defence of his maimed and bleeding country, in the capacity of an army contractor. There was a magnanimity too, in making this selection which rose quite above any considerations of party, for Mr. Murphy, up to the date of his appointment, was alto- gether unknown as a republican, so that General Grant, in his efforts to induce him to accept the acknowledg- ments of a grateful people for his distinguished services in the past, was not compelled to use many far-reaching argu- ments, being confined to one of the two things which had brought Mr. Murphy quite recently into notice, and allow- ed to make free choice between his shoddy soldier-caps and a private gift of ten thousand dollars to himself. General Grant has never seen fit to remove the uncer- tainty which is still felt regarding his motive in making this appointment. Before the accession of Murphy to the Collectorship Leet resigned his mihtary office and removed his base of operations from the Executive Mansion,* to the City of New York, where his business had grown to such an extent as to require his undivided attention. There, too, he formed a partnership with a Mr. Stock- ing, whose name appears in most of his subsequent oper- ations. But Colonel Leet does not appear to have lost his hold * See testimony of Mr. Lindsay : "Q. — You state that while Mr. Leet was writing you from Washington his letters were most frequently from the White House ? A. — Yes sir. " Q. — Down to what period did that continue ? A.— So long as he cor- responded with me." And again : " Senator Bayard.— Did Mr. Leet at any time make any statement to you of the insufficiency of this $5,600 for expenses in Washington? He often complained that he did not get enough." • LEET MAKES A TEN-STRIKE. 6l upon the Executive, nor to have been kept in ignorance of his intentions regarding the collectorship. In the course of some negotiations between Leet and Stocking and Mr. Luther Horton, looking to a partner- ship with the latter gentleman, Leet boasted of his influ- ence with the President ; and Horton was assured that should Mr. Murphy (whose name had been mentioned by the administration organs in connection with the Custom- House as if to break the shock wdiich his sudden precipi- tation into office might occasion), or any other man re- ceive the appointment of collector in place of Mr. Grin- nell, he (Leet) would be able, with the assistance of Gen- eral Porter, to procure a letter from the President which would insure him the continued monopoly of the "gen- eral order and cartage business."* And so it was ; for on the coming in of Mr. Murphy, everything was conceded to Leet and his business associ- ates, whose abuses and abominations were suffered to run riot without let or hinderance. It was in vain that the importers complained, and protested against their uncon- scionable extortions ! More than once the attention of the Executive was specially drawn to it by prominent merchants, in the hope that an abuse so injurious to com- merce might receive some check from that high quarter. f * They told me," said Mr. Horton, in his testimony before the committee, " that if Mr. Murphy or any other man got appointed to the Custom House, Leet could go right to Washington and through Porter get a letter from General Grant to set him straight in five minutes." f Mr. A. T. Stewart testifies that he complained twice to the President of the extortions practised for the benefit of Leet : " Q. — Have you ever stated your views to the Secretary of the Treasury or the President? A. — Well, I prefer that you should not ask me that question. I never did to the Secretary of the Treasury. " Q. — Will you mention whether you called the attention of the President to it. A. — I have. " Q. — When first? A. — October, a year ago. " Q. — October, 1870? A. — Yes, sir. " Q. — More than once ? A. — Yes, sir. " Q. — IIow often, if you please ? A. — At another time. " Q. — When was that ? A. — Last summer. 62 LEET TRIES TO ACCOUNT FOR HIS PROFITS. No notice whatever was ever taken of these repeated complaints and remonstrances. The outrages upon our commerce in the harbor of New York, under the systematic and shameless plunder- ing of Leet and company were winked at if not encour- aged and protected by the government, and allowed to go on without interruption or abatement. In many instances the cartage and storage /i^rzjf" estab- lished by them exceeded the whole cost of freightage from foreign ports, and even then they seemed to be ap- peased, rather than satisfied with their gains. Their in- come was something enormous ! In his statement before the last committee, Leet undertook to account for his profits. It is remarkable (?) at least, that in this exhibit, the snug httle sum of $30,000 was entirely lost sight of! Shall we look for it where Mr. Bowen looked for the 825,000 profit made at a single deal upon the President's Sherman house ? Has it been invested in blooded stock or a perpetual loan without interest ? Time and time again the robberies of Leet & Co. were " Q. — Did you express your views to him at any other time ? A. — I did ; only twice. "Q. — Did you succeed in obtaining any reformation or improvement in the system? A. — No, sir. " Q. — In any particular? A. — No, sir. " Q. — Does it remain precisely as it was before you made those repre- sentations to that high quarter ? A. — Yes, sir. " Q.— About this order of the Secretary of the Treasury, or letter, tending to rectify this general order abuse, did you ever see such a letter from the Secretary? A.— I think I did ; I think it must have been addressed to the Collector. The Collector declined on the ground that he had nothing to do with the general order stores. " Q.— Is that the request (showing the paper to witness) ? A. — Yes ; it is the second letter; I think letter of the 9th of June, 1870. Mr. Murphy took the position that tlie Secretary had no right to order him where he should store the goods. " Q.— You did not appeal to the Custom House or Secretar}-, but you did to the President ; what was that complaint ? A. — I stated to him the facts ; that there was great inconvenience in having the general order business taken from the stores, and it ought to be returned to them. "Q.— He did not issue such an order? A. — Not that I am aware of." HIS ENORMOUS PROFITS. 63 forced upon the attention of the President, from whom a single word or gesture of disapproval would have suf- ficed to put an end to them. He had but to cry '' halt T and the reform so earnestly implored would have been an accomplished fact. Where, then, rests the responsi- bility ?* We shall pursue this putrid excrescence of the Custom House no further, but in taking leave of Leet & Co. we would appeal to the young men of this .country, espe- cially to those who, having given some of their best years to its service, now find themselves engaged in various industrial pursuits, and in the receipt of average incomes, for ///rz> judgment upon a monopoly established and sus- tained b}^ that government, whereb}'' a favorite of the Ex- ecutive, of no higher capacity and no more deserving than any one of their number, is fastened like a leech upon the commerce of the port of New York, and allow- ed to indulge in a course of systematic robbery year after year for his private advantage, exceeding in amount the annual rate oi one Jnindred tJioiisand dollars ! To the sun-browned farmer at his plow — the mechanic in his workshop, the day-laborer at his honest toil, we make our appeal. Let him calculate the earnings of men in all stations of life, and average them per capita. Do they reach the moderate sum of one thousand dollars per annum ? Assuredly not ! Why, then, should this enormous income of Leet & * The following testimony was elicited from a credible witness by the late committee, the majority of whom have smuggled through a report holding up the parties implicated in these petty robberies as pattern saints : " Q. — Then you think the general order charges arc perfectly superflu- ous ? A. — There is no question about it. Q. — On an average of $1.75 per package, what would the profit be ? A. — Fifty cents would cover all the expense. Q. — Suppose the goods go to the general order stores for only an hour, are the charges the same ? A. — Yes, sir. Q. — Ten cents per package for the cartage would pay the expense? A. — Yes, sir; and leave a profit. Q. — At what would you estimate the net profit from the general order business ? A. — $150,000 or $200,000 a year." 64 IT IS THE VOTERS WHO PAY THE PIPER. Co. be secured to them by the government? They pro- duce nothing ! They do not add a fraction of a penny to the solid wealth of the nation. Who, then, we de- mand, pays the tax finally ? The conclusion is inevitable ; it must come from the earnings of the laboring classes. And so if we will but have the patience to follow out the extortionate charges which this disreputable firm were authorized to levy as a kind of irregular tax upon merchandize, we shall be led directly into the workshop, the farm-house, and the humble habitations of working- men, who at the best are able to earn only a few hun- dred dollars a year. It is indeed these very classes who are taxed, indirectly, to fill the coffers of one of the President's military ring, whose receipts are equal to four hundred dollars for every workitig day ; and this is Re- publicanism under Grant ! CHAPTER VII. Custom House briber)' and corruption. — The District Attorney ordered to prosecute the merchants; the officials to go scot free. — Col. Frank E. Howe, Administration Factotum. — Inquisitor Jayne. — lie exhibits his handcuffs. — The saintly Carr. — Detective Whitlej'. — His subordinates and the extent of their operations. — The headcentre of the Custom House Ring. — The area of his operations. — The lezy on the salaries of the employees. — Three hundred discharged for no apparent reason. — How he overslaughed the N. Y. State Convention. — He resigns his office and the President glorifies him. It must be evident to such as have the slightest ac- quaintance with the mass of testimony taken by the two Senate Committees, exposing the frauds and corruptions of the New York Custom House, that the most cursory review of the subject in all its bearings would cause us to wander continually to the one side or the other of the in- quiry with which we set out, and to which the investiga- tions we have been able to make have been and will con- tinue to be strictly directed ; our purpose being tnerely to show how far the President is answerable for, or im- plicated in the infamous schemes and practices of his ap- pointees, and their subordinates in office. The system in many respects, as well as the operation of the revenue service connected with the Port of New York was, and is, offensively rotten from its innermost core to its outer rim. Of this there can be no lingering doubt in the mind of the most oblivious partisan of the adminis- tration who has taken the pains to examine into it ; but it is absurd to say that the administration is wholly respon- sible for a state of things which has been known to exist in some measure for years, and which has been tolerated from year to year by our mercantile classes by whom their 5 («5) (^ ORDER TO PROSECUTE THE MERCHANTS. ruinous and demoralizing influences were more imme- diately felt. Under-weights and appraisements, false estimates and other official favors could at any time be had for the money, and the money was not wanting. The merchant who doled bribes claimed to be honest, and compromised with his conscience upon the ground of usage and compulsion, and the creatures who received them came to look upon their gains as the perquisites of office ! These innocent (?) practices are of long stand- ing, as the evidence taken by the last Committee shows, nor are we aware that any serious attempt has been made to do away with them.* There was indeed a little outward show of indignation for stage effect, and the U. S. District Attorney at New York, was instructed to prosecute such as were known to have corrupted the government officials with bribes, but although the evidence before the committee made it clear that the petty placemen demanded largesses as an induce- ment to their expeditious attention to duty, no notice what- ever was taken of it. Upon that side the evil could have been easily reached and overcome by a dismissal from office ; but instead of reaching in that direction, the effort was made to bring to trial the men who had had the te- merity to expose a system of fraud on account of which they were the chief sufferers, by being forced either to pay or sustain a considerable loss arising from the needless delays in the handling of goods ; so that the payment of " bribes "was in one sense compulsory ! A special agent of the Treasury for New York, whose *In the course of his remarks in the Senate Chamber, upon this subject, Carl Schurz is reported as having said, * * * " the fact remains that this scandalous system of robbery is sustained — is sustained against the voice of the merchants of New York— is sustained against the judgment and the voice of the Secretary of the Treasury himself, I ask you, how is it sus- tained ? Where and what is the mysterious power that sustains it ? The conclusion is inevitable that it is a power stronger than decent respect for public opinion— nay, a power stronger than the Secretary of the Treasury himself." i FACTOTUM HOWE — INQUISITOR JAYNE. dy duties were of the inquisitorial order, had been provided for in the person of Col. Frank E. Howe, who became a kind of Administration Factotum or Busybody among the merchants. It was his custom after the ground had been laid to his satisfaction, to seize all the books, papers and correspondence of the suspected firm, and\iQ)\A them the matter of a few montJis for examination ! If nothing was found of an irregular or suspicious character, they were magnanimously returned to the injured owner, un- less indeed some new accusation was made against him in the meantime. In some cases compromises were effect- ed before the business of the importer was wholly ruined ! when further scrutiny was given over, and the spoils were divided between the government and its hirelings.* Up to the middle of March, every instance of seizure, under Col. Howe, with one exception, which was an afterthought, and about which no particulars could be given, had resulted in a compromise.^ But all the evils of Col. Howe's Bureau, as it is termed, were intensified and outdone by Mr. B. G. Jayne, a brother Treasury Agent, whose operations were also conducted principally in New York. This ingenious gentleman had provided himself with a pair of handcuffs, which it was his custom to dangle in a playful sort of way, before the victims of his Inquisition. Let us observe the practice of his office, as he has pictured it to us. Inquisitor Jayne is seated in his private room. He is thinking of Inspector Case, who, having been detected and denounced by him for both bribery and theft, in his out-of-door service, was charitably removed from tempta- tion and promoted to a clerkship under the notorious Terwilliger.:}: There is a knock at his door, and Mr. Carr, his confi- * See cases of Henry B. Cooper, E. Packard & Co., Naylor & Co., and others reported in the proceedings of the Senate Committee of 1872. f See testimony of Col. Howe, before same committee. X See Jayne's Testimony before Senate Committee as to this case. 68 THE SAINTLY CARR, AND THE HANDCUFFS. dential deputy, who had once been a Government weigher, but more recently of Canada, whither he had floivn on account of some irregularities in his conduct and accounts, enters with all the books of account, papers, and correspondence of one of our leading importers. Presently the culprit is brought in. He is a man in middle life, mild mannered, and of great apparent re- spectability ; but Mr. Carr has lodged an information against him of defrauding the Government by false in- voices ; and Mr. Carr is an expert on the subject of fraud! Mr. Jayne knows Mr. Carr and takes his word for it ! It is in vain that the accused makes his appeal with protestations of innocence. Public justice is everything ! the damage io private busi- ness nothing; and Jayne, who has had a smattering of law, looks his victim in the face and gravely repeats his favorite maxim, as he remembers it from the books, '' It is better that ninety-nine guilty persons should suffer, than that one innocent man should escape punishment." The leaves of the books are turned over, the entries examined, the column footings proved — and no irregulari- ties found ! A compromise is suggested by the saintly Carr ! which is met by a re-affirmance of innocence. At this juncture there is a slight, almost impercept- ible, agitation of a pair of handcuffs in an adjoining room, and a hint of imprisonment. With the merchant, imprisonment is disgrace ; and in- nocence counts for nothing. He is told that the outraged law will be satisfied with a fine ! Even this he hesitates to concede lest it be con- strued into a confession of guilt ! There is a palpable jingling of the handcuffs! Still he hesitates ! The hand- cuffs are seized with a spasmodic shake! The amount demanded is deemed to be excessive. An informer, whose appearance would become the uniform of Sing Sing, brings forward the handcuffs and WHITLEY AND HIS DEPUTIES. 6g lays them menacingly upon the table ! and the compro- mise is effected. If our readers believe this picture of tlie operations of the spies and informers set over the merchants of New York, to be overdrawn, let them read the testimony taken by the last Senate Committee. Notwithstanding their repeated outrages, the antics of Howe, Jayne & Co. are mild and compassionate in comparison with those of the Secret Service Bureau, under Colonel H. C. Whitley, whose operations were under the immediate direction of the President, and ex- tended over the whole country. Like Howe and Jayne, Colonel Whitley established his head-quarters in the City of New York, His ante- cedents were not of a kind to be particularly admired. He had been a saloon-keeper and pawnbroker in Mas- sachusetts ; a grocer and fugitive slave-catcher in Kan- sas ; a trader on the Red River ; a spy under Butler, and a liquor-seller in Mobile. In person or by deputy he spread abroad his nets, and swept down upon the unwary like an avenging angel as he was. " Set a thief to catch a thief," was the maxim which ruled his department. One of his deputies at head-quarters had been accused of mur-der, another was a professional tJiiefJ^ His subordinates were rated in different wa3'^s, so as to gather in and rake after the whole field. Those who were not deputies were informers, and they could be either by turns. The law having made no provision for his office, Col. Whitley was restrained in the exercise of his will by no embarrassing prohibitions. Everything was discretion- ary with the chief, within the limits of his instructions, and they were broad enough. He took cognizance of every species of crime, and was penuitted to make personal arrests without warrant, and * See testimony as to Abram C. Beatty and Andrew C. Wightman, be- fore Committee. 70 TOM MURPHY. seizures of goods under an appointment as an inspector of customs. His underlings, in the exercise of almost equal powers, were scattered over every State and Territory. By the authority, and in the actual employment of the President, the Colonel had operated largely in the Southern States.* His special duty there was to ferret out the Ku-Klux and bring them to punishment. Through his instrumentality, i,ioo indictments were found against this class of offenders. There was no end to his usefulness ! In New York his quarters consisted of three rooms, and a store-room for the retention of goods under seizure. But, the goods seized are neither returned to their owners, nor accounted for to the Go- vernment. They have h&Qx\ facetiously denominated the evidence of the case — dumb witnesses which, as a rule, never survive to answena second subpoena ! Five hundred thousand cigars were " expended in the service." Many of them went to Washington ! Some to the Treasury Department ! Some elsezvhere ! In cases where an offence punishable with great severity was charged, and a fine was agreed upon by way of compromise, it was customary to withdraw the graver charge and substitute another much less severe, upon which the mock formality of an examination before the United States Commissioner would be proceeded with, and the pre-arranged settlement colored with the formalities of law ! Thus, even the Courts of Justice were made the instru- ments of these inquisitorial proceedings, wherein the innocent and the guilty were alike victimized by the cun- ning of Government spies and the rapacity of informers. But, the man who was foremost of all others in the State of New York, in his subserviency to the will of the Executive, was Thomas Murphy, the head and centre of the corrupt Custom House Ring, who evidently regarded *This is testified to by Colonel Whitley himself, before the Senate Cus- tom House Committee. HIS POLICY. 71 his office in the hght of a great political machine, to be run in the interest of the Administration. Scarcely had he taken upon himself the responsibilities of office, before he began to assume a dictatorial attitude in political affairs, which not only included the City of New York, but extended over the entire State. In his endeavors to carry into effect a line of policy which had been marked out for him, Mr. Murphy was free to admit that he was governed solely by the personal preferences of General Grant, whom he recognized as the head of the National Republican party, and consequently as entitled to the support of all who claimed to be of the same politi- cal faith. Very soon after his appointment, Murphy sent for General George W. Palmer, who was then at the head of the Appraiser's Department, in order to talk over the political status of his subordinates, and suggest plans to secure the right sort of a representation in the approach- ing Syracuse Convention. It is needless to say that the two names which had been prominently mentioned as likely to be presented at that Convention in connection with the office of Gover- nor, were Horace Greeley, loved and honored of the people, and Ex-Lieut. Governor Stewart L. Woodford, who showed considerable strength among the office- holders and their followers. We have the evidence of General Palmer (and we can have no better) as to what took place at that interview. Among other things : "Mr. Murphy said to the General, that it was the President's desire that the different heads of the Federal departments should work in unity in reference to that convention, and that these heads of departments should get together and exercise an influence in the selection of delegates to the con- vention ; Mr. Murphy was favorable, if possible, to the selecting of rich men who would be willing to pay something for the honor of going to the con- vention ; the general was considerably excited by it ; he was chafing at the idea of being dictated to, or being required to dictate to his men, in refer- ence to that. * * * There was something said in reference to a candidate for Governor of the State of New York, to be ballotted for at that conven- 72 MURPHY AND DESPOTISM. tion. * * * It was something in reference to Governor Woodford. * * * Mr. Murphy said that Governor Woodford was the President's candidate, and Mr. Terwilliger said that Horace Greeley would be a good candidate, Mr. Terwilliger having come in during the interview." It is notorious that men holding positions in the various government offices in the City of New York, against whose fidelity and efficiency nothing could be said, lost their positions for the sole reason of their refusal to act and vote according to the direction of the Collector zvJio took his cue from the President f In the course of his examination Mr. Murphy confessed to having caused the discharge of Mr^^ hundred Qm^ploycQS of the Custom House, but when pressed for the particu- lars, he professed to be unable to state the grounds of his action in a single instance. Men in other departments of the public service were sent adrift, against the remonstrances of their chiefs. Many of these men had attained great usefulness in their respec- tive duties, for which only long experience could fit them. This was especially the case in the Appraiser's Depart- ment, where it was with difficulty that their lost efficiency could be restored by new appointments. Will our free President-makers pause upon the ruinous way in which thoughtlessly enough, they have suffered themselves to be led by unprincipled demagogues who would enslave the very souls of their followers ? Is there any species of servitude more degrading than that which holds in subjection the reason and consciences of men ? When the private judgment of men and citizens is held in contempt, and the free expression of their will at the ballot-box hampered and controlled by those in authority, is it a state of Liberty, which we profess to revere, or a Despotism, which we abhor ! Previous to the reign of Ulysses the First, we had con- fidently believed that in this country at least, there was an end of persecution for opinion s sake ! but he has con- vinced us to the contrary. It is indeed notorious that the New York State Repub- HE RECOGNIZES HIS CHIEF. 73 lican (?) Convention of 1870 was swarmed upon and fairly smothered b}'' the runners and ivJiippcrs-in of General Grant under the leadership of Collector Murphy, from which cause two results followed, the first and immediate one being the nomination of the Administration candidate, and the last and final one, the overwhelming defeat of the bogiis Republican party at the State election. There is another interesting feature connected with the management of the New York Custom House, which if not limited to that establishment was certainly reduced to a system of greater uniformity there than elsewhere. We have reference to the levying of political assessments upon the deputies, clerks and employees, to make up a fund to be used in carrying out the wishes of the Executive at popular elections. The rate of assessment was over two per cent, upon incomes, so that a salaried place of $2,000 per an. 3'ielded from $50 to $100, to the corruption fund ! This patriotic supervision of elections, which was in- tended to assist the opinions of men upon political topics, and insure the choice of the Administration candidate, was extended over Connecticut at the fall election. It has been said that the contribution to this fund was voluntary on the part of the subordinates of Mr. Murphy ! It was voluntary just so far as this, — a notice that an assessment w-as called for was placed before each one of them. Those who paid took very good care that the fact of pa3'ment should be made known to the Collector; those who did not pay, were sure to be apprised that the government could dispense with their services ! In answer to those who were bold enough to suggest a different course to Collector Murphy, that functionary was wont to declare that he recognized General Grant as the head of the Repubhcan party, and as such, his wishes should be observed as law ! That his administration of the Custom House was most acceptable to His Majesty we have every reason to believe. If there is any one thing more striking than another in the evidence of Mr. Murphy as given to the committee, — even rivaling his deficiency 74 HE RESIGNS IN A BLAZE OF GLORY. of memory — it is his profound ignorance of the laws, cus- toms and duties, one and all, of the office which for a sea- son was made to honor him. In his letter tendering his resignation as Collector of Customs, Mr. Murphy says, " When appointed 1 believed I could render a service by accepting the place. Now I believe I can render a service by resigning it." To this sentiment we respond Ajuen ! Our allotted space admits not of our pressing the subject further. That Thomas Murphy's administration of the Custom House was most acceptable to Gen. Grant we have been assured over his own signature, for if Leet came into office with a letter of extravagant praise from the President, Collector Murphy went out with one. " Executive Mansion, ) " Washington, D. C., November 28, 1871. J " Hon. Thomas Murphy, Collector of the Port of Neio York. " Dear Sir : Your letter of the iSth inst., tendering your resignation of the office of Collector of the Port of New York, with reasons therefor, is received. It gives me great »pleasure to bear testimony to the efficiency, honesty, and zeal with which you have administered the office so long as it has been intrusted to your keeping. Your own peace of mind, no doubt, will be enhanced by leaving the office of Collector, but I doubt, whether such a course will in any sense be a benefit to the public service. Under your administration the revenues from the New York Custom-House have been largely increased, and the cost of collection in proportion to the amount collected has been greatly diminished. This is shown by the re- cords of the Treasury Department. You have had my unquaiified con- fidence ever since you entered the office of Collector. You had that confi- dence before or the appointment would not have been tendered you. That confidence is still unshaken, and in accepting your resignation I desire to give you the fullest assurance of this fact. Whether you remain in or out of office time will convince a just public of your entire innocence of the charges brought against you. With great respect, your obedient servant, " U. S. Grant." NOTE. We had prepared copious notes in explanation and proof of the text of the foregoing chapter, but they have been crowded out by matter which is deemed of greater importance. If, however, our readers should entertain any doubt that we are sustained and more than sustained in what has been said by a host of credible witnesses, let them refer to the tesiimony taken by the later of the two Senate Committees whose investigations were di- rected to the corruption of the Custom House Ring in New York. CHAPTER VIII. PRESIDENTIAL NEPOTISM.— Jesse R. Grant, the President's father.— Frederick Dent Grant, the President's son. — His career at West Point. — His difference with Cadet Smith. — He is sent abroad. — The Rev. M. J. Cramer, the President's brother-in-law. — He is made Consul to Leip- sic, where he is publicly cowhided in the street and is subsequently promoted to be Minister of the U. S. to Denmark ! What the Danes think of him. — James F. Casey, another brother-in-law. — He is made Collector at New Orleans, in which position he is guilty of the grossest outrages and is sustained by the President. — Letter of Senator Butler to the President. — George W. Carter. — The price of his virtue. — His his- tor}-. — How he obtained office. — Gov. Warmoth to the President. — The Louisiana Legislature marched off to prison. — Rampant Carter sets up a new Legislature, and as Speaker of the House issues inflammatory proclamations. — The Revenue Cutter used for base purposes. — General Emory refuses to prostitute the military arm of the service. — Carter's in- genuity in this strait. — Prior to the Philadelphia Convention, rumors of Casey's removal ; after the Convention the rumor is hushed up. — Dr. F. M. Tamper, second cousin, and the whisky trade at Chicago. — He is de- tected in frauds and promoted to a better office.— His brilliant financial transactions in Washington Territorj-. — Orvil L. Grant, a brother. — His interest in the public offices at Chicago. — He is an office broker. The nepotism of General Grant has been a subject of much comment, and we are glad to be able to say, that his appointment to office of so many of his near relations has met with severe censure, not onl}^ in the public press, but from all classes of the people and all parts of the country. We have had occasion to allude to this subject in a preceding chapter. Jesse R. Grajit, the President's father is the Postmas- ter at Covington, in the State of Kentucky. He was ap- pointed by President Johnson, and although he has been permitted to hold over, contrary to the general rule, it (75) 'j6 ' JESSE'S BUSINESS OPERATIONS. has been claimed by a species of technical reasoning, that the President is not to be held responsible for it. It was Jesse who carried on the tanning business in the interior of Ohio, at the period when the Honorable Thomas Hamer was so obliging as to open the doors of West Point to young Hiram, and although quite uninten- tionally, to stand god-father at his second christening ! The father informs us that his sole object in procuring these advantages for his son, was to avoid the expense of a private education. At some period of the war, Jesse formed a co-partner- ship for the purpose of buying cotton in the rebel States, and sending it North for sale. He was not required to fur- nish any ready money, his interest in the business being compensated by the personal influence which he was able to exert upon General Grant, in obtaining " permits " to extend the operations of the firm into the enemy's country. It is not improbable that this family arrangement had something to do with the notorious order of the General, consigning all the Jews within his military district to immediate banishment.* This propensity to realize out of his relationship to the President, and coin his influence into hard cash, has be- trayed the old gentleman into many acts of indiscretion. Charges have been publicly made against him, not only to the fact of his having accepted various sums of money for his personal efforts in obtaining office for others, but also of black-mailing. These are too direct and circumstantial to leave room for doubt. The mail agents of Kentucky among others, are said to have an intimate acquaintance with his method of doing business. The administration has charitably overlooked these little eccentricities of character, influenced doubtless by the circumstance that latterly Mr. Grant has been prevented by physical * After the war Mr. Grant brought suit in the Superior Court of Cincin- nati to recover a balance which he claimed to be his due under this co-part- nership, but Judge Stover dismissed the action with severe comments upon its morale. " FRED " AND CADET SMITH. 7/ disability, from giving any personal attention to his office. Frederick Dent Grant, the son of the President, re- ceived his appointment as a Cadet at West Point, also at the hands of Mr. Johnson, and was h:{rc\y squeezed through that institution, after having been set back a whole year by reason of his failure to reach the educational standard. It was on account of the tvayivardness of this yoimg gentle- man and the laxity of the stuffed-eared officials regard- ing his little extravagances that the school suffered its greatest demoralization. Young Grant was a prominent member of the hazing committee, and as they had no very kindly leanings towards the colored cadet Smith, the latter became an object of their particular attentions, besides furnishing the inspiration for some rather equivocal additions to " Benny Havens, O !" All this Smith bore with the forti- tude of one who had made up his mind to endure every- thing and go straight on to the end! But now came the ordeal of a court-martial. He had been accused of false- hood and insubordination ! Docs General Grant remember a circumstance pre- liminary to this, which took place one day at the War Office? He had just received a letter from West Point and " Fred " had told him how surely the colored cadet was undermining the traditional barriers of that aristo- cratic hot-bed. The President said he was satisfied it was too early in the day to educate negroes there ; and suggested that some plan be devised to get rid of the in- truder! This hint was almost immediately acted upon, and a court-martial was ordered to try Smith, and after an exhaustive trial Smith was substantially acquitted ! What cause is to be assigned for the antipathy of Cadet Grant towards this young man ? Is it possible that one of his proud origin could be envious of this inoffensive member of a despised race? In scholarship they were too far separated to be rivals, for they occupied the two extremes ! and as to social 78 BROTHER-IN-LAW CRAMER. position, all that Smith had, was enforced ! Bej-ond the drill-field and the recitation-room, the embryo warriors shrank away from him as from an unclean thing. Their Caucasian blood rebelled against being cooped up with a " nigger," and so young Grant was put forward to use a little family influence to purge the institution of the taints of the Fifteenth Ameneijnevt ! hence the court-martial. After his graduation, so low in the list as almost to be lost to view, " Fred " was assigned to the Fourth Cavalry with the rank of Second Lieutenant ; but fighting Indians not being quite to his taste, he was almost immediately detaileei {?iS usual, contrary to law), upon the staff of Gen- eral Sherman, with increased pay, and sent abroad in great state, to receive the honors of foreign courts ! Generous patronage ! worthy example ! The Reverend M. J. Cramer, Minister to Denmark, is a native of German}-, and brother-in-law of President Grant. From all we have been able learn of Mr. Cramer, he was a kind of itinerant preacher, fortune-hunter and adven- turer in the West, pretending to much and practicing very little Christianity. At any rate, he is said to have been ac- customed to mix so much "lager" with his rehgion as to spoil it, without improving the lager. Like many another of the same stripe, he cared nothing for this country be- yond what he could make out of it, and so when it was certain to his mind that General Grant would succeed Mr. Johnson in the Presidency, the Rev. Cramer laid in a stock of influence by allying himself to the rising family. He was soon hurried out of the country "to look after Leipsic's plain " and take his first lesson in diplomacy in that com- mercial centre, in the character of U. S. Consul. There at least his imperfect knowledge of English would be com- pensated by his familiarity with German. At Leipsic he was publicly cowhided in the streets, by a fellow-country- man whom he had outraged by his indecent behavior ; an infliction which those who are acquainted with the facts, entirely justify, and which our consul never offered to resent. After this rather severe lesson it became ad- WHAT THE DANES THINK OF HIM. 79 visable to shift the scene of the Reverend Cramer's opera- tions and as the country could not well dispense with his invaluable services, the head of the family was generous enough to offer him as a higher sacrifice at Copenhagen, a proposition to which the Honorable Senate yielded its obedience ; thereby establishing the precedent that ivheii one has been disgraced as Consul he should be pro /noted to be Minister I provided alwaj^s, that he be not only a foreigner, but also brother-in-law of the President ! Lest our readers should suppose we have in some man- ner exaggerated the case of the reverend gentleman who represents the United States Government at Copenhagen, we subjoin the following extract from an article in the Avisen, a Danish daily journal published at Fiinen. "If Mr. Cramer's deficient knowledge as a linguist unfits him for his pres- ent position, his lack of tact and good breeding are such that the other mem- bers of the diplomatic corps hold as little intercourse with him as possible And he himself does not feel at home in their refined circle. His tastes are those of the lower strata of German Society. His favorite place of resort is a small drinking saloon on Kongsholm, where the noble Ambassador drinks nightly his schoppens in the midst of German friends, who listen admiringly to his recitals of German prowess displayed during the late wars in Europe and America. Repeatedly, when in a state of unnatural exhila- ration, has he there made insulting remarks to officers of our army in regard to their conduct during the war with the Prussians and Austrians in the )-ear 1S64 — remarks which would have been objectionable in the mouth of a rabid Philo-German ; how much more, then, in that .of the American Ambassador ! "There are rumors of still graver improprieties committed by Mr. Cra- mer. Last summer this wonderful diplomatist, it is currently reported in Copenhagen, made an exhibition of himself at the Tivoli, in the presence of a large crowd, not only by the extraordinary drinking capacities he dis- played, but still more so by the very questionable company in which he ap- peared at that fashionable place of amusement. The Ministers of Russia and France ignore him completely, and we believe our Government would have long ago informed the Cabinet of Washington that the recall ofI\Ir. Cra- mer would be exceedingly welcome, but for fear of offending the President of the United States by pointing out the utter incapacity and objectionable conduct of so near a relative of his. To us, however, it seems that our Government should not give too much weight to this consideration. The fact is, the President of the United States was guilty of a breach of courtesy, or of a singular degree of ignorance in sending Mr. Cramer as American Ambassador to Copenhagen. No native of Germany, and least of all, no 8o BROTHER-IN-LAW CASEY — German such as Mr. Cramer, should have been sent to this country, which is still bleeding from wounds wantonly inflicted by German hands." The Copenhagen correspondent of the Berlin Vosiscke Zeitung, winds up a chapter upon this diplomatic lumi- nary as follows : " The Minister of Foreign Affairs will now demand his immediate recall on the ground of his frequent objectionable conduct in public, his quarrel- some and overbearing temper, and his habitual intemperance. This step is in accordance with public sentiment, and will be approved by none more heartily than by the foreign diplomatists, who refuse to have anything to do with Mr. Cramer, and who, like many other people here, are surprised that he has ever been sent here." James F. Casey, Collector of the Port of New Orleans, is also a brother-in-law of the President ! and so far as we have been able to ascertain, had no other recommenda- tion to office. He is a man of great pretensions and very limited capacity. His one idea appears to be, that the Public Offices of this country, especially the Collector- ships, are so many instruments in the hands of the Ad- ministration, to be set in motion and used to effect the private aims and especially the re-nomination of his august patron, the President ! All the abuses which have been shown to flourish in and about the New York Custom House under Thomas Murphy, have been and continue to be practiced in a magnified form at New Orleans under Collector Casey, backed up and encouraged by the Executive at Washington ! Casey was the prime mover and leader of the seditious and insurrectionary outrages perpetrated upon the peo- ple of Louisiana on the 9th of August last, when a body of United States soldiers and a horde of armed deputy- marshals specially authorized, were employed to overawe the Republican State Convention at New Orleans, and exclude from it all delegates who refused to pledge them- selves to the re-nomination of President Grant ! Subsequently to this, a large delegation from the lead- ing RepubUcans of the State of Louisiana, hunted up the COLLECTOR OF THE PORT OF NEW ORLEANS. 8 1 President at Long Branch, and requested him on behalf of the people of their State to rebuke the meddlesome officiousness of Casey by his prompt dismissal from office. The President promised to consider the subject and give the committee an answer. He did consider it, but his answer was given by Casey himself, who caused the dis- missal of no less than thirty-tzvo subordinates of the New Orleans Custom House ! men who had shown enough of honor and patriotism to discourage, if not to resist, the in- famous tyranny of the Collector ! The avowed purpose of Casey and his Custom House gang was to control the election of legislative and State officers, so as to secure a majority of incumbents favorable to an extension of the Grant dynasty. In this, despite the powerful support of the Administration, Casey failed ; but there was 3'et some hope that by repeating the out- rages of August, the legislature could be bullied into compliance with the demands of the conspirators, in spite of Governor Warmoth and his adherents, who con- stituted the opposition and were largely in the majority. For this object a coalition was formed between the Custom House gang under Casey, and the minority party, who styled themselves Democrats, with no very definite idea of what was meant by the term, beyond the purpose of vociferously and pugilistieally sustaining Grant under the leadership of the Collector. There was only one drawback to their plans. Casey could not now, as in August, control the action of the Government troops. That experiment had become too unpopular for repetition. An extra session of the legislature to be convened in January, having been called by Governor Warmoth, a scheme was concocted to divide that body into two dis- tinct legislatures, completely organized and holding their deliberations at the same time. It was easily foreseen that if this could be brought about, a state of anarchy might be declared to exist which would furnish the Executive with a pretext for extending the humane benefits of martial law over the State. The immediate point to be gained 6 82 CASEY WANTS MARTIAL LAW PROCLAIMED. was to pledge the President to the interests oftheCaseyites, and this was easily accomplished, for their interests were identical. The only doubtful point, is Avhether Grant in- stigated Casey's action, or Casey, Grant's maction ; but that there was a perfect understanding between them, to the effect that the U. S. troops should not be allowed to interfere upon the side of the State authorities, and that in a certain event, martial /.rzw should be declared, no ques- tion can remain in the mind of any one who will take the trouble to follow out the course of events. But we arc not wholly dependent for our conclusions upon the de- velopment of the treasonable plot, as the following letter from the Hon. E. Butler, Senator of the Fifth District, and one of the most influential and respected of the color- ed leaders of the Republican party in Louisiana, Avhich was published in the New Orleans papers, at about the period of its date, will show. New Orleans, Dec. 8, 1871. " I consider it a duty to make public the following facts, in order that President Grant may know how he is misrepresented, if he be so, and that the people of the United States, if he be not misrepresented, may learn to what desperate extremes the President has determined to go to extend and perpetuate his power. " Just before the election for Lieutenant-Governor of Louisiana, vice the Hon. O. J. Dunn, deceased, the United States Marshal for this State, the Hon. S. B. Packard, sought me and stated that I was ruining my future prospects by not joining his side, to wit : the Republican minority and Democratic coalition ; that it was of no great consequence whether the War- moth Republicans elected the Lieutenant-Governor or not, or even if Warmoth succeeded in obtaining re-election in 1872, for in that event they had the guarantee of President Gra?tt that he would at once declare martial law and give his political friends all the offices. He urged me, for these reasons, to vote for his candidate, and added that Gen. Reynolds would be in mili- tary command here, and everything would be right with him. " E. Butler, " Scn.ntnr Fifth Senatorial District." In order to give color of right to the nefarious projects of the conspirators, it was necessary to gain over to their side some portion of the officers of the Legislative body about to be convened. To this end their persuasions were THE VIRTUOUS CARTER. 83 addressed to the Hon. (?) George W. Carter, Speaker of the House, whose virtue was of that accommodating sort which is always ready to yield to a reasonable temptation. Mr. Carter's virtue yielded in this instance and at the same time he found himself suddenly lifted into a Gov- ernment office. He was made Inspector of Customs at New Orleans under brother-in-law Casey ! for which he drew his per diem without rendering any service to speak of. The history of this infamous tool of the Administration is briefly as follows: He had been a Yankee school- teacher and afterwards an itinerant preacher in Missis- sippi ; but having become involved in a Httle affair with a lady there, or we might say two little affairs, he fled to Texas to avoid a collision with a shot-gun in the hands of an indignant father. Espousing the cause of the rebellion he became a Confederate Colonel, serving for the most part on the Texas frontier. At the cessation of hostili- ties, Carter was prevailed upon to give up some very ir- regular practices for the place of spy in the secret service under Governor Warmoth, who was then a Special Agent of the Treasury. When Special Agent Warmoth mi- grated to Louisiana, Carter followed him, and managed to secure a seat in the Legislature of that State as the" re- presentative of a country district. By some underhand manoeuvres Carter managed to be elected Speaker of the House. He is said to have operated upon the fears of members, using his old character of a spy, to effect this result. Having now some poHtical capital to trade upon, Carter lost no time in putting it upon the market. He finally sold out to the Custom House gang and from thence became identified with them. When the Legislature met pursuant to the call of the Governor, Carter proceeded to carry the plans of the conspirators into effect. Knowing beforehand that an ef- fort would be made to oust him from the Speakership, he secretly packed the room in the rear of the Speaker's chair with an armed mob, and on the passage of a resolu- 84 LOUISIANA LEGISLATURE MARCHED TO PRISOX ! tion declaring the Speaker's Chair vacant, the mob rushed menacingly upon the rostrum ! Next followed the third scene of this remarkable drama. Governor Warmoth and a sufficient number of Legisla- tors known to be opposed to the re-nomination of Gen- eral Grant, to destroy the Republican majorit}^ in the House, and give it into the hands of the coalition, were arrested upon warrants issued from the United States District Court, and placed in the hands of Marshal Pack- ard, \\\Q fourth champion of the conspiracy." "With the exception of the Governor the arrested par- ties were marched off through a military guard, flanked with Gathno; g^uns, into the Administration fortress — the Custom House ! *It was at this stage of the proceedings that the following despatch was telegraphed b)' Governor Warmoth to President Grant : " His Excellency TJ. S. Grant, President : " Six Senators of this State, employed in the New Orleans Custom House, have formed a conspirac}- with the Democratic Senators to prevent a quorum of the State Senate, and have succeeded during the entire week. In this plot they have the support of the Collector of Customs, the United States Marshal, and several of your appointees here, and the revenue cutter Wil- derness has been and is still employed to take these conspirators beyond the reach and jurisdiction of the Sergeant-at-Arms, empowered to arrest them in order that a quorum may be secured and public business transacted at the moment of the assembling of the House of Representatives to-day. " A number of United States Marshals, armed with warrants from a United States Commissioner, based on a frivolous affidavit of members of the conspii'ac)-, suddenly arrested eighteen Representatives, four Senators, the Governor and Lieutenant-Governor. The effect of this was to break the Republican majorit)^ in the House of Representatives. During the confu- sion consequent upon this outrageous proceeding, the conspirators, claim- ing to be the House, but not numbering a quorum of that body, illegally ejected six Republican members, and seated in their places Democratic contestants. Threats of violence, backed by United States troops to carry out the plot, are freely made. " I respectfully request to be informed if, as is claimed, you sustain the Collector, the Marshal, and other Federal officials in this revolutionary attempt to overturn the State Government — an attempt which, if not dis- continued by your appointees and their Democratic allies, must result in anarchy and bloodshed. "H. C. WARMOTH, " Governor of Louisiana." carter's rival legislature. 85 And now the work of legislation began in good earnest. Several members of the opposition were expelled by the newly converted Grant men, and their places filled in a manner acceptable to the reigning family ! This however, was undone upon the return to their seats of the accused members who had been released upon bail. It was at this juncture that the rampant Carter and his followers withdrew from the State House and set up a rival Legislature on their own account, holding their mock sessions sometimes at the Custom House and at others in a neighboring liquor-saloon, where day after day the bogus Speaker issued the most inflammatory and treasonable proclamations ; from the last of which we make the following extracts : " I, G. W. Carter, Speaker of the House of Representatives, notify all whom it may concern that I shall, on Monday the 22d, at 11:30 a. m., through the Sergeant-at-Arms of the House over which I preside, proceed to remove from the House of Representatives and the approaches thereto the metro- politan police and armed men now acting under the illegal orders and di- rection of the said H. C. Warmoth, and place said House, with its organi- zation, as it existed at the hour of adjournment, Jan. 4 last, intact in its hall in the Mechanics' Institute." " I would also warn all police and other armed men now acting in viola- tion of law, by order of the said H. C. Warmoth, against resisting the man- dates of the House in the premises, and would notify them that no violence is to be used against them, except in the case of said illegal resistance ; and the citizens are informed that no damage will be done to private property and no interference had with the Executive office, and they are respectfully requested for the time being to close their places of business and to keep off the streets in the vicinity of the Mechanics' Institute, as this measure, legal in its character, as a last resort is taken for the protection of public rights and the preservation of Republican government in the State of Louisiana." ***** " We earnestly invite the citizens, irrespective of race or party, to organ- ize and arm themselves as well as they maj- be able, and report in force in the neigborhood of 207 Canal street, where they will be provided with the necessary commissions and sworn in as assistant sergeants-at-arms, and thus within the law be prepared to protect their rights." Whilst Carter was thus engaged in carrying out his share of the conspiracy on shore, brother-in-law Casey 86 HIS GANG CLAMOR FOR MARTIAL LAW. pressed into his service the United States Revenue Cut- ter, Wilderness, and placing on board of her no less than seventeen State Senators, seven of zvhom actually held offices in the Custom House, gave orders for the vessel to ply up and down the Mississippi, off New Orleans, and within sight of the State House. For ten consecutive days she was in this way prostituted to the base purposes of the Custom House gang, to the utter neglect of her legiti- mate service, and the eternal disgrace of those officers of the revenue who welcomed their debasement. Mean- while the skulking delinquents were rationed from the Government stores, and when at length they were com- pelled to forsake their floating refuge, they fled ignomin- iously to the outlying swamps, to avoid the Sergeant-at- arms of the Senate. This was Casey's share in the conspi- racy which he contrived, the immediate purpose being to forestall the organization of the State Senate, by reduc- ing the attendance of members below a quorum. In the meanwhile. Carter and his adherents of less than a quorum, made daily efforts to gain possession of the State House, oftentimes of a threatening and rebeUious character, which Governor Warmoth by his coolness and intrepidity, completely overawed. Long and loud they clamored for martial laiv I This was indeed the stake for which their desperate game had been played ! ■ Anarchy first, and martial law afterwards ! Rising from their orgies the rebeUious conclave surrounded the quar- ters of General Emory, who commanded the U. S. mili- tary forces in the District embracing New Orleans, and demanded his interference. Instead, however, of deriving any consolation from that quarter, the commanding gen- eral refused to hold any conference with the mob, and afterwards, assured their committee, that he should only respond with the forces under his control to a call from the Governor for the protection of the " Executive build- ing." In his further response to the committee, General Emory said : carter's men in buckram. 87 " I have no authority in this matter whatever, no more than you have. My only authority is this : When I am called upon by the Governor or Mayor, or if a riot is raised, by no matter who or what party, I will put it down and disperse the rioters %vith grapeshot. I don't want to do it, be- cause if I did I might slaughter a good many innocent people ; but if com- pelled I will surel)' do it. Gentlemen make a great mistake and confound ni}' position with what it might have been during the war, when governors and legislatures were made and unmade at will. These are not war times, when whatever a General said was law. This is a countr}'- and State under civil law. I have no more right to interfere in this matter than I have to go into a bank where I do not like the President and put him out. When the Governor calls on me to protect his Executive building, I am bound to furnish him with troops. I now have a requisition from him here, in which he makes an earnest and immediate call on me, which I am obliged to fill." That the highly honorable course of Gen. Emory did not meet with the approval of the Executive, is made manifest by the altered tone of his later communication of the same day, wherein he informed both Warmoth and Carter, that he had decided " not to bring the troops again into the city during the present imbroglio, unless ordered to do so by the United States Government." What mysterious agency was set in operation to work this sudden change ? Surely conspirators require no greater encouragement than the indifference of govern- ment to the accomplishment of their aims, and this much they had gained. The plans of Carter were soon taken. He enlisted and swore into office {f) some five hundred assistant sergcants-at-arms, but when he came to rally them for the service in hand, less than one hundred, men and boys, made their appearance, only to be dismissed at the instance of their leader, who doubtless considered the condemned muskets which they had stolen from the militia, an inferior sort of scare for a man like Governor Warmoth ! Thus all attempts on the part of the uncon- ditional Grant men to obtain possession of the State House had failed, and notwithstanding the bluster of armed ruffians and the deHberate murder of an inoffensive mem- ber of the Legislature in the person of the Hon. W. B. Wheyland, mar-tial lazv had not been proclaimed ; and so the recusant Senators came forth from the swamps and 88 CASEY RETAINED IN OFFICE. took their seats, and the three government-officers who headed the conspiracy to overthrow the State Govern- ment of Louisiana, returned to their haunts at the Custom House, to be commended by their considerate master, and accursed of the people ! A more flagrant use of power and a greater perversion of justice, and the trust reposed in its guardians, than are to be found in the outrages committed by brother-in-laiv Casey and his coadjutors at New Orleans, have never, we venture to say, been brought to light, since the organiza- tion of our Government. If the part which they enacted in the conspiracy to overthrow the rightfully constituted authorities of the State Government, and set up a bogus Legislature be not rebellion, it is treason ! Rebellion it was declared to be in the instance of Governor Dorr, of Rhode Island, who was tried, convicted and condemned to imprisonment and hard labor, for a less offence, whilst brother-in-law Casey is hugged all the closer in the family embrace ! Just before the meeting of the recent Philadelphia Con- vention, a rumor was industriously circulated that Casey had been requested by the Executive, to resign his office ; and being notoriously incompetent as well as politically corrupt, the object of the rumor was accomplished by its being generally believed to be true, notwithstanding the circumstance of Casey's late friendly visit to the White House, and his drunken orgies with the President there were well-known. The rest of the programme of the resignation was given to the public after the Philadelphia Convention had done its allotted work. It was then that a committee from one of the outer rings of the New Orleans Custom House formally waited upon the President, on behalf of the small office holders there, and earnestly entreated him to pocket the resignation of Casey, and not permit the annual subsidy of fifty thousand dollars to go out of the family ! This circumstance was also prominently set forth in the Government organs ! COUSIN LAMPER A FINANCIER. 89 Dr. F. M. Lampcr, second cousin of the President, re- ceived an early appointment as Ganger of Whisky at the City of Chicago, but having been detected by Collec- tor Jussen, in the commission of "frauds" upon the revenue, he was at the instance of that gentleman dismis- sed from his office. But the irregularities of Lamper, so far from exciting the Executive disfavor, furnished only another reason for his official preferment, and, as in the case of the Reverend Cramer, Lamper was removed from temptation in Chicago and promoted to the office of Re- ceiver and Sub-Treasurer at Olympia, in Washington Territor}', It would appear, however, from what has transpired, that the thievish propensities of Dr. Lamper, instead of being cured by the enlarged opportunities which his new office afforded for their exercise, have actually been in- dulged in to a greater extent than might reasonably have been anticipated, even from one who had previously shown himself such an adept at conveying the funds of the Government into his own pocket ! Rumors of his peculiar financial transactions having reached the Treasury Department, a Special Agent was despatched to Washington Territory to make official inquiry into their truth. The result of his investigation revealed the unquestion- able fact, that the speculative Dr. lacked some thirty or forty thousand dollars to make up his balances ; but, ow- ing we presume to his relationship to the President, the Agent in charge was so indulgent as to delay his report a sufficient period to enabJe the unfortunate delinquent to make good his accounts, which he contrived to do, where- upon the Agent reported the office to be in a satisfactory condition, with thirty-nine thousand dollars on hand to the credit of the Government, and, returning to its incum- bent the key of the money safe, took his departure. After the lapse of some months, but before any share of this money had been drawn upon, Dr. Lampcr tendered his resignation, which was accepted ; but, when became to 90 BROTHER ORVIL. turn over to his successor the properties in his custody belonging to the United States, the key to the combina- tion lock of the money-safe was claimed to be lost, which necessitated the sending of the safe to San Francisco to be opened ! In the meantime the enterprising Dr.* left for parts un- known. Afterward when the safe was opened, it is reported and currently believed, that the most, if not all of the thirty-nine thousand dollars deposited there had disap- peared ! We have not yet heard that Cousin Lamper has been appointed to a higher and more lucrative office than his last ! Orvil L. Grant, of Chicago, the President's ibrothei', is perhaps his only male near-of-kin relative who has not been made the recipient of a government office ; but if we are to place any reliance upon a complication of facts concerning which Orvil himself is a leading witness, we must conclude that at first it was his choice to hold a kind of supervisory care over various offices within a conve- nient range of his leather-store ; and inasmuch as the testi- mon}' of Orvil is conclusive upon this head, we prefer that he should be permitted to give it in his own simple and ingenuous \\?iy. The following extract is from his letter to the President of the date mentioned : Chicago, 111., June i8, 1870. " Dear Brother : The matter that I referred to in my note, and which I expected Dr. Lamper to explain to you, was in reference to a proposition made by Gen. Bloomfield to the distillers who have been evading the law, and whose distilleries were seized. Mr. trosby, who is Gen. Bloomfield's confidential assistant, was authorized to make overtures to the distillers, and for a certaih sum of money, $20,000, paid into the hands of any man whom they might select, he (Bloomfield) would place with the man all papers and evidence he had against the distillers, with positive assurances that the cases would not be prosecuted. Crosby was afraid to approach the distillers, as it might have a bad effect, and proposed to me that if I * This is the Dr. Lamper who is mentioned in the well known letter of Orvil L. Grant to his brother, the President, wherein he severely arraigns the office-holders of Chicago. HIS BROKERAGE IN PUBLIC OFFICES. 9I would act as a third partj' and get the distillers to raise the money, I was to retain part as my fee. I felt, of course, suspicious about the honesty of his intentions, and thought it might be a ruse to see whether I would loan my- self for such work or not, and I gave him to understand that unless I had positive assurances that Bloomfield would carry out, in good faith, all that was proposed, that notliing could be done."* Mr. Edmund Jussen, formerly Collector of the Port of Chicago, under Grant, has furnished us with some addi- tional proofs of Orvil's peculiar talents, in a letter to the Chicago Tribune. H e says : " A few months after taking charge of the duties of my office, the brother of the President, Orvil Grant, Esq., honored me with a call, talked revenue business generally, and quite fluently, and finally invited me to his store. He repeated this invitation three or four times, once by letter, before I complied with his request. When I visited his store, Mr. Grant, though somewhat embarrassed, but on the whole, with the graceful air of an ac- complished business man, proposed to me to join him in defrauding the Government by permitting a certain distillery to run double its registered capacity, or, in other words, to collect the tax for only one-half of its actual product. ' If you decline,' said the acute gentleman, ' the Government will gain nothing, for, in that event, the distillery will not increase its product. If you consent, the same tax which you now collect will still be paid, and the receipts of the Government will therefore not be diminished. A few barrels more or less on the market cannot depress quotations, and the competitors who do not enjoy the privileges I ask for my friends cannot sufTer. There can therefore really be no fraud in the transaction proposed. Moreover, I shall see to it that all is safe in Washmgton.' "f Brother Orvil's brokerage in frauds having become un- popular if not unprofitable, from exposure, he next brought his influence to bear to obtain the Collectorship of Chicago ; but the earnest protests of the merchants and business- men of that city were poured *in such numbers upon the Executive, that even family reasojis operated against him. The next move of Orvil was to secure the appointment of his inefficient and incompetent business partner, Mr. James E. McLean, to this office, which was effected ; and it has been repeatedly charged without denial, that the profits * General Bloomfield declined to carry out the bargain between Grant and Crosby, and was dismissed from ofllicc. f Mr. Jussen who refused to become a party to this ingenious scheme, also lost his office. 92 ORVIL'S partner collector of CHICAGO. of the office are carried into common stock with hides and leather, and the pay and emoluments thereof divided equally between the partners, according to a bargain be- forehand which the President recognized. We might pursue these investigations further and point out one after another, the additional twenty or thirty rela- tions of our Republican President, who have been prevail- ed upon to give the country the benefit of their invaluable services in various capacities, ranging from Ministers at Foreign courts, to under-clerks in the Departments at Washington; but we are restrained for two reasons, which ought to be satisfactory to our readers. In the first place we do not believe that the biographies of many of these worthies would afford a very striking illustration of virtue and its reward, or largel}^ tend to the cultivation of political morals on the part of the ambitious youth of this " great and growing countr}^" and in the second place, this book must have an end. CHAPTER . THE SANTO DOMINGO JOB. Projects of Acquisition. — Who inaugurated the idea. — Early history. — Con- spiracies and revolutions. — Baez elected President. — He is banished the country. — Cabral made President. — Is ousted by Baez. — Baez seizes the reins of government. — Political divisions of the island. — Baez chosen President in 1849. — General Babcock appointed Special Agent by Pres- ident Grant to reconnoitre the position. — Naval order. — Pursuit of steamer Telegrafo. — General Babcock's instructions. — A remarkable spectacle. — Case of Mr. Davis Hatch. — Consul Smith recalled. — General Babcock hobnobbing. — Hatch accused of writing for the papers-— Extra- ordinary powers of the Special Agent. — His orders to the war vessels. — Baez wants money and guns. — General Babcock and his tandem team. — Perry appointed Commercial Agent. — Fabens and Cazneau " turn up" again. — Hatch tried and sentenced to be shot. — Hatch pardoned, but not released. — Babcock pretends to believe Hatch guilty. — Perry believes Hatch innocent. — Hatch'syfl//fr discovered at last. — Baez wants " to see " Babcock (!) and make it right — Babcock's holy horror at the idea. — The Dominican vote on annexation. — How conducted. — Babcock's head- quarters on board the Albany. — He directs the movements of the fleet. — "Secretary" to whom? — Perry exhorted to play third fiddle.— Perry's position. — President Grant takes the field. — Senator Sumner the first victim. — The Dominicans reluctantly accept annexation. — Extracts from Reports of the Commission. — General Ingalls's testimony. Cost of the experiment. The attention of this Government had been directed to the acquisition of certain harbor rights in the West Indies during the administration of Mr. Johnson, under whose direction a Commission was sent out to inspect the harbors of Saint Thomas and Santo Domingo. Forming, as this latter island does, one of the more prominent of the West India group, and lying in the course of the great oceanic highway between the nations of Europe and Southern America, it was deemed a matter of sub- stantial benefit to the commerce of this nation, more espe- cially in the event of war with either of the great maii- (93) 94 THE SANTO DOMINGO JOB. time powers of the world, that we should secure to our- selves an intermediate station for naval supplies and a refuge for our ships, of whatever class, from the perils of hostile fleets. Notwithstanding the failure of the Commission under Mr. Johnson to accomplish the desired end, either with St. Thomas or Santo Domingo, the project, which had been suffered merely to slumber rather than to die out, was revived with wider aims and unusual persistency by the present Executive, in whose hands, instead of the contemplated purchase of limited harbor facilities, it grew to be a scheme of annexation, and included the whole of the Dominican republic. Precisely how and through what agencies this whole- sale endeavor was set on foot, the evidences before us are by no means clear. It is asserted by Mr. Smith, late United States Consul at San Domingo, that, first at the instance of President Cabral, and later by request of Baez, he forwarded to Mr. Seward, then Secretary of State, offers of annexation, coupled with the proposed assump- tion of obligations upon the part of our Government, of such a nature as to forbid of their being seriously enter- tained.* On a careful review of the subject, we are led to the conclusion, that without having any direct connection with any previous negotiations, the present project was inaugurated by a number of American citizens, who hav- ing acquired certain grants and franchises under the favor of Baez, were anxious to extend over them the protection of a strong government, whereby great and substantial value would be added to possessions almost worthless, owing to the precarious tenure by which they were held. It should be borne in mind that whilst the eastern, and by far the greater portion of the Island of San Domingo, is held by the Dominican government, the western divi- sion forms the Republic of Hayti, the exact boundary between the two being to this day a subject of dispute, * Sfxs Howard's Report, pp. isS-g. The offer required protection to Baez. CONSPIRACIES AND REVOLUTIONS. 95 and the frequent cause of organized demonstrations of a threatening and warHke nature. It has been customary to speak of these two powers as Repubhcs, but more by courtesy than by any rule or sys- tem appertaining to their respective governments, which are in fact Httle else than mihtary despotisms. Forming the seat of the first colony planted in the Western hemisphere by Columbus, San Domingo thus early became a province of Spain. In the middle of the seventeenth century a band of French buccaneers obtained a lodgment upon the west- ern coast, and under the patronage of the French govern- ment, being reinforced and sustained by a liberal policy, they advanced to a degree of prosperity hitherto un- known in that remote region ; until, by a general revolt, the enslaved blacks overwhelmed and nearly extermina- ted their white oppressors, and finall}^ after a long period of warfare, with its attendant cruelties and vicissitudes, they succeeded in extending their dominion over the whole island. Subsequently, France made an unsuccessful attempt to regain her lost possessions, but after the lapse of more than twenty years, she was induced to acknowledge the independence of the negro government. Naturally enough, during this turbulent period, the in- dustrial arts had been almost wholly neglected, and now that their freedom was established, there was little dispo- sition on the part of a race who had always associated labor with dependency, to voluntaril}'^ resume their old pursuits. To their minds, liberty and idleness were synon- ymous terms. In vain the Code Rural rooted the laborer to the soil and required him to devote a specified share of each Avork-day to its culture. His slightest exertion was sufficient to secure subsistence, and no amount of coaxing or crowding could induce him to exceed it. An inevitable sequence of a state of things so reckless and demoralizing, w^as the gradual decay and final aban- donment of the valuable plantations of sugar and coffee 96 THE SANTO DOMINGO JOB. which had theretofore formed the principal sources of income and revenue.* The subsequent history of San Domingo is chequered with conspiracies and revolutions, for the most part under the leadership of reckless adventurers, whose ambition seems to have been controlled by no worthier impulse than that of trading- upon her misfortunes and squander- ing her revenues. It was at the end of five years of anarchy, consequent upon the expulsion of the Haytian powers, that, by the choice of the electoral college, Baez was placed at the head of the Dominican Republic, and what would ap- pear strange in almost any other country, his administra- tion is the only one in its history which has been allowed to continue to the end of its constitutional term. At the end of this, his first official term, and almost im- mediately after his retirement, Baez was banished the coun- try by the decree of his successor, a prerogative which inheres to that species of republicanism prevalent in San Domingo. Nor would it be at all flattering to the mis- chief-making abilities of a deposed chief to permit him to withdraw to his estates and enjoy the luxury of a fresh revolution. Hence it is that an occasional foreign tour is considered essential to his political training, and not un- frequently results in his sudden recall by general accla- mation, of which he has only to avail himself with alac- rity to attain once more the summit of popular favor, as surely to lose it again in another relapse of indignation. The normal state of anarchy which ensued upon the close of the Baez administration, gave renewed assurance that the warring factions had undergone no change in their preconceived notions of self-government, and after eight years' continuance of this popular pastime, the suc- cessor of Baez, wearied of its monotony, succeeded in * As an evidence of this, the amount of sugar exported in the year 1806, two years after the breaking out of the revolution, was 47,516,531 lbs., and in 1815, when the independence of the Dominican blacks was acknowl- edged by France, it had dwindled away to a total of 2020 lbs. BAEZ SEIZES THE REINS OF GOVERNMENT. 97 shifting the burthen of empire upon the shoulders of Spain, whose army of 35,000 soldiery took possession of Dominica and held it tributary to the Spanish crown. But scarcely had the novelty of the situation worn away, when a guerrilla warfare was inaugurated against the intruders, which terminated in their expulsion after the severest losses through inaccessible foes and the more fatal ravages of coast fever. The populace were almost immediately thereafter involved in new revolu- tions, under petty chieftains who had come to regard almost any condition preferable to a state of quietude. The Spanish occupation was succeeded by a military triumvirate, which in its turn gave place to another sys- tem of temporary rule, and after various experiments in setting up the semblances of government, the adherents of General Cabral forcibly expelled the acting President, and by a popular election secured their leader at the head of affairs. This movement, however, served only to visit the State with new complications without allaying the comba- tive turbulency of the factions, and Cabral, in his turn, was forced to surrender an office so precariously held, to the military forces of Baez, towards whom he had previously manifested feeble alternations of enmity and regard.* Having been in the past alternately banished and re- called, accordingly as his popularity rose and fell with the varying opinions of the constituency, may we not ven- ture the assertion that Baez once more seized the reins of government with a determination never again to com- mit them into the hands of Dominican leaders, who had shown themselves not only bankrupt in morals, but bar- ren of justice ?t * Howard's Rep. Tcstimon)' of J. Somers Smith, p. 148. f According to Dominican history, it was Cabral and his Ministers oi State who first conceived the idea of selling Samana to the United States, intending to distribute the proceeds of the sale among themselves and tlee the country. It was Cabral who invented the torment of the wheel and other tortures as a punishment for political offenders. During his usurpa- tion he exiled seven hundred persons, and caused the assassination of sev- eral leading generals who had opposed him. 7 ^ THE SANTO DOMINGO JOB. The Dominican territory is divided into five prov- inces and two districts, each one of which is presided over by a Governor, who is appointed by the executive, and removable at his pleasure. The President is theoretically chosen by an Electoral College, with a constitutional term of six years. In like manner, a Vice-President is provided for, with intermediate periods of election ; but, as there are no functions appertaining to his office, he is merely held in reserve to supply a possible vacancy, which, we may state, he has never yet been permitted to do. It was in the year 1849 ^^at Buenaventura Baez was chosen President by the Electoral College. His imme- diate successor was likewise elected, under whose admin- istration the Spanish occupation was consummated. Since the withdrawal of the Spanish troops, the needless formality of an election has been dispensed with, the cus- tomary usurpation of dictatorial powers better suiting those bellicose adventurers, to whose selfish aims neither constitutions nor laws are allowed to oppose any serious obstacle. The conduct of Baez forms no exception to the rule. Viewed in the most favorable light, he stands before the world to-day a usurper, and his selfish exercise of power is no less tyrannical than that of his prede- cessors.* It was by this man that the more recent offer of annexa- tion was made to this Government ; and, in response to * "When Senator Cole was in San Domingo," says Mr. Smith, late U. S. Consul, " I stood on my balcony with him, and said, ' Senator, do you see that house? The owner of that house is in banishment. I pointed him to another. Do you see that house ? There are two out of that house in banishment. From the house I live in, father and son are in banishment. Do )'0u see that house at the corner? and that one)'onder? All the people from those houses have been banished !' " (Howard's Rep., p. 161.) The most that could be said by the Commissioners appointed by General Grant to visit San Domingo, in favor of the attitude of Baez, was that they found there no opponent of his who had any superior claim to the chief magistracy. They do not pretend that Baez has any right, as distinguished from other men, to the office or tyranny which he claims to exercise. (See Rep. Special Commission, p. 6.) GENERAL BABCOCK'S INSTRUCTIONS. 99 that offer, General Babcock was sent out from the Pre- sidential Mansion to reconnoitre the position. His written instructions from the Secretary of State embraced a wide range of inquiry. In addition to these, he was the bearer of a letter of credence from the President of the United States, to President Baez, through which means these two official heads of governments were brought into secret negotiation — one to buy and the other to sell out his country l'^ Nor was there any such squeamishness on the part of INIr. Secretary Fish, as had been shown by Mr. Seward, as to the attitude assumed by this nation in lending its batteries to the enforcement of the bargain. Under date of July loth, before the departure of Gen- eral Babcock, we find the Secretary of the Navy dispatch- ing the U. S. steamer Seminole, then lying in Hampton Roads, under orders to proceed, without delay, to the bay of Samana, to search for and seize the steamer Tele- graph, and conduct her, together with her officers and crew, into the port of Baltimore.f A supplementary order, dated the 13th of the same month, directs the commander of the Seminole as fol- lows : " You will remain at Samana, or on the coast of San Domingo, while General Babcock is there, and give Iiim the moral support of your guns. " General Babcock goes out in the Tybee, with instruc- tions from the President, which you will afford him every facility to carry out " In case you fall in with the Nipsic, or any other of our vessels of Avar, you will direct the commander to accompany General Babcock, and proceed yourself to carry out your original orders. I desire that you should extend every attention and facility to General Babcock while in the execution of his present duty." Again, as late as August 23d, some four weeks subse- quent to the departure of General Babcock upon his mis- sion, and whilst he still remained in San Domingo, the * Howard's Rep., pp. 137, 189. \ Howard's Rep., p. 38. 100 THE SANTO DOMINGO JOB. following order was telegraphed from the Navy Depart- ment to Commander Queen, at Key West, Florida, to wit: " Direct a vessel to proceed, without a moment's delay, to San Domingo City, to be placed at the disposal of General Babcock while on that coast. If not at San Domingo City, to find him.'** It is not to be disputed that the steamer Telegrafo, which it was one of the objects of this naval expedition to capture, was in the interest of the Cabral faction, then in open and armed rebellion against the government of Baez : but that she was, in any sense, a " pirate," or that she had committed any grave offence against the law of nations, is by no means established. It is worthy of note, that this vessel was commanded by Luperon, formerly one of the triumvirate, in which the supreme rule was lodged, after its surrender by Spain, and that General Pujol, but recently a plenipotentiary to this Government under Cabral, to sell the harbor of Sam ana, was also on board ; so that, after all, her naval status was of a piece with the customary revolutionary warfare which prevails. in Dominica, and which usually precedes a change in her ministers of state.f Whilst we are called upon to applaud the patriotism evinced by this Government in dispatching a good share of its navy to pursue and capture this wayward little steamer, which threatened, with her one gun, to totally upset and put to rout the " Monroe doctrine," to which the President, in his Message, so feelingly alludes, we can- not refrain from calling attention to the unfortunate con- trast which is displayed in the hair-trigger zeal of this single case, and the weak remonstrances, amounting al- most to indifference, in relation to other, and, by far, more serious offences committed upon our flag in the same waters. General Babcock informs us that he had " various con- * Howard's Rep., pp. 38, 39. f Testimony of Consul Smith. Howard's Rep., pp. 155, 156. GENERAL BABCOCK S INSTRUCTIONS. lOI versations with the President," as to the matter in hand, in the course of which that official stated, " that a number of parties had reported to him that there was a desire on the part of the people of San Domingo to be- come annexed to the United States ;" that, according to ■ the evidence in the State Department, only a portion of the Government officials there favored annexation, and that the President of the Republic was opposed to it. General Babcock Avas to proceed to the Domini- can capital and confer with Baez in person ; and, in the event of his opposition to the project, to take a home passage on the return voyage of the out-going steamer.* But General Grant, in his Message of April 5, 1871, communicating the Report of the Commission of Enquiry, asserts that soon after his inauguration as President, " he was waited upon by an agent of President Baez, with a proposition to annex the Republic of San Domingo to the United States;" that, in the course of time, he " was waited upon by a second gentleman from San Domingo, who made the same representations." We shall make no attempt to reconcile these opposite statements. The steamer Tybee, upon which General Babcock took passage, was owned by the New York firm of Spof- ford, Tileston & Co., and run in regular trips to San Domingo under a subsidiary contract with that Govern- ment.f Previous to his departure, this firm had made the ten- der of a free passage to any agent of this Government in * Howard's Rep. pp. 35, 36. f The list of grants and concessions furnished the Commissioners i)y M. M. Gautier, Minister of the Interior, states this subsidy to be five per cent, of all the import or export duties upon merchandise brought or car- ried to and from Dominican ports by the steamers of this company; and the Commissioners, in their published report, have reiterated this statement. (Report of Commissioners, pp. 29, 1S4.) But, by reference to the grant itself, it will be seen that the rate agreed upon is fifteen per cent., instead of five. (lb. p. 188, Art. 3d.) 102 THE SANTO DOMINGO JOB. the interest of annexation, which, for prudential reasons, was declined.* Another circumstance connected with this voyage was the unlooked (!) for companionship of Messrs. J. W. Fabens and J. P. O'Sullivan, two zealous advocates of the an- nexation project, whose volunteered information regard- ing the state of public and private affairs in San Domingo, if not the most reliable, was certainly conducive to a favorable view of its territorial acquisition. Here, then, at the ver}^ threshold of this business, are we confronted with the remarkable spectacle of a major of engineers, with the brevet rank of brigadier-general, in the military service of his country, detailed for duty about the person of the President, in defiance of law, and by him constituted a special agent to ascertain the private views of the so-called President of a neighboring State — himself a usurper — regarding the annexation to this Union of the territory over which he presided ! Nor this alone, but attended and sustained in this duty by no less than three ships of war, at a period too, when the relations between the two countries were friend- ly, and while there was an accredited representative of our own Government resident at the Dominican capital ! On his arrival in San Domingo, General Babcock was induced to engage Mr. W. L. Cazneau as interpreter, in his intercourse with President Baez, who unhesitatingly assured the general of his hearty co-operation with the annexation movement, and that among others, his fellow passenger, Mr. J. W. Fabens, had but recently pressed the subject upon the attention of the President of the United States, in the capacity of an authorized agent, a circumstance which seems to have been hitherto withheld from his knowledge.f * Howard's Rep. p. 36. t " He told me that Mr. Fabens had come to this country' with his entire approbation in the representations he had made to this government, as to his wish and the wish of his government to be annexed. ' It appears that CASE OF MR. DAVIS HATCH. IO3 At this period the United States was represented at the Port of San Domingo by J. Somers Smith, a gentle- man ripe in years and experience, having for the most part served as Consul for this Government at different places of commercial importance for thirty years; but General Babcock, with a prudence rarely excelled by the most subtle diplomat, carefully withheld from Mr. Smith any knowledge of the official character of his visit, al- though it has been shown that he ventured to call upon him in an informal sort of a Avay two or three times dur- ing his sojourn of forty-eight days at his consular station ! Moreover, they sometimes accidentally met at govern- ment head-quarters. On one of these occasions a discus- sion of a very warm and animated nature arose between Baez and Mr. Smith relative to Mr. Davis Hatch, an American citizen of high character, theretofore largely engaged in mining and mercantile pursuits at Barahona, and whom Baez accused of being in the interest of Cabral.* When Mr. Smith retired from the -unequal contest, the subject was continued in a friendly and confiding spirit, in the course of which Baez related the particulars of the arrest of Mr. Hatch and the causes which induced it, and received the comforting assurance from our special agent, that in view of the grave offences attributed to that gen- tleman, it was not likely that the United States govern- ment " would in any way interfere in the case." " Once or twice during the conversation, he (Baez) re- ferred to Mr. Hatch, and to the part Mr. Smith, in the interest of Mr. Hatch, had taken, and I invariably an- swered, that if he had any charges against Mr. Hatch, he must make them out in writing and send them to the State Department in Washington ; that / had no au- thority to treat on any such case whatever;" says Gen- he (Fabens) was one of the parties who had come here and made such rep- resentations,' but President Grant had not told me that at the time." How- ard's Rep., p. 36. Testimony of Babcock. * Howard's Rep., pp. 36 and 37. 104 THE SANTO DOMINGO JOB. eral Babcock, in his testimony before the Senate Com- mittee. It was made apparent to him at this interview, that Baez and his Cabinet " had no kind feehngs towards" Consul Smith, " so far as annexation was concerned." They even accused him, as they had accused Mr. Hatch, of " being in the interest of Cabral ;" and it is probable with an equal degree of justice. Without observing any indications in the conduct or bearing of Mr. Smith confirmatory of the suspicions un- der which he rested, and without requiring any proof of an accusation so injurious to his reputation as a minis- terial officer. General Babcock did not hesitate to suggest his recall as an impediment to the successful accomplish- ment of an enterprise concerning which, from a simple gleaner of information, he thus early became an uncom- promising partisan.* And so when Mr. Smith, encour- aged by the uniform he wore, but still ignorant of the high powers with which he was invested, appealed to General Babcock to exert his influence in behalf of a fel- low countryman, who had been plundered of his prop- erty and thrown into prison by the revolutionary forces of an irresponsible government, he coolly declines to make any effort in that direction If It will be observed with no little astonishment, that throughout the hobnobbing of General Babcock with the Dominican authorities, and those accomplished courtiers, Fabens and Cazneau, there was a purposed concealment from Mr. Consul Smith, not only of his official character, but also of the object and plans of this government re- garding annexation. Hence it was that Baez, in his Sunday-morning arraign- ment of Mr. Hatch, made no allusion to his arrest, until the retirement of our Consul, when he imparted all the particulars to General Babcock, through the channel of his interpreter, who, it may be fairly presumed, was al- ready famlHar with them. If he had received our Consul * Howard's Rep., pp. 37, 38. t Howard's Rep., pp. 38, 42, 43- HATCH WRITING FOR THE PAPERS. 105 with rudeness, and put him off with deception, there was a kind of atonement in the affable good nature and free confidence evinced towards the Special Agent of the United States. It would seem from what followed, that Baez fairly in- vited a draft upon his generosity, if only to demonstrate his good will towards the harbinger of that political mil- lenium which, to his mind, was upon the eve of consum- mation. He would thus have relieved himself of further responsibility in so delicate a matter as the arrest and im- prisonment of an American subject upon grounds of doubtful validity, a thing vi^e apprehend he was just then extremely anxious to do.* But every overture in this direction was met with a disclaimer of any authority to act in the premises, even to the extent of 7naking a re- quest ; which no true American could have refrained from making. Was it necessary for our Special Agent, not only to decline to take any action in the case of Mr. Hatch, but to interpose a real obstacle to the speedy adjustment of his difficulties ? Was he quite ready to ignore the presence and office of the United States Consul at the Dominican capital ? If not, why was it that he instructed President Baez that the only course for him to pursue was one which re- quired the transfer of negotiations and adjustment to Washington,! whereby weeks and months of time would be consumed in diplomatic scolding and coquetry. The conclusion is foregone, even vv^ithout the additional proof, which was afterwards furnished. A plan of perse- cution had been devised towards Mr. Hatch, with the sole object of withdrawing him from the annexation con- test, for " could not the villain write ?" and might he not " explain a thing till all men doubt it. And write about it, goddess, and about it !" Mr. Smith was not advised of the arrest of Mr. Hatch * Howard's Rep., p. 37. + Howard's Rep., p. 37. I06 THE SANTO DOMINGO JOB. until a much later period, nor was the fact then commu- nicated to him by the authorities who caused it. When he sought such information as his office entitled him to receive, he was turned away by the heads of de- partment, one after another, as empty as he came, nor did Baez hesitate, according to his own confession, to hide the truth under the cover of a falsehood.* But the most astonishing feature of this whole enter- prise, and one which is altogether unprecedented in the annals of diplomacy, is to be found in the deputation of some of the highest powers of government to an irrespon- sible agent, holding a temporary residence at the capital of a foreign state, and the partial transfer of those powers to the chief officer of that state ! General Babcock tells us that the first knowledge our Consul obtained " that he had any official capacity on the island," was upon the arrival in port, on the 2d of Sep- tember, of the United States steamer, " Tuscarora," whose commander, in obedience to his instructions, reported to him at San Domingo City. It was upon the evening of the same day that Mr. Smith, now for the first time comprehending the real state of affairs, requested General Babcock to send the Tuscarora to look after the fortunes of Mr. Hatch, but that gentleman had other uses for the " moral support" of her guns ! " I told him," says General Babcock, " that Mr. Hatch had been interfering with the rebelUon in that country, and that I should have nothing to do with the case."t Should any doubt remain in the minds of our readers as to which of the two governments this " Sec- retary to the President and Special Agent" was serving, or in whose service the Tuscarora was actually employed, the instructions by him issued to Captain Queen, over his aforesaid signature, dated the 4th of September, will set them at rest. We extract the following passages from that interesting document : " It is the opinion of the President of the Republic of * Howard's Rep., p. 38. f Howard's Rep., pp. 39, 4°- babcock's orders to the war vessels. 107 San Domingo, that the sale of the Tclcgrafo, if sold, was simply in form ; that she still belongs to the same parties, and that she is to be used against this Republic." * * * * " If she has been released, and 3'ou are satisfied that she belongs to the same parties, I think you will be justified in seizing her and disposing of her as directed by the Secretary of the Nav)^." * * * * * *' On securing this information, you will please return here and inform this Governvicnt of the destination of the Telegrafo, and such other information concerning her as you may think proper. The information can be com- municated to President Baez through General W. L. Cazneau." " On your cruise, after leaving here, after reporting the information requested to President Baez, you will please touch at Samana and Porto Plata ; a few hours at each place will be sufficient." Two days after the issuing of this order, having ac- complished his mission. General Babcock set sail on his return voyage to Washington. We have shown that Baez was a usurper — that he over- came the government of General Cabral, who held the office of President by virtue of a popular vote, through military force, and held it by the same means ; and that, at the period of General Babcock's visit, Cabral was at the head of a revolutionary party, in actual possession of one of the strongholds of the Republic. How, then, will the people of the United States relish the compact of its Chief Magistrate, guaranteeing the safety of the Baez government, in order that he and his ministers might be able to carry into effect the bargain of annexation ? You will find it in the protocol, which was to have been forever veiled from the public gaze and wrapped in " inviolable secrecy." Nay, more, you will find how " Orville E. Babcock, aide-de-camp to his Excellency General Ulysses S. Grant, President of the United States of America, and his special agent to the Dominican Re- pubhc," contracted and agreed, in the name and on behalf of the President, that he should privately use all his in- I08 THE SANTO DOMINGO JOB. fluence with members of Congress to popularize the idea of annexing the Dominican Republic to the United States, and that he would withhold from them all official communication on the subject until certain of its approval by a majority. Realizing, however, the uncertain issue of events, and, perhaps, doubting the confirmatory action of the Ameri- can Congress, Baez had shrewdly provided for the con- tingency of defeat, by requiring President Grant " to remit fortJiwith to the Dominican Government the sum of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars in coin ; one hundred thousand dollars to be in cash, and fifty thousand in arms, for the purpose of aiding in defraying the unavoid- able expenses of the State /" We have been careful to quote the very language of this precious document, lest the credulity of some of our readers might come short of a belief in its just interpretation. First, one hundred and fifty thousand dollars in coin ; second, fifty thousand dollars of this sum to be converted into arms and delivered to the Dominican Government to aid in defraying its unavoidable expenses ! Had this latter Government, such as it was, become a speculator in arms, and were these arms to be sold at a profit to meet its pecuniary obligations, or were they to be used against the host of exiled patriots in case they should venture to return ?* A person unacquainted with the facts might reasonably conjecture that the moral views of our military secretary, upon the subject of legislation, would scarcely have been shared by his exalted principal, and that he, at least, would have declined to accept, without demurrer, the responsibility of propping up and guarding an impotent tyranny. But the damaging evidence to the contrary is conclusive. And what shall be said of the meaner role of lobbyist, in which he was irreverently cast, and which he unhesi- tatingly assumed, in this Africo-American farce of " heads * Howard's Rep., pp. i88, 189. BABCOCK AND HIS "TANDEM." 109 I win, tails you lose," adapted to the American stage by those ingenious play-wrights Baez, Cazneau, Fabens and Company ! When this unworthy budget was unfolded to General Grant, only one of two courses were admissible to him. He was compelled either to accept or reject it. There was no middle ground whereon to stand. If rejected, there would have been an end to his plans of annexation ; but, if accepted, one advance step on the way to its accom- plishment would be gained. That he made free choice of the latter course, and bent all his energies to its general adoption, has been made manifest at the seat of govern- ment. On the eighteenth day of November, after an absence of some seventy days, General Babcock disembarked from the United States war steamer Albany, at the port of San Domingo, attended by Generals Ingalls and Sackett, — a triumvirate of the regular army, — one as negotiator in chief of the annexation treat}', another as interpreter, and the third as a sort of military reserve. The three were to have been specially commissioned, and honored with new titles, but it was found that this was not permissible, and so they were temporarily resolv- ed into a sort of tandem committee, with General Bab- cock on the lead and the Commissary of Subsistence in the rear.* Thus organized and empowered, it only remained to set up a dummy in the guise of a plenipotentiary, to bow his empty honors in and out of the Conference Chamber, and go through the manual operation of signing his name to the treaty. Such an one was found in the person of Major Ray- mond H. Perry, the two-days' successor of Consul Smith, who had been brushed away, through the recommenda- tion of " our special agent," as an obstacle in the way of annexation.! The orders received from the War Department by * Howard's Rep., p. 46. f Howard's Rep., pp. 21, 52, 103, 207. 1 10 THE SANTO DOMINGO JOB. Generals Sackett and Ingalls required them to report to General Babcock at the Cit}^ of New York before the ap- pointed day for the sailing- of the steamer, and put them- selves under his further directions. General Babcock was instructed by Mr. Secretary Fish " to advise with Mr. Raymond H. Perry, unofficially^' as to the execution of the powers with which he (Perry) was intrusted, to " conclude a treaty and a convention with the Dominican Republic ;" and Mr. Perr}^, on the other hand, was directed, by the same official, to he governed by the advice of General Babcock ! And it was pursuant to these instructions that the treaty negotiations were con- ducted and concluded.* But that which might appear altogether inexplicable, had we not been previously prepared for it, was the per- sonal attendance of those two worthies, Fabens and Cazneau, at these international conferences. We have been made aware, however, of their constant zeal in behalf of annexation ; and the proprietary inter- ests which lay at the bottom of it, and whilst the one had brought himself into direct communication with the fuglemen of the White House, the other had been dis- patched there to make a tender to General Grant of the whole Dominican Republic, peoples, revolutions, public debt and all, provided, however, that all and singular the grants and franchises made and confirmed to Fabens, Cazneau and Company should be and remain forever in- violable ; among which was the one-fifth of all the public domain in a single batch. In the interim of General Babcock's absence from the island, Mr. Davis Hatch had been brought to trial * See Commission of Mr. Perry to make a treaty, Howard's Rep., p. 19 ; also, instructions of Secretary Fish to him, p. 192. Mr. Perry repeatedly says in his testimony, that his instructions were to follow the directions of General Babcock in negotiating the treaty, pp. 24, 25, 39. " I was present during all the conversations in relation to the treaty, but I had very little to say about the treaty itself," p. 25. " General Babcock conducted the negotiations ; he was the principal man," p. 25. " I signed the treaty on the part of the United States," p. 28 ; see also p. 103. HATCH SENTENCED TO BE SHOT. Ill before a court-martial, composed of the willing tools of Baez, under charges of aiding and abetting the Cabral rebellion. The testimony, which was altogether ex-parte, merely showed that Mr. Hatch's house at Barahona had been overrun by the insurrectionary forces in possession of the place, and, in spite of his remonstrances, converted into a kind of military magazine; but no voluntary act of his, inconsistent with neutrality, was made to appear. It is true that Juan Manuel Scroggins, whom we take to be a pure Castillian Yankee of African descent, de- posed " that he had seen that Mr. Hatch's house was some- times visited by the Commandant of Arms, and that Cabral himself dropped in there one day on his way to the encampment ;" but that, as he lived on the coast at a considerable distance from Barahona and occupied him- self with fishing, he could n't be expected to know much about it, although he had " been told" that "some ammuni- tions, merchandise, and a few straw hats" had been landed from the steamer Telegrafo and sent under a convoy to the interior.* It is also true that it was upon just such testimony as this that Mr. Hatch was convicted by his inquisitors, and sentenced to be shot — a spectacle so common to Do- minica, that it may be said to serve as a cheap substitute for the taurine pageants of the mother country ; and we confess to no little surprise that Baez should interrupt so interesting a ceremony, especially as it cost him nothing, for it should be borne in mind that the government was now being carried on through means furnished by General Grant ! But the programme which had been agreed upon and rehearsed at the capital was carefully followed out, and Mr. Hatch found himself relieved from the cruelty of an impending execution by the pardon of the magnanimous Baez, who imposed the trifling condition that its recipient should immediately, upon quitting his prison walls, de- * Howard's Rep., pp. 72, 73, 74. 112 THE SANTO DOMINGO JOB. part the realm. And all this under the great seal of State, with its reverent motto, " God, Country and Liberty." God, whom they had forgotten as a nation and knew not ; Coun- try, which they had depopulated and impoverished ; Lib- erty, which they had destroyed.* What did it matter that all the citizens of Barahona, even to the government officials, comported themselves in the manner of Mr, Hatch? They were not upon trial, neither were they possessed of a coveted salt mine, wherein lay the r^«/ differ- ence, and hence his grave offence ! f Notwithstanding the pardon of Mr. Hatch, and his willingness to comply with its conditions, he was kept in close confinement at Azua for six months subsequent to its announcement.:}: This alone is sufficient to establish the deliberate intentions of his persecutors. Mr. Perry, our newly-appointed Commercial Agent, made repeated but unavailing efforts to obtain his release. Meanwhile the influence of General Babcock was used to secure his continued incarceration. The arguments which he had formerly addressed to Mr. Smith were used upon Mr. Perry, and we are glad to be able to say, with no better effect. * Howard's Rep., pp. 123, 125. f "You certainly would not go so far one side of your line of duty as to encourage Mr. Baez in persecuting me, were it not for the hope of some favor — some reward, directly or indirectly; and these reflections lead me to inquire what object you had in view of the questions j'ou put to Mr. Smith in the month of August as to my character and standing, and as to the validity of the grants I have in the salt mine of Neyba. From whom did you hear of me and those grants, and what object had you in inquiring whether they were valid or not?" — Letter of Davis Hatch to General Bab- cock. Howard's Rep., p. 124. ^aez " passed a decree annulling these grants, after having indirectly so- licited a sum of money for their ratification. — Ibid. The salt mine has been obtained quietly since the signing of the treaty, says Mr. Perr)% p. 31. " I know the positive fact that he (Don Carlos Baez) brother of the President obtained it for O'SuUivan," p. 34. X Mr. Hatch was arrested at Barahona, August 28, 1869, and first taken to Azua, then to San Domingo City, then back to Azua, where he was tried the latter part of October, and sentenced November 2d, and immediately pardoned. After this he was kept in prison six months. CAZNEAU AND FABENS'S SPECULATIONS. II3 Ev^en before the departure of this latter gentleman from Washington, General Babcock was careful to apprise him of his personal convictions of the guilt of INIr. Hatch, and to admonish him to have nothing to do with his case.* He gave him letters of introduction to " his friends Cazneau, Fabens, and Spofford, Tileston & Co.," with whom he advised him to consult. Tt is not a little singular, too, that on his way out Mr. Perry accidentally (!) fell in with Mr. Fabens, as General Babcock had done before him, and who, to use his own words, " was full of his accounts of the rascality of a Mr. Hatch, and expressed a wish that I should not re- lease him on my arrival at San Domingo, as he was an enemy to Baez and annexation, also to himself and Cazneau." Cazneau and Fabens were partners in a stupendous land grant, conveying one-fifth of all the public lands in Dominica, as also in some other schemes, no less pros- pectively profitable. f We find the two constantly ad- mitted to the treaty convention, and it was there that Cazneau made the infamous proposition to "draw up two separate" treaty stipulations — one to lay before the peo- ple of San Domingo, to hasten and control the election, and the other for the United States government ! ^ And afterwards, too, when Mr. Perry made an earnest appeal to Baez for the release of Mr. Hatch, this same Cazneau vehemently opposed it, and to the credit of Mr. Perr)% be it said, that he then and there applied to him some terms which should not be omitted from his biography.§ But when General Babcock was informed by letter of * " I always told him (Cazneau) I did not want to have anj-thing to do with the Hatch case, because I thought Mr. Hatch guilty And before Mr. Perry went away, I told him these things." — Howard's Rep. Testimony of Babcock, p. 42. f Howard's Rep., 178-g. X Howard's Rep., pp. io3(Perr)'), no (Babcock). § " I told him he was a trickster and a dishonest man." — Howard's Rep., p. 105 (Perry). 114 THE SANTO DOMINGO JOB. this quarrel, he wrote to Mr. Perry, expressing his regret at its occurrence.* It is humiliating, it is even pitiful to observe the feeble excuses with which " our special agent" has been willing to cloak his moral weakness. Upon landing from the Albany, he had relieved President Baez from the virtual command of our war ships, as INIr. Perry had relieved Mr. Smith. The power to r;z/(?r<:^ justice was in his hands. A word, a finger-poise would have been sufficient, if not the pointing of a gun ! But that word, even, was wanting ! All his patriotism was absorbed in speculation ; the spirit had died out ! He confesses to having read a letter from Mr. Hatch addressed to Mr. Perry in his official capacity, in which the circumstances of his (Hatch's) illegal detention were narrated, but almost in the same breath he tells us, that he " never saw the record," and had no evidence what- ever of the real facts of the case. What little he did know was thrust upon him. He certainly used no effort to obtain information. When questioned upon these points before the Senate Committee, he coolly says that he made no inquiries at any government office about the condition of Mr. Hatch ; never mentioned his name to others in a manner to excite any interest in his fate, nor used his offices in any way to obtain his release. It was the same witli Generals Sackett and Ingalls; but as they took their cue from General Babcock, by order of His Excellency the President, we do not see that they can be held accountable for any lack of humanity. f And * See letter of Cazneau to Babcock, p. 135 ; also, Babcock to Perry, 108 ; also, Perry to Babcock, 109. f Howard's Rep., pp. 43, 44, 45. Evidence of Sackett, p. 46 ; also, Evi- dence of Ingalls, p. 55. Question by Senator Ferry to General Babcock : " Did j'ou not have con- trol of all the United States ships of war that were there ?" A. " I had con- trol the second time I was there." Question by Senator Vickers : "Did I understand j'ou to say that Mr- Perry showed you a letter from Mr. Hatch complaining that he was in pris- on ?" A. " He did." hatch's jailer discovered. 115 when, after repeated importunities and rebuffs, Mr. Perry, in a despairing spirit, asked General Babcock the very day before he left, why it was that he could not obtain the release of Mr. Hatch, he was answered, " that he had better not apply for his release," at an}^ rate, not until he " had left the island," " that Hatch would work against the treaty and was a?i enemy to thai party." Finally, after six months' of illegal detention, Mr. Hatch was liberated, but not until General Babcock had withdrawn himself from the island and Admiral Poor was left free to second the peremptory demand of Mr. Perry.* The next interview between Mr. Perry and General Babcock was in Washington, and it is there that the latter gentleman, quite indiscreetly for a politician, discloses to us the real jailer of Mr. Hatch. " I met General Babcock," says Mr. Perry, " on the morning of the floral gathering at Arlington, on Deco- ration Day. We were speaking about one matter or another ; about San Domingo ; and he said that it was a great pity that I had had that man Hatch released. I told him that I had direct orders from the State Depart- ment to secure his release. Then he said I could not help it, having received those orders ; but it was a mistake, and that the President was very much displeased about it." * Howard's Rep., p. 21, 26. Q. " Did you read the letter ?" A. " I did." — Ibid, p. 45. Question by Mr. Schurz ; " Were you aware at that time that Mr. Hatch had passed through his trial, that he had been sentenced to death, and that the sentence had been commuted to banishment ?" A. " Only from general report. / had no record ; nothing had been furnished me. I understood that to be the case, however." Q. " Did you know that he was still held in prison ?" A. "I understood that he was still held in prison ; that the pardon had not yet been given to him." Q. " Did you take any steps, or did you inquire at any government office about the condition or situation in which Mr. Hatch then was ?" A. " I did not." — Ibid, p. 44. Question by Mr. Vickers : " Did you use your offices in any way to obtain the release of Mr. Hatch?" A. '' I did not. — Ibid, p. 43." Il6 THE SANTO DOMIXGO JOB. We forbear comment, or to make aii}^ dilution of facts so infamously damaging. The treaty convention consumed a matter of ten days. " Everything had been settled ; there was nothing more to be done except the mere signing," says General Bab- cock, and yet the signing hung fire on the sixth article. Baez wanted some preliminary legislation by his Sena- tors, in the matter of grants of lands to individuals, which that article prohibited. But General Babcock is too modest to give full effect to the melodramatic scene which ensued, hence we pass to the completer version of General Sackett, who sa3''s, " just as the sixth article — I think that is the number of it, at all events one of the last articles, which in a few words stated that there should be no more grants or concessions made after the signing of the treat}' — was reached, they objected to it for a long time — I do not know but a part of two days — and Gen- eral Babcock got very much annoyed at it, and said to me, ' There appears to be something wrong here.' The conversation ceased, and he got up and passed off to a window and was looking out of the window when Presi- dent Baez turned around to me and said : ' I will tell you what wc want: General Babcock was very kind to us last summer ; he sent Captain Queen with the Tuscarora to seize the Telcgrafo and run her into a place where she was tied up by the English, and then also Mr. Smith had been very obnoxious to us, and we made certain represen- tations to General Babcock, and he investigated them and laid them before the President, and Mr. Smith was dis- missed, and INIr. Perry sent down in his place, and for these things, showing great kindness on the part of Gen- eral Babcock, we should like to make him a grant of land in Samana."'" The holy horror with which General Bab- cock received this proposition, can never be accurately rendered in simple narrative ; his upraised hands, his en- ergetic ejaculation and outburst of sentiment are suited to the higher school of the imitative art! * Howard's Rep., pp. 43, 49. DOMINICAN VOTE ON ANNEXATION. I r/ During the treaty negotiations, unusual quietude had pervaded San Domingo City, superinduced, doubtless, by the " moral siippoi't''' of the fifty thousand dollars' worth of arms delivered by General Babcock and the suggest- ive broadsides of the Albany I The treaty having been signed, it only remained to arrive at the sentiments of the people; and, for this object, after long preparations and delays, the vote was proceeded with. But how? Under military supervision, and the admonishing cruelties of the government to- wards those who ventured upon opposition ; banishment, in some instances, and imprisonment, if not death, in others. We have the evidence of IMr. Perry, who was on the spot, that the first man who had the temerity to record his negative vote, was immediately arrested and sent to Azua under a military guard ; that, during the voting, there were a .great many arrested in that cit}^ some of whom were banished and others imprisoned, "because of their opposition to the treaty. "■ No opposition was permitted," says Mr. Perry, yet, during the taking of the vote, there were " two or three attempts at revolution, at night, in San Domingo City, Porto Plata and other points." In order, however, to demonstrate that there had been a free election, a few votes were recorded in the negative by the real friends of the measure.* In the meantime, the Telegrafo, " that dreadful scourge of the oceaji" now altogether discharged of her armament, was kept at bay, and the landing of exiled patriots (set down in the protocol under the head of " foreign aggres- sion or machination") effectually guarded against by a naval cordon, embellished with the proud ensign of " The land of the free and the home of the brave. " From his head-quarters on board the Albany, General Babcock directed the movements of the fleet ; not only * Howard's Rep., pp. 27, 2S, 64. Il8 THE SANTO DOMINGO JOB. the Dominican coast, but the whole Island was subjected to espionage. The orders are positive in these regards ; and, when subsequently there were signs of a revolution- ary movement at Porto Plata, Captain Bunce was de- spatched there in command of the Nantasket, and threat- ened to fire on the town in case of an outbreak ! There had, indeed, been some disturbance, and many arrests were made ; but all who were engaged in it were Do- minicans, and some were officers in the Dominican army."^" The subjoined orders of General Babcock, which we give in detail, sufficiently explain themselves : " United States Steamer Albany, " Off" San Domingo, December 2, i86g. " Captain : — I have the honor to inform you, that, in accordance with instructions from the President of the United States, I have concluded negotiations with the Dominican Republic for the lease of the bay and penin- sular of Samana and other purposes. " In this negotiation, the President has guaranteed to the Dominican RepubUc protection from all foreign interpo- sition during the time specified in the treaties for submit- ting the same to the people of the Dominican Republic. For this purpose, the Hon. Secretary of the Navy zvas directed to place three armed vessels in this harbor, subject to my in- structions ; two of these vessels to remain in the waters of the RepubHc of San Domingo, the third to return to the United States with me. But two of the vessels have arrived — the Albany and 3^our own. As it is possible that the third vessel may have been ordered to the bay of Samana, I shall proceed there to-morrow to ascertain, and, at the same time, to take possession of the bay and peninsula in the name of the United States. I shall raise the United States flag on shore, and shall leave a small guard with it. Should another vessel arrive here, will you please to show the commanding officer this letter, and request him to go at once to the bay of Samana and report to me. In case I am not there with the Albany, I will leave with the guard there a letter of instructions. " You will please make the south side of this island your cruising ground, making this place your head- * Howard's Rep. p 200. babcock's orders to the fleet. 119 quarters. You will please extend to President Baez and his officers here such courtesies as you may think best. Should you find any foreign intervention intended, you will use all your force to carry out, to the letter, the guarantees given in the treaties. " The Dominican Republic fear trouble from the Haytian border about Jacmel. You will please inform the people, in case you are satisfied there is an intended intervention, that such intervention, direct or indirect, xvill be regarded as an unfrie)idly act towards the United States, and take such steps as you think necessary. " I have requested President Baez to notify you through our Commercial Agent, Mr. R. H. Perry, if he has any information of service to you. Will you please cojmmmicate often with the authorities here, and forward, from time to time to Washington, all information you may think useful to your Government? " I suppose that it is the intention of the Navy Depart- ment to place the two vessels here under the admiral commanding the Gulf squadron. " In the execution of this duty, )^ou will have to act upon your own judgment, as it is impossible to anticipate all the circumstances which may arise. You will please regard this communication as confidential, except the part relating to the lease of the bay and peninsula of Samana. " You will use steam in all cases when needed. I will request the Navy Department to provide you a supply at an early day." Having arrived at Samana on board the Albany, and finding that no other war ship had made that harbor. General Babcock left there a cop}^ of the foregoing letter, together with the following written orders, to be delivered to the commander of any United States vessel that might come in : " United States Steamer Albany. " Bay of Samana, December 7, 1S69. " Sir : — The inclosed letter of instructions will serve to guide you, if assigned to the duty referred to. Will you please to make the north side of the island your cruismg- ground, making Porto Plata your head - quarters ? The remark made in the letter to Captain Dunce about the 120 THE SANTO DOMINGO JOB. Haytian border at Jacrnel, applies equally to the Haytian border at Cape Hayti. Will you please to visit that place, and give the authorities th^Ye the same information, about any intervention, if you think there is an intended intervention from that place ? You will have to use your own judgment in the execution of this duty. I know that it is the wish of the President to give them full protection against foreign intervention."* ..... In appending his signature to the foregoing orders, General Babcock contented himself with the simple addi- tion of " secretar}^ ;" but, whether to Baez or to General Grant, he does not inform us. Inasmuch, however, as the particular services to which these orders relate, were rendered for the Dominican Government, and at the expense of the United States, it is presumed that, hke the boy in the show, having paid our money, we can take our choice. Formal possession having been taken of Samana, the person chosen by General Babcock to represent our Government there, and have the custody of its flag, moneys and properties, was Fabens, the friend and part- ner of Cazneau. Meanwhile Mr. Perry remained at his station in San Domingo City, more in the character of an observer than an active participant in the scenes which most nearly affected the two Governments. He had been instructed to govern his actions by the advice of General Babcock ; and that gentleman had advised him to use his endeavors on the side of annexation, and always to " speak encour- agingly" of it in his communications to the Home Gov- ernment. General Ingalls followed in the same key, and with equal emphasis.f * Howard's Rep. p. 164. f In a letter from General Ingalls to Mr. Perry, dated March 31, 1S70, the following passages occur : " The Senate has been debating the treaty pretty sharply, but it will be confirmed shortly. The treaty will be ratified. .... Be careful to cultivate the idea of final annexation. Do not write, speak or think otherwise." PRESIDENT GRANT TAKES THE FIELD. 121 It is not to be wondered at, that, with these instruc- tions before his eyes and the collateral influences brought to bear upon him, Mr. Perry should have so far yielded to his official counsellors as to give a tinge of false color- ing to some of his dispatches during the voting period. Young, and without experience in his new capacity, he had been sent to San Domingo in an emergency, with no definite idea of what was expected of him. Positively no instructions concerning his mission had been given him ; but he was acute, energetic and determined in what he conceived to be his duty. Finding himself hampered and opposed in its discharge by those to whose support he felt himself entitled, he suddenly awoke to a realization of the distasteful attitude which he had been induced to assume ; and, naturally enough, for one of his temperament, as suddenly reacted upon his hypocrit- ical advisers with less of dignity than justice. But it does not appear to us that the worst of his faults justified the Senate Committee, before whom he was summoned as a witness, in trying him as a criminal. Nor is the conclusion arrived at by a majority of that Com- mittee, such as we had reason to expect from the judg- ment of unbiased minds. In due time and order, the official footings of the Do- minican vote, pro and con the absorption of that country by the United States, were transmitted to General Grant, and thereupon the work of preparing the way for the favorable reception and ratification of the treaty of an- nexation b}'^ the Senate was begun in earnest. It is unnecessary to go into the details of these party manoeuvers. Now it was that the President of the United States took on the part which had been specially set down to him in this business, and faithfully and well he performed its meaner offices. Not only was his entire " military staff" enlisted in the work, but the President, in person, was early in the field directing their movements. For the hesitating, half-decided senators, there was no 122 THE SANTO DOMINGO JOB. lack of coaxing flatteries, and the surer bait of executive favor; but towards such as rejected any compromise of their principles, and refused to be directed under the whip and spur of party riders, no mercy was shown. A notable instance of the rule-or-ruin policy of the President, is to be found in his treatment of Senator Sumner, who was removed from the chairmanship of the Committee on Foreign Relations solely on account of his opposition to the policy of the Administration regarding the annexation of the Dominican RepubUc to the Unit- ed States, and the extraordinary means employed to effect it ! Enough. The measure failed, as it ought to have failed, and we do not propose to follow the Senatorial cortege that held an inquest over its remains in San Do- mingo. Nevertheless, we feel that our readers would not will- ingly allow us to take our leave of the subject so long as it lay clearly within our reach to settle the question of General Grant's complicity with the projectors and man- agers of this unfortunate enterprise, and to this object we devote a few extracts from the testimony of witnesses called before the Senate Committee of investigation. It will not be disputed that the intimate and confiden- tial relations which then and theretofore existed between the President and his Special Agent to San Domingo, and which have thus far undergone no change, in them- selves raise a strong presumption, that all the details of information acquired by the one were communicated without hesitation or reserve to the other. For example, let us take the case of Davis Hatch, who was illegally imprisoned, beyond all controversy, for half a year at Azua. Mr. Perry informs us that the admitted cause of his imprisonment grew out of his opposition to annexation, and the fear of his influence upon the Ameri- can mind through the New York papers, with which he was known to correspond. But General Babcock denies all knowledge of these r CAZNEAU'S LETTER. I23 alleged motives of detention, and is always quite ready to assert his belief in the guilt of Mr. Hatch upon other and more serious grounds. He had so expressed him- self to the President on more than one occasion.* He admits tliat he was in the frequent habit of receiving let- ters from " his friend" Cazneau, and that he showed all these letters to General Grant.f Now let us see what kind of letters Cazneau wrote. In a communication to General Babcock, dated at San Do- mingo, February 19, 1870, nearly three months before the release of Mr. Hatch, he says: " As you must have observed before you left. Perry cannot discriminate between those minor matters which will bear postponement and the higher necessities which cannot wait. His ruling idea now is, to obtain the libera- tion of Mr. Davis Hatch, convicted and notoriously guilty of complicity with Cabral and the Cacos of Hayti in their attempted overthrow of Baez. HatcJi is known to correspond with the New York Times and other papers op- posed to annexation, and this government is resolved to keep him ivithin safe limits until the cause shall be plaeed beyond the reach of such attacks President Baez said to him in my presence, that Hatch was indulging in threats against this government, and would certainly make use of his liberty to join the enemies of annexation That a few weeks' restraint would not be so inconvenient to him as his slanderous statements might become to the suc- cess of General Granf s policy in the Antilles." \ We are forced to concede, after reading the foregoing letter, which was received by General Babcock and pro- duced at the investigation, that he was not left in igno- rance, or even doubt, as to the real cause of the detention of Mr. Hatch, and as he has testified that he showed this letter to the President, the proof is made to cover both propositions. It is possible that all may not be able to see it in this light, owing to the prevailing malady of party blindness, but fortunately for such the committee have themselves * Howard's Rep., pp. 118, 134. f Howard's Rep., p. 116. \ Howard's Rep., p. 135. 124 THE SANTO DOMINGO JOB. furnished a most excellent pair of spectacles. We quote from their report of the examination of General Babcock. Mr. Schurz put this question to him : " Does President Grant generally carry on his correspondence directly, or through his secretaries?" But thereupon, Mr. Howard, who was ever on the alert, interposed with the remark, " I do not see what that has to do with the inquiry." Mr. Schurz explained: "The assertion is made that Cazneau was in correspondence with President Grant. General Babcock admits that he received frequent letters from Cazneau, and admits also, that he replied, dating his let- ters at the Executive Mansion, and he also says that he submitted the letters of General Cazneau to President Grant. Now the question is legitimate, whether Presi- dent Grant is in the habit of carrying on his correspon- dence personally, or through his secretaries. To this Mr. Howard rephed by an appeal to the chairman, in the fol- lowing significant words : ' I take it, Mr. Chairman, that we are not to go into inquiries as to the President.' " * We find a later letter to General Babcock from Mr. Perry. It is dated at San Domingo City, April 15, and contains the following passage, " As an instance of the character of Cazneau and his readiness to sacrifice any one and anything for the furtherance of his own plans and welfare, let me tell you that he vigorously opposed the release of Hatch, and as vigorously pleaded for the release of the two Dominicans guilty of murder, who chanced to serve some of his interests if freed." f That Mr. Perry thoroughly understood this' whole sub- ject, there can be no question. His information was de- rived from both private and official sources. In a com- munication addressed to him by M. M. Gautier, Minister of Foreign Affairs under Baez, we find the following state- ment: " The repeated and urgent solicitations which you have made in favor of the said Hatch, united with the desire which my government has to please that of Washington, * Howard's Rep., p. 16. t Howard's Rep., p. 109. HATCH S RELEASE ORDERED. 1 25 would have persuaded us to concede his passports at once, had it not been for the irreconcilable enmity with which he attacks the government in all of its acts through the newspapers and their agents, inventing calumnies to divert the public mind against annexation to the United States." " I desire that you will be good enough to assure his Excellency, the Secretary of State in Washington, that the prolonged sojourn of Mr. Hatch here has been only to prevent his hostile action in New York, assuring him at the same time that if this reason will not satisfy him, and that should he insist on his (Hatch's) being permitted to go, the government, which has had no other aim than that of preventing falsehood and the misleading of public opinion in the United States, will be very glad to satisfy his wishes." * A copy of this correspondence, wherein it will be ob- served the wil)?- minister completely shifted the responsi- bility of the further incarceration of Mr. Hatch upon the Washington officials, was immediately transmitted to the State Department by Mr. Perry, and thereupon, in the absence of Mr. Secretary Fish, and fortunately for Mr. Hatch, without consulting the President, the Assistant Secretar}'- of State instructed Mr. Perry in a manner so decided that this continued persecution presented any- thing but a healthy aspect, and so, the peremptory de- mand of Mr. Perry, supported by some timely sugges- tions from Admiral Poor of the United States flag ship Severn, was reluctantly conceded. The Admiral has told us that in his interview with Baez, "■ the explanation for the continued incarceration of Mr. Hatch was his connection with parties and presses in the United States hostile to San Domingo, and that he would exert an influence there upon public opinion that would be very detrimental to the interests of San Domingo with regard to annexation." And when after a malicious arrest, a sham trial, a false conviction, a pardon and a sentence of banishment all in one, and weary months of imprisonment added to these, for no other declared reason than the unfavorable opin- * Howard's Rep., p. 11. 126 THE SANTO DOMINGO JOB. ions which he was supposed to hold regarding the annex- ation poHcy of President Grant, and the dread of their promulgation through the medium of the New York press, our persecuted fellow-countryman was permitted to find his way to the land of his birth. We are told by one who could not help but know, that the order for his re- lease was issued without the knowledge of the President, and that he was very much displeased about it."^ An array of facts like these would seem to preclude the possibility of a lower descent in the scale of political char- latanism, but in what terms shall they be characterized, when it is considered that Mr. Hatch was really in favor of annexation ;f that the crimes of which he was accused, as well as the wretched excuses for his detention as a prisoner, after pardon, were only a false covering and a pretence wherewithal to conceal the basest motives. The Commission of Enquiry have reported that the coal de- posits of San Domingo, of which we had had such glowing accounts, are nowhere to be found, that the mines of precious ores are a myth ; but there is no disputing the treasures of Neyba, whose crystals of salt rise into a mountain, and may be quarried in huge masses like stone. With Mr. Hatch's grant of these mines annulled, his property confiscated, there would have been found some familiar names among his successors, and with annexation an accomplished fact, who could estimate the value of their franchise ?:J: * Howard's Rep., pp. 25, 44, 118. f We quote from a letter of Mr. Hatch to Senator Ferr}-, dated May 13, 1870: "I have seen no reason to change my views upon the subject of an- nexation as expressed in my letter of the 3d of March on the political state of the country " I advocated it through him (Baez) for more than a year after he came into power this last time, and till after there was a large force organized against him, determined that he should not have the honor and emoluments too, after being so long the bitter enemy of the government and people of the United States." J Here is an extract from a letter to Mr. Hatch as early as February, 1866. It is from Mr. Edmund Graun, who had previous to its date been assured by Baez of his good intention towards Mr. Hatch: THE DOMINICANS WOULD PREFER INDEPENDENCE. 12/ An inquiry, at this time, into the policy or impolicy of annexation, even thoug-h it were to be conceded as ap- proved by the Dominican public, would cover, by far, too much ground to be admitted to these pages. Wc may, however, be indulged in the single remark, that the representations, official and unofficial, which have, from time to time, been made to this Government resrardins: the unanimity of sentiment in the Island Republic upon the annexation question, have been contradicted in a manifesto signed by many leading citizens, and forwarded to the State Department." If we were called upon to state the average voice of this people, as expressed in districts, which have been reported as favoring annexation, it would stand like this : they would prefer to be independent; but the intermin- able wars which infest the country render this impossi- ble, so they are Avilling to accept annexation, without resistance, as a means of avoiding military service, and securing to themselves a life of careless indolence. The following extracts, from the report of the " Com- " Upon my second visit to this cit}', in the early part of Januar}-, I was surprised to find Mr. Baez had entirely changed in regard to the interest he had previously manifested in your favor, mentioning one objection after another, pretending all the time to be interested in having the enterprise carried through, and yet showing by the imaginary difficulties and objec- tions brought forward, increasing animosity to it, conveying the impression that he expected a consideration for his services in the business ; if not, he was prepared to defeat it. " On my last interview with Mr. Baez, on the 2d of February, upon some remark being made by you that the titles were sacred, and you would not renounce them, Mr. Baez became very angry and excited and said ' he neither feared nor cared for the United States government' " * See letter of General Cabral to U. S. Commissioners, and contained in their Report, pp. 54, 55, wherein he says, that the representations which Baez has made are wanting in truth, " and the means that have been used to make the Cabinet at Washington believe that annexation is acceptable to the Dominicans, has been the result of the arbitrary conduct, the tyranny and terrorism which he has exercised over the inhabitants of the countn-, by imprisoning, expelling from the country, shooting all those who have heretofore spoken out, or that now speak out against the idea of annexing our Republic." 128 THE SANTO DOMINGO JOB. mission of Enquirj" and their assistants, may not be without interest to our readers : " The frequency of civil commotions, during a long period, and the consequent insecurity of property, have paralyzed industry, discouraged accumulation, and so impoverished the countr)^ that, for the last two 3'ears, the financial resources of the Government, as its officers informed us, have been inadequate to pa}- its expenses. Meanwhile, it has been constantly harassed with incur- sions and attempts at revolutions."* * * * * " To such an extent has this been carried, that certain capitalists there invest in prominent revolutionists as a matter of business. Revolution becomes there a branch of trade, in which capitalists embark with certainty of great risks, but with possibility of great gains."f * * * " The population is generally of mixed blood. The great majority, especially along the coast, are neither pure black nor pure white — they are mixed in every conceivable degree.":}: * * * * "Among the popular vices is that of petty gambling, which is indulged in openly and extensively, especially by the Spanish portion of the population. "§ * * * * " There are few schools in the Republic, and, conse- quently, the great majority of the people are uneducat- ed. "|| « * * * " The question was frequently asked, in case the inde- pendence of the Dominican Republic were possible — Would you prefer it to annexation ? The general answer was—' We would prefer independence, but independence is impossible." ^ * * * * " We questioned one man, who seemed to be the most intelligent among them (the domesticated wild -hog dealers in Savana del Valle), and found that their only idea of, or care for annexation, is, that it will keep them out of the army, and leave them to the enjoyment of their own chosen mode of life."** * * * * " They generally express themselves in favor of annexa- * Com. Rep., pp. 7, 8. \ lb., p. 9. t lb., p. 13- § lb., p. I3- B lb., p. 14. T lb. p. 32. ** lb., p. 77. GENERAL INGALLS' TESTIMONY. 129 tion (in the region of Samana), as they have been dis- turbed so much by internal wars."* " They were, of course, tired of war, and prepared to receive protection and annexation without protest" (in the region of Azua.)f * * * * " Its only object to them is relief from internal wars.":}: That it was never believed, on the part of the Govern- ment officials at Washington, that a peaceable possession and occupancy of the Dominican Territory would be possible, in view of the sectional disturbances and revo- lutions then in progress there, and the open hostility of some of the larger towns to annexation, is made apparent by what General Ingalls, a Commissary of Subsistence, U. S. A., has said of his special mission to that countr)^ : " I wanted," says this General, " to get all the informa- tion I could, as, in case, the island should be annexed, it wpuld be my duty, probably, to have a good deal to do with it officially in the way of sending supplies there. "§ The deliberate purpose of the government was suffi- ciently evidenced by the ample fleet which hung omi- nously about the island, — not only during the voting period, when General Grant was carrying on a branch government in San Domingo, at the expense of the secret service fund, with General Babcock as prime minister, but for two whole years ! It was only the other day that we had the footings of the little bill of costs, which attended this branch of the business, in a special report to Congress, from the Secre- tary of War, in answer to a resolution of that body, from which it appears that there were ten United States ships of war employed in this service at an expenditure of $490,630. And, now, in taking leave of a subject which has so agitated the public mind, it is not too much to say that * lb , p. 84. f lb., p. Ji>s- t lb., p. 106. § Howard's Rep., p. 57. 130 THE SANTO DOMINGO JOB. the evidence establishes the fact, that the two master spirits of this whole scheme of annexation, in all its dis- gusting details, from the first secret mission of Fabens to the Executive Mansion, to the last move of the black and white men upon the political chess-board, were the two Presidents of the two Republics — San Domingo and the United States ! CHAPTER X. The Gold Conspiracy. — Black Friday. — Who were the wire-pullers. — Brother-in-law Corbin. — Amount of profits his wife realized. — The Presi- dent's complicity in the matter. " The great Black-Friday Gold-Conspiracy" was, with- out exception, the most gigantic and debasing scheme of financial plunder and ruin of which we have any account. The immense drain upon the resources of the country, occasioned by our prolonged civil war, had had the in- evitable effect to depress the national credit and greatly reduce the current value of its paper currency. Gold, which, when it maintains its true relation to commerce, is the legitimate measure of all values, being, in itself, unchangeable, became, through an erroneous system of rating, a mere marketable commodity, whose fluctuations upon 'Change were an object of speculation. For example, in lieu of rating " greenbacks" at a discount below the uniform standard which gold is alone able to furnish, the order was reversed, and " greenbacks" be- came the standard by which the daily pulsations of the gold-market were timed and counted. It is easy to understand how a heavy day at the Custom House, or any unusual demand for foreign exchange, would have the effect to send gold up at the Exhange. In order to provide against so common and unneces- sary a contingency, it was the custom of the Treasury Department to precipitate upon the gold-market large amounts of specie. These sales which were usually made by order of the President being discreetly timed, opera- ted to prevent a sudden rise in the price of gold. Besides the merchants and importers of foreign goods in the larger cities, who required the use of large amounts of specie for the transaction of their regular business, there was a large class of speculators who bought and (130 132 BUTTERFIELD AND CORBIN. sold gold in the exchange-rooms without really handling the metal or requiring it for purposes of trade; so that, at the best, operations in gold were rendered precarious. Among the boldest speculators in this line were the notorious Jay Gould and James Fisk, jr. They well un- derstood the m)'sterious ways of the gold -room, and could lay a plot and " make a corner" with the expert- ness of pick-pockets. It was these accomplished gentlemen who prepared the way and furnished the instruments of the gold conspiracy. In order to its successful accomplishment, it was neces- sary to secure two things beforehand : First, the co-ope- ration (wittingly or unwittingly) of the President of the United States ; second, the incommunicative inaction of General Butterfield, the Assistant Treasurer in charge of the United States Sub-Treasury at New York, whose untimely appeals to the Treasurer at Washington in the interest of commerce, if not prevented, might have a tendency to bring on a premature crisis, for it would never do for the Government to open its money-vaults to the suffering brokers of Wall Street before the finan- cial fever had run its course ! In order, therefore, to make all sure, a stock of family influence was laid in, by attaching to the interests of Fisk and Gould, the services of Mr. Abel R. Corbin, the brother-in-law of the President, and a personal friend of General Butterfield, whose appointment as Assistant Treasurer, Corbin had helped to secure. It should be mentioned in this connection that the two persons most active in the " gift enterprise," of providing General Grant with his Washington house, were Corbin and Butterfield, and Corbin was himself the owaier of the house which it was proposed to buy with the subscrip- tion money.''*' * See particulars of General Buttcrficld's appointment as Assistant Treasurer and his subsequent resignation to avoid the scrutiny of an In- vestigating Committee. FISK AND GOULD. 133 FIsk and Gould, at this time, were the principaLman- agcrs of the two magnificent steamers of the Newport line, upon which the President was occasionally induced to accept the compliment of a free passage. He was, indeed, upon terms of social intimacy with both Fisk and Gould. It was upon one of these steamers that the practice of selling gold by the Treasury Department was first talked over between the President and Mr. Gould, who ex- pressed himself as opposed to it, on account .of its ten- dency to cheapen such of the farm products of the West as naturally seek an Eastern market, and the Presi- dent was persuaded to take the same view of it. This apparently accidental meeting was followed up by other interviews, arranged for the same parties, at the dwelling-house of Corbin in the City of New York, which resulted in finally obtaining the assurance of the President that he would prohibit, for the time being, the further sales of gold. Ever3^thing being now arranged to the satisfaction of the conspirators, the manipulation of gold in the Gold- room and upon the street was begun in real earnest. As a preliminary step, Corbin purchased of Jay Gould for his (Corbin's) wife, the President's sister, gold to the amount of one and a-half million dollars ! upon which a very great profit was realized. It is unnecessary for us to recount the scenes in Wall Street of those three terrible days, which culminated in the financial disasters of Black Friday. The President, pursuant to h35) 136 THE COMMISSION APPOINTED. Its operation was to prevent the dismissal of even a cor- rupt or incompetent incumbent by the power that ap- pointed him ; but it was soon perceived that this was legislating at the wrong end of the subject. At any rate, General Grant, who was decidedly in favor of this law for Mr. Johnson, was just as decidedly opposed to it for himself. But the subject of reform in our Civil Service had taken too strong a hold upon Congress to be allowed to die out. As early as January, 1867, Mr. Jenckes, of Rhode Island, reported a bill for this object from the House Committee on Retrenchment, which failed to become a law. Again, after the lapse of more than a year, he brought forward a new plan for securing the much-needed re- forms. In the interim, Mr. Jenckes had been upon a Committee to investigate the whiskey frauds of New York City and Brooklyn, and was enabled to speak ad- visedly upon the subject. However his second measure also failed. In March, 1871, a section was added to the Civil Appropriation act in these words : "That the President of the United States be and he is hereby authorized to prescribe such rules and regulations for the admission of persons into the civil service of the United States as will best promote the efficiency thereof, and ascertain the fitness of each candidate in respect to age, health, character and ability for the branch of service into which he seeks to enter; and for this purpose the President is authorized to employ suitable persons to conduct said inquiries, to prescribe their duties,and to establish regulations for the conduct of persons who may receive appointments in the civil service." In the following June, the President appointed his Civil Service Commission, consisting of six members, of which George W. Curtis of New York was chairman. On the 1 8th day of December last, this Commission made its report to the President, and submitted also, thir- teen rules to govern his action in making appointments to office. On the following day the President transmitted RULES TO GOVERN APPOINTMENTS. 1 37 this report and the said rules to Congress, with an ac- companying message, wherein he informed tliat body that the rules had been adopted b}- him, and would be put in operation on the first day of January, 1872, and faithfully executed thereafter, which was a promising beginning for the new year. The report of the commission goes on to say that, " the honest competitive examination is the only fundamental security against the pozver of mere patronage ^ The right of removal from office was left untouched, upon the ground that it was " essential to the highest efficiency of the Service." By the terms of the thirteen rules, the President was to appoint three examiners in each Department, to ascer- tain the qualifications of applicants for appointment or promotion therein, and to recommend to him such only as were competent and worthy. Strange and unaccountable as it may appear to many of our readers, the course of the President met with gen- eral disapproval from the leaders of the administration party in both Houses of Congress, and acting upon that hint, on the nth day of January, he promulgated a fourteenth rule, suspending all the others I Thus matters remained until the i6th day of April, when nineteen new rules were established, according to which certain grades of officers are to be appointed to office after a competitive examination, but it is provided that "if no applicants under this regulation shall be found suitable and qualified, the vacancy zuill be filled at discretion,'' that is to say, if the President is disposed to appoint the successful com- petitor before the examining board, very well ; if not, he will appoint whom he chooses. So it was that the two • ends of the line which was to divide th3 competent from the incompetent, the worthy from the unworthy, meet at the precise point of beginning, forming a circle which embraces all alike. Mr. Carpenter, who is one of the four brazen pillars of the administration, in his late speech in the Senate Cham- 138 MAT. carpenter's OPINION OF THE REFORM. ber, in opposition to this measure, is ciedited vvith the remark that " in politics, ' words are things,' and Civil Service Reform is a cunning catchword !" In this Mr. Carpenter is right. He could not have characterized the evident intention of the President, in flashing before the eyes of the people the glittering title of a great reform, after its body had been emasculated and its substance destroyed, in more fitting terms. This whole business of the Civil Service Reform is a sham and a deceit. What is to hinder the President from establishing such rules for his own government as he sees fit ? The Constitution which requires him " by and with the advice and consent of the Senate " to make appointments to office, does not prevent him from arriving at the selection in his own way. He cannot be dictated to one way or another ; but he may be " a law unto him- self," and only act after an examination into the qualifica- tions of his nominees, and he may himself prescribe the mode of conducting such examination. Congress never took any other ground ! That body did just what the Constitution had done beforehand. Their act was not original, it was merely declaratory. They authorized the President to " prescribe such rules and regulations for the admission of persons into the Civil Service of the United States as will best promote the efficiency thereof," etc., etc. He could have done this be- fore. Any officer in the Government may do the like in respect to subordinates appointed by him. It would be absurd for Congress to gravely enact that one who had been previously authorized to appoint a certain number of clerks in his department might prescribe rules to govern his selection of them, "in respect to age, health, character and ability ;" yet this is just what was done for General Grant in relation to the Civil Service, as if he could not have done it for himself In a word, the law has no force because it has nothing to act upon. The Commissioners said this at their first meeting and they unanimously agreed that their duties were merely ad- CIVIL SERVICE PLANK AT PHILADELPHIA. 139 visory and recommendatory. They had no powers. There was nothing in the law itself which conflicted with the Constitution, because it gave them no powers. The cas? put by the Commissioners to the Attorney-General was an hypothesis ! for by the terms of the law the President was not bound b}^ their recommendation at all ! The Attorney-General based his opinion upon the same hypothesis. He went wholly outside of the law for a peg to hang it upon. He supposes the case of a rule which required a vacant Civil office to be given to the fore- most in a competitive examination. There was no such rule, neither could there have been such a one, that could bind the President. The Constitution stands right in the way and leaves everything to his own discretion. For this reason the " Civil Service plank " in the late Philadelphia Convention goes for nothing !* If by its first proposition the Convention means to say that the " System of Civil Service " under General Grant has been " fatally demoralizing," we agree with it. If by the last they would have us beheve that the " evils of patronage," can be abohshed by any system of laws, we do not agree with them. That can only be done in one of two ways; you must either reform the President or amend the Constitution ! Any System of Civil Service Reform must begin with the Executive, and there is indeed small hope of it, with the present incumbent. The Philadelphia Convention was within its own body an illustration of the most shameless abuses of the " Civil Service." Everybody knows that it was packed hke a herring-box, with the hirelings of the administration. For * The following is the " Civil Service" plank in the office-holders Phila- delphia platform : " Any system of the Civil Service under which the subordinate posi- tions of the Government are considered rewards for mere party zeal is fatally demoralizing ; and we, therefore, favor a reform of the system by laws which shall abolish the evils of patronage, and make honesty, effi- ciency, and fidelity the essential qualifications for public position, without practically creating a life tenure of office." 140 THE PRESIDENT "YEARNING" FOR THE REFORM! the last two years, the work of distributing the public offices with a single eye to the renomination of General Grant, has been going on, and yet at the very garnering in of these abominations the whole price-labelled tribe could rise and cry out as with one voice " Stop thief T' It has its fitting paralbl in the action of the Executive regarding the Civil Service, in asking Congress to pass a law to prevent his ow^n prostitution of the appointing power, in a word — to protect him from himself ! of which there is, we grieve to say, much need ! Just as we go press, comes another instance of the President's illustration of what he considers "Civil Ser- vice Reform " to mean. He has just dismissed a post- master from a south-western city to make a place for one Clarke ; a scoundrel who got into a seat in Congress, by conspiring \Vith the Governor of Texas, and held it against its rightful owner, knowing very well that he was not en- titled to it, till near the end of the session, when he was ignominiously turned out. While this news comes to us from the South, telegrams from the East tell us that Massachusetts demands the re-election of General Grant, *^ because he is positively yearning for the elevation of the Civil Service to the purest and highest possible standard !'' And still later, we learn from Washington, that in the closing hours of the session, an amendment was smuggled into a section of the bill making appropriations for the Indian Department, the purpose of which was not dis- covered at the time, but which is now fully understood to have been placed there for no other purpose, than to enable the Secretary of the Interior to evade the Civil Ser- vice rules, and to make his appointments without subject- ing the candidate to a Civil Service examination ! Verily General Grant must be " yearning " for the elevation of the Civil Service ! ! CHAPTER XII. SALE OF ARMS TO FRANCE.— Neutrality proclamation of the Presi- dent. — Arms and ammunition sold to France. — The Enabling Act. — The Secretar)''s construction and violation of it. — General Ingalls turns up again. — His interest in the matter. — Senator Patterson. — Secretary Robeson and the 10,000 Navy rifles. — His friend Marklcy. f On the 22d day of August, 1870, the President issued his proclamation, announcing the neutrahty of the United States in the impending v/ar between France and Germany. The obhgation of neutrality enjoined in this proclama- tion is universally recognized by neutrals towards bel- ligerents. At the period of its date our relations with both France and Germany were of the most friendly description, and the indulgence on the part of the United States, of parti- ality or favoritism towards either of those powers, then unhappily at war with each other, would have been a clear violation of national good faith, and a breach of one of the fundamental rules of international law. Notwithstanding these imperative obligations resting upon our Government, it has recently transpired that the War Department sold and delivered to French agents, during the progress of the Franco-German war, large quantities of breech-loading arms, together with immense supplies of ammunition suited to their use; not onl}^ in open disregard of the tenor of the foregoing proclama- tion, but also against a positive law of Congress forbid- ding it. The law in question, which was passed in July, 1868, for the sole purpose of enabling the Government to get 142 THE ENABLING ACT. rid of its unserviceable arms and military stores, pro- vides : " That the Secretarj' of War be and he is hereby authorized and directed to cause to be sold, after offer at public sale on thirty days' notice, in such manner and at such times and places, at public or private sale, as he may deem most advantageous to the public interest, the old cannon, arms, and other ordnance stores now in possession of the War Department, which are damaged or otherwise unsuitable for the United States military service or for the militia of the United States, etc. It was a mere enabling Act, and was intended to pro- vide a way for disposing of the damaged and used-up arms, etc., employed in the rebellion, for which the Government had no further use.* The law itself contains two propositions : First, it em- powers the Secretary of War to sell " old cannon, arms, and other ordnance stores now,'' to wit : at the date of the passage of the Act, " in possession of the War De- partment, which are,'' also at the date of the Act, " damaged or otherwise unsuitable for the United States military service, or for the militia ; and, Second, it directs, as the House insisted it should, that before any private sale shall be made of them to any person, the said " old cannon, arms and other ordnance stores " shall be first offered at public sale, to wit : vendue, on thirty days' notice, to wit : notice by advertisement in the usual manner. The Secretary of War can have no greater authority over the properties of the United States entrusted to his keeping, than Congress has conferred upon him by law. It is also a settled rule that when the law provides a par- ticular way of doing a thing, it is to the exclusion of all other methods of doing it. In making an application of this rule to the law in question, we find that before the Secretary of War can legally cause even these old cannon, etc., to be sold, he is required to offer them at public sale, and to give thirty days' notice of the time and place of such sale. * The debates in the House show this. THE CONSTRUCTION PUT UPON IT. I43 Upon failure to dispose of them at public sale, he was authorized to make private sales, but not before. It will strike the minds of our readers with no little surprise that the military officers in charge of the arms and ordnance stores of the Government, acting as they tell us, under the instructions of General Schofield, late Secretary of War, so construed this law as not only to extend it over new arms, but also limiting it to a mere sample, or specimen number, of the great bulk to be dis- posed of, and from time to time put upon the market and sold ; that is to say, if the Government happened to have 50,000 muskets of a particular description for sale, the advertising of 50 of them would answer all the require- ments of the law, and after those fifty had been sold, pur- suant to such advertisement, the Secretary could go on and sell the additional 49,950 at private sale, at such times, to such persons, and for such price as he saw fit • and this was the quality of reasoning in which they in- dulged respecting the sales of arms to the French Government.* There is, however, a greater objection to the validity of this sale. The arms were new, modern, and in excel- lent order. The cartridges were also perfect, so that they did not come under the provisions of the law at all, and the Secretary of War had no more right to sell them than any private citizen had. His authority over them was by virtue of his office, and that authority extended only to their safe keeping, or use by this Government. There is another flagrant violation of law connected with this transaction. Not only were these new arms and munitions of war sold, but contracts were made with agents of the French Government, to manufacture an immense amount of ammunition for them at the Govern- ment Arsenals ! This certainly was without color of law under which the blunderheads of the Administration can take shelter. * See testimony of General Dyer before French Arms Committee. 144 GENERAL RUFUS INGALLS AGAIN. All these arms and war supplies were boxed up and shipped openly and advisedly to the French Govern- ment, through the medium of their agents in this country ! From the manner of conducting the affairs of Govern- ment wliich obtains in Washington, we do not look for an affair of this kind to be carried through without the intervention of some one of the military ring. In this in- stance he turns up in no less a personage than General Rufus Ingalls, and what is a Httle extraordinary in this connection, he owns up to having had, and disposed of $5,000 of the stock of the Remington Arms Company. The principals in this company were the agents of France in this transaction ! When, where, and how he got it he refuses to tell us; but he got $3,000 in money for it.* Now, then, a word in reference to General Grant. Senator Patterson, of New Hampshire, who had once be- fore drawn upon himself the ill-will of the Administration, by what was conceived to be his over-zeal in the first of the New York Custom-House Investigating Committees, having obtained early information of the fraudulent sales of Government arms was careful to lose no time in laying it before the President as well as the Secretary of War. Both of these dignitaries expressed surprise at the infor- mation, which was of a character not to be doubted, and a desire for investigation ; the latter of the two promising to inquire into the facts of the case and report them to the Senate. t It is needless to say that neither the President nor the Secretary of War ever took a voluntary step in that direction. In the course of the French arms investigation, it acci- dentally leaked out that Secretary Robeson, of the Navy, had also obliged a friend of his, a Mr. Marklcy, by the * See testimony of General Rufus Ingalls before French Arms Com- mittee. t See testimony of Senator Patterson before French Arms Committee. SALE OF THE NAVY RIFLES. 1 45 sale of 10,000 rifles belonging to the Navy Department, to Poultncy & Trimble, of Baltimore, who acted as agents for the Remington Arms Company. Tliese arms, too, wei-e shipped to France. The singular feature of this latter traoLiaction is, that although these arms could have been had for the asking, this friend and neighbor of the Secretary, who acted as middle-man, and was known to the Baltimore firm as a favorite of his, received ten thousand dollars in money for his part in the transaction, which, if we are to believe him, consisted only of a short and quite accidental interview with Mr. Robeson upon the street, in the course of which he obtained the highly valuable informa- tion that these arms were for sale to any one who desired to purchase them.* How does it happen that Mr. Markley has escaped a Government office? * See testimony of Mr. A. W. Markley before French Arms Committee "At the recent trial of the late French Consul-General at New York, Victor Place, wliom the French Courts have convicted and sentenced for frauds on his own government in the purchase of arms and material, Remington and his book-keeper Norton were the principal witnesses, and it was chiefly through their evidence that Place was convicted, though Place's friends assert that he was sacrificed to save his American princi- pals. The sales to Thomas Richardson — to which Secretary Belknap's letter included in Mr. Sumner's preamble refers — are stated in General Dyer's official return, dated January 22, 1872, to have been 24,000 Spring- field breech-loaders (model i860), 1,600 Joslj-n breech-loaders, 580 Spencers, and 3,922,280 cartridges. " C. K. Garrison, of New York, also had large contracts with agents of Gambctta, with which the French Government was greatly dissatisfied and in which the)' allege great frauds. General Dyer reports that Garrison purchased from the Department twenty si.\-gun Parrot batteries, to be de- livered in thirty-five days from December 24, 1870 ; but subsequently the French authorities refused to accept them on the ground that they were not furnished in time, and that the prices were exorbitant ; batteries which cost only $7,000 being charged to them at $15,000 each. While this last con- tract was pending, Minister Treilhard telegraphed his Governmeirt that General Rufus Ingalls had called, with Mr. Garrison, at the French Lega- tion, to urge that it be fulfilled and the bargain performed." 10 CHAPTER XIII. RECONSTRUCTION.— KU-KLUX.— What the soldiers thought of each other. — Social good feeling among them at the end of the war. — Recon- struction. — The mistake of Congress. — Carpet-baggers and the ruin the}' have brought upon the South. — The public debt of the recon- structed States in 1861 and in 1871. — The ten States divided into mili- tary districts. — Georgia said not to be reconstructed. — Governor Scott of South Carolina, and other governors report all quiet. — General Grant not satisfied and he declares a portion of South Carolina in insurrection. Reign of terror there ! — Colonel Whitley with his horde of spies sent down South. — Another special message from the President on the sub- ject, followed by another proclamation. — The infamous Ku-Klux bill becomes a law. — Still another proclamation. — No necessity for an)' such law. — A special message from the President. — One element of virtue in the law. When, soon after the inauguration of the President, General Longstreet was appointed at his nomination, Surveyor of the Port of New Orleans, his selection met with the approval of all considerate men. Like the volun- tary signing of Jefferson Davis' bail bond on the part of those two representative men of the North, Horace Greeley and Gerritt Smith, it was a graceful recogni- tion that the war was at an end, and served as a sprink- ling of lethean waters over the past. Although, during the first year of the war, there exist- ed some degree of private animosity as regards the rank and file of the two armies, towards each other, owing, for the most part, to an inflamed state of the public mind consequent upon the precipitation of sectional hostilities, yet long before the end of the struggle, that feeling, except in rare instances, had wholly died out. Before the war, the intercourse between the middle and laboring white populations of the two sections, had U46) GOOD FEELING BETWEEN THE ARMIES. I47 been very much restricted, so much so, indeed, that at their first hostile meetings, they honestly believed all the exaggerated reports they had heard of the savagery of each other, but gradually, as the opportunities which even the rebellion afforded of a better acquaintance, were improved, their mutual prejudices wore away, and from thence their previous personal animosity substantially disappeared. There was no longer any feehng akin to hatred between the opposing armies. AH they appeared to know or care about the war was, that " their Governors had quarrelled," and so they were called out to shoot at each other, as it was the custom in such " cases." As be- tween themselves, they had no quarrel to settle. Many of our readers will remember the social good- feehng which existed upon the picket-Unes of the two armies which the Rappahannock divided in front of Fred- ericksburg. It was one of the duties of the general officer of the day to break up this unwarhke sentiment, and cap- ture the little fleet of river sail which was sent to and fro between the hues, laden with exchanges of coffee and tobacco. In the absence of all restraint, the men in •* blue and but- ternut " were accustomed to exchange views with each other, anxious enough to relate how they had been de- ceived. They said, too, that they could settle the issues of the war, if left to them, without a resort to powder and ball. These scattering seeds of kindness so accidentally sown along the outer rims of the two great armies, ger- minated even in that unfriendly soil, and sent forth many a slender stalk, generous of fruit, until at length it was a common thing for the men upon the picket lines to make truces between themselves, and sometimes, too, to meet each other upon middle ground with newspapers, giving and taking, from North and South, in spite of prohibition. Hence, when the South yielded her cause, there was no sign of opposition on their part ; none of resentment. The war-worn veterans, who had learned, as brave men will, to respect, if not to love, each other, laid down their enforced 148 CARPET-BAGGERS AND RECONSTRUCTION. hostilit}- with their arms, and withdrew to their respective homes no longer enemies, but friends. Now came the work of reconstruction ; unfortunately for all concerned, there was still a party in the North, whose bitterness towards the prostrate South had never, in the least degree, abated. The leaders of this party had not belonged to the arm}-, although they affected an inex- haustible supply of patriotism, and now that they could indulge a sentiment of revenge without incurring the danger of punishment, they set themselves at work to humiliate a brave people who had the misfortune to be in the minority. They first stripped them of their citizenship, and set their former slaves over them. After that, they provided a way for instituting new State governments. These governments were, for the most part, in the hands of the ignorant negro population, who, with no particular love for their old masters, and wholly without culture or experience — without even the knowledge of reading and writing, and owning no taxable property, became legislators, and made the laws, levied the taxes, and collected and disbursed the State revenues. They might, perhaps, have done this tolerabh' well with such honest assistants as they were able to obtain from among the better class of resident whites, if they had been left alone, but the new field of enterprise was too inviting to escape the attention of a horde of Northern adventurers, who flocked into the Southern States apparently for the sole object of deliberately and systematicall}-, under the forms of legislation and the sanction of improvident laws, completing their ruin. • Among them was a set of the most unprincipled scoundrels that ever escaped hanging. They alHed themselves with the blacks by working on both their fears and their prejudices, completely controlling their poUtical action, whereby some of the worst of these ad- venturers obtained possession of the pubHc offices, whilst Others controlled the State legislation, and thus by a FINANCIAL RUIN OF THE SOUTH. 149 regular system of public robbery and plunder, they were able to complete the financial ruin of nearly all the South- ern States. It is unnecessary to go into details, we will give the figures. The following table exhibits the old and new indebtedness of the ten reconstructed States. Debts and Liabilities. States. in 1S61. In 1871. Increase. Alabama $7,945,000 $52,761,917 $44,816,917 Arkansas 2,084,179 19,398,000 17,313,821 Florida 37o,7i7 15.707,587 15,420,970 Georgia 2,670,750 42,500,500 39,889,750 Louisiana 11,000,000 40,021,734 29,021,734 Mississippi.' None. 1,697,431 1,697,431 North Carolina 12,689,245 34,887,474 22,198,219 South Carolina 4,407,958 22,480,516 18,072,558 Texas 2,000,000^ 14,930,000 12,930,000 Virginia 33,248,141 47,090,866 13,842,725 Total $76,248,141 $291,626,025 $215,210,125 Is it at all strange that under a state of things so vil- lainously outrageous, there should have been some dis- turbances of a riotous character in portions of these States ? Some banding together of citizens for self-pro- tection, if not for retaliation ? Our only wonder is that the wretched populace did not rise in a general revolt. There, was, however, nothing of the kind ; as a general thing they had had enough of war, and only yearned for peace. There were small disturbances and combinations of men commonly known as the " Ku-Klux Klan," who committed depredations which were sometimes attended with cruelty and violence, but the Governors of the re- spective States wherein the}-- occurred, have severally stated that they were abundantly able to quell them with the State forces at their command. From the termination of the rebellion up to the begin- * Contingent liabilities. Texas having no Slate debt in i860. 150 CONDITION OF THE SOUTH IN 1 8/0. ning of the official term of General Grant, and later still, the peace and good order of the South had steadily improved. There was not and has not been any serious outbreak there, except in the case of the military mob, instigated by brother-in-law Casey, at New Orleans. But it is altogether beyond the scope and limitation of these pages for us to attempt, at this time, even a partial recounting of the wrongs which, under various pretexts of governmental necessity, have been inflicted upon the Southern States since the close of our late civil war, and the cessation of sectional hostilities. Previous to the election of President Grant, the ten States which had espoused the cause of the rebellion, were divided into five military districts, and placed under military rule as preliminary to their re-admission into the family of States under reconstructed civil govern- ments. At the date of his inauguration, all the States included in these military districts, had resumed their civil functions pursuant to the Act of Congress, with the exception of Virginia, Mississippi, and Texas. On the 7th day of April, 1869, President Grant urged upon Congress, in a special message, the passage of a bill to complete the work of reconstruction in reference to these three outlying States. In response to the message of the President, Congress took immediate action in the premises, and before the beginning of the New-Year, the three States above- mentioned had formed their new State governments, thereby completing the work of reconstruction in each of the States theretofore in rebellion, and providing the way for their restoration to the Union, which was fully accomplished as early as April, 1870. In the case of Georgia, however, which had been re- admitted in June of the previous year, there was still some trouble ; the Senate persisting in its refusal to admit the two Senators, Messrs. Hill and Miller, who had been chosen by the Georgia Legislature to seats in that body. RECONSTRUCTION IN GEORGIA. 151 Afterwards, by the Act of December 22d, 1869, Georgia was declared by Congress not reconstructed, and was turned over again to military rule. It is noteworthy here, that the new Constitution of Georgia, which had been found acceptable to Congress upon the re-admission of that State, did not provide for the holding of office by negroes; and some of this class, who claimed to have been duly chosen to the Legislature, which elected Messrs. Hill and Miller, had been refused seats therein. This action of the Legislature did not meet the approval of the United States Senate, at whose instance Governor Bullock, of Georgia, was authorized to call the old negro Legislature together, which met accordingly on the 26th day of January, 1870, and reorganized by electing Republican officers. They also excluded nine white persons as ineligible, and filled their places with Re- publicans, black and white, who received the next highest number of votes. The same thing was done in reference to three Senators whom General Perry, Military Com- mander, declared ineligible. The Georgia Legislature, in this manner reformed and reorganized, proceeded to the election of United States Senators ; and in July following, Congress, for the second time, passed an Act admitting Georgia to congressional representation. In the meaiitime, affairs in the Southern States, in re- spect to the safety of life and the security of property, no less than the peace and good order of the citizens gener- ally, had steadily improved. In confirmation of this, we have the indisputable testimony of the Governors of the respective States, and the United States civil and military officers residing in different localities throughout the South.* * In respect to the condition of the South at this time, Captain Evan Thomas, writing from Robinson Counlj-; Major Stewart, stationed at Fort Macon ; Captain Frank G. Smith, stationed at Raleigh ; and Captain John Mendenhali, stationed at Fort Johnson ; all officers of the Fourth Artillery, bear uniform testimony to the quiet and undisturbed condition of things in 152 COLONEL WHITLEY AND HIS SPIES. Governor Scott, of South Carolina, says, in his message to the Legislature of January i6th, 1871 : " I cannot say with truth, upon any information in my possession, that in any section of the State, the laws are not executed ; for not a single case has been reported in which the officers of the law have been resisted in the discharge of their duties." • But, General Grant was not satisfied with the informa- tion derived from the Governors of States, and the United States civil and military officers residing at the South, as to the good-will and peaceful disposition of the inhabi- tants of all classes in respect to the Government and to- wards each other. The State of Georgia, after having been twice recon- structed, had gone Democratic, and this to his mind was evidence enough that something was wrong. He had heard too the most startling rumors of cruelties and crimes perpetrated by the " Ku-Klux Klan," and notwith- standing the Governors of the ten reconstructed States without exception had signified the abihty of the local au- thorities to enforce the execution of the laws, quell all dis- turbances of the peace and bring to justice those who were guilty of crime, General Grant determined to help them in his own expeditious and summary way. As a preliminary step in that direction, he enlisted in this enterprise the notorious Colonel Whitley, Chief of the Bureau of Secret Service, who despatched i;ito the South a horde of spies to prowl about the country and give infor- mation against such of the white population as were so their respective localities. Captain Mendenhall says: "The people so far as I know or can learn, are good, peaceable, law-abiding citizens. Such, too, is the evidence of Colonel Henry J. Hunt of the Fifth Artillery, State Commandant. In transmitting their January messages to the Legislatures of their re- spective States, in 1871, Governor Scott, of South Carolina ; Governor War- moth, of Louisiana; and Governor Clayton, of Arkansas, alhrnied the same thing. In March following, Governor Alcorn, of Mississippi, sent a dispatch to the Honorable Mr. Morphis, M. C, testifying to the "civil obedience and order " of the people of that State. president's messages and proclamations. 153 unfortunate as to incur either their ill-will or their sus- picions. They did not scruple to give full scope to both. In addition to these villainous Paul Prys, that distin- guished ex-Rebel and Jurist, the late Attorney-General Akerman, was sent into South Carolina upon the same errand. It is not surprising that with the help of these well- qualified aids who so well understood what was requir- ed of them, General Grant should have been put in pos- session of just such information as he desired to obtain ; and so on the 13th day of January, 1871, the President transmitted to the Senate " abstracts of reports and other papers on file in the War Department, relative to the out- rages in North Carolina, and also, for the information of the Senate, those relative to outrages in the other South- ern States." It would appear from the wording of the communica- tion of the President, that the outrages to which he had alluded had just transpired, whereas from the abstracts sent in it was found that they occurred in the years 1866, 1867, and 1868, none of them being at that time of recent date. On the 23d day of March following, the President sent in a special message in which he said, " A condition of affairs now exists in some of the States of the Union, ren- dering life and property insecure, and the carrjdng of the mails and collection of the revenue dangerous. That the power to correct these evils is beyond the control of the State authorities, I do not doubt ; that the power of the Executive of the United States, acting within the limits of the existing laws, is sufficient for the present exigency, is not clear; therefore I urgently recommend such legis- lation as, in the judgment of .Congress, shall effectually secure life, Hberty, and property in all parts of the United States." It was on the very next day that the President issued his proclamation declaring that an insurrection then 154 THE KU-KLUX BILL. existed in South Carolina and warning all engaged there- in, to disperse to their homes within " twenty days.'i On the 29th day of April, 1871, that most infamous and tyrannical measure known as the " Ku-Klux Bill," became a law. We have seen that it had been specially solicited by the President, and those who are ignorant of his lead- ing instincts, may be able to comfort themselves with the belief, or we should rather say, the delusion, that the de- sign of the Executive in urging upon Congress the pas- sasfe of that law was to do a substantial service to his country ! For more than twenty days this bill was de- bated by Congress, before being put upon its passage, during which its alarming features were held up to view and its dangerous infractions of Constitutional right laid bare ; but to no purpose. Before proceeding further let us examine its leading features. It is provided by the Constitution that the "privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in case of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require it." In order, therefore, to justify a suspension of this writ, which is one of personal liberty, there must not only be a case of rebellion or invasion, but it must be of such magni- tude as to endanger the public safety. By the " Ku-Klux " bill the President was to be the judge as to whether a state of rebellion existed or not, and in case he should determine in his own mind that such a state did exist in any section of the Union, of less magni- tude even than a State, he was authorized to suspend therein the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus and em- ploy the Federal troops as well as the naval forces to re- store order under martial law, without waiting for an ap- plication for assistance from the State authorities. On the 3d day of May, 1871, President Grant issued his proclamation reciting the passage of this act and " enjoin- ing upon all good citizens, and especially upon all public officers, to be zealous in the enforcement thereof." And A STATE OF INSURRECTION PROCLAIMED. 1 55 what would seem to be of no little sig-nificance the pro- clamation goes on to state, that " This law of Congress applies to all parts of the United States, and will be en- forced everywhere to the extent of the powers vested in the Executive." If this was not converting the republic into a despotism we scarcely know by what means that deed could be ac- complished. But we have not yet done with this law. Jurisdiction was also conferred upon the Federal courts, is all as suits for damages between citizens of the same State growing out of any insurrectionary abuses or in- fringement of personal rights, and in order to make sure a conviction, the judge of such court was authorized to exclude from the grand or petit jury any person who in his judgment had been concerned with " any such com- bination or conspiracy." Taking this altogether we have a system of tyranny and oppression from which there could be no escape.' On the I2th day of October, 1871, the President issued his second proclamation, reciting the existence of an in- surrection in five counties of the State of South Carolina, including the county of Marion, and on the seventeenth of the same month he issued a third proclamation, sus- pending the writ of habeas corpus in the counties named. One would naturally be led to suppose that, in a pro- ceeding of this gravity, the President would make very sure that he was right in every essential particular, before subjecting the citizens of any locaHty to measures which, if carried into effect in the mildest manner, could not fail to be extremely burdensome and oppressive. But the careless, off-hand sort of a way in which General Grant performed his part of the business has been made apparent by the commission of a blunder altogether without excuse. It was never pretended that an insur- rection existed in the county of Marion ; nor, indeed, that tiicre was any public disorder there whatever. The including of this county in the proclamation was a mis- take which the President may have been led into by the 156 REIGN OF TERROR IN SOUTH CAROLINaI unreliable information of Colonel Whitley's spies, and so, on the 3d day of November, he issued a fourth proclama- tion, relieving Marion county, and bringing the county of Union within the operation of the law ! And now began a reign of terror in those counties of South Carolina which had been given over to the tender mercies of the Executive ! Offences which had been committed months, even years before, and almost forgotten, Avere hunted out, and the offenders thrust into prison. Old men, who were innocent of any wrong, were seized and hurried from their homes. Others were tried, and condemned upon the testimony of witnesses too low in the scale of morals to be entitled to belief Respectable citizens were marched in squads through the public streets hand-cufifed, and guarded by soldiers; crowds of colored men, women and children followed in the rear, yelling and cursing them. None of these men had committed any recent offence, and some of them were without stain. In many places the prisoners were huddled, thirty and forty to- gether, into rooms without an article of furniture, and filthy in the extreme. They were not allowed to com- municate either with friends or counsel. In whole coun- ties all business was suspended, and those who had temporarily escaped fled for safety. Senator Bayard, from the committee of the Senate to investigate the " Ku-Klux " in Georgia, has given us a picture of the wretched state of things there, and also in Florida ; and yet, he tells us that the respectable and trustworthy citizens who were examined, many of them Republicans.and some of them Union soldiers, bore conclu- sive testimony to the " peaceful disposition of the people." * * The report of Attornej'-General Williams, in response to a resolution of the House of Representatives shows, that five hundred and one persons were arrested in South Carolina, in pursuance of the " Ku-Klux " Act. In North Carolina, nine hundred and forty-four persons were indicted for violations of that Act. One hundred and fifty two have been indicted in the Southern, and four hundred and ninety in the Northern District of Mississippi. KU-KLUX MESSAGE OF THE PRESIDENT. 1 57 Nearly all the indictments which were found against these parties were fqr offences committed before the pas- sae^e of the " Ku-Klux " act. Nothing could be more conclusive than the fact that at the time of the " Ku-Klux " legislation in Congress, and the putting in force of this Act in various parts of the South, there was no disturbance there which justified it, neither has there since been. On the 19th day of April, of the present year, President Grant, in response to a resolution of the House of Repre- sentatives, sent in the following message : " To the House of Representatives : " In answer to the resolution of the House of Representatives of January 25, I have the honor to submit the following, accompanied by the report of the Attorney-General, to whom the resolution was referred : " Representations having been made to me that in certain portions of South Carolina a condition of lawlessness and terror existed, I requested the then Attorney-General (Akerman) to visit the State, and after personal examination, to report to me the facts in relation to the subject. On the i6th of October last he addressed a communication from South Carolina, in which he stated that in the counties of Spartanburg, York, Chester, Union, Laurens, Newbury, Fairfield, Lancaster, and Chesterfield, there were combinations for the purpose of preventing the free political actions of citizens who were friendly to the Constitution and the govern, ment of the United States, and of depriving the emancipated class of the equal protection of the laws. These combinations embrace at least two- thirds of the active white men of those counties, and have the sympathy and countenance of the majority of the other third. They are connected with similar combinations in other counties and States, and no doubt are part of a grand system of criminal associations pervading most of the Southern States. The members are bound to obedience and secrecy by oaths which they are taught to regard as of higher obligation than the law- ful oaths taken before civil magistrates ; they are organized and armed; they efTect their objects by personal violence, often extending to murder ; they terrify witnesses ; they control juries in the State courts, and some- times in the courts of the United States; systematic spying is one of the means by which prosecution of the members is defeated. From informa- tion given by officers of the State and df the United States, and by credible private citizens, I am justified in affirming that the instances of criminal violence perpetrated by these combinations within the last twelve months, in the above-named counties, could be reckoned by thousands. " I received information of a similar import from various sources, among which were the joint committee of Congress upon Southern outrages, the officers of the State, the military officers of the United States on duty ia 158 FALSE KU-KLUX RUMORS. South Carolina, the United States Attorney and Marshal, and other officers of the Government, repentant and abjuring members of these unlawful or- ganizations, persons speciallj^ employed by the* department -of justice to detect crimes against the United States, and from other credible sources. Most, if not all of this information, except that I derived from the Attorney- General, came to me orally, and was to the effect that said counties were ,Mnder the sway of the powerful combinations popularly known as the C" Ku-Klux Klan," the objects of which were, by force and terror, to prevent all political action not in accord with the views of the members, to deprive colored citizens of the right to bear arms, and of the right to a free ballot, to suppress schools in which colored children were taught, and to reduce the colored people to a condition closely akin to that of slaves 4 that these combinations were organized and armed, and had rendered the local law ineffectual to protect the classes whom they desired to oppress ; that they had perpetrated many murders and hundreds of crimes of i^inor degree, all of which were unpunished, and that witnesses could not safely testify in courts there unless the more active members were placed under restraint. " U. S. GRANT." " Executive Mansion, April 19, 1872. The resolution of the House called for circumstantial details of what had been done in the South, under the " Ku-Klux Act," and they got this rigmarole of a message, showing that it was upon mere rumor and idle reports that the President acted in proclaiming martial law in South Carolina. There was only one case of the burning of a school- house, and the evidence entirely failed to fix it upon the mythical " Ku-Klux." The stories to which the President was wont to listen were vastly overdrawn, and he may have been in a frame of mind to magnify them still more. Even if the state- ments contained in this message were true, it does not show a state of things which would justify the enforce- ment of martial law and the suspension of the privileges of the writ of habeas corpus. But, unfortunately for General Grant, many of those reports are highly exaggerated, and others are not only false, but vindictive towards the citizens of those coun- ties which he has named. According to his rating, eleven-twelfths of the white population have been, within the last twelve months, secretly leagued against the END OF MARTIAL LAW. 1 59 blacks. This is too great a stretch of figures to be credited with belief. There is, however, an element of virtue in the " Ku- Klux " Act of which the South islikel}^ to receive the im- mediate benefit. By the terms of the fourth section, under which the " privileges of the writ oi habeas corpus'" have been suspended in certain localities, it is provided that that section " shall not be in force after the end of" the present session in Congress; and, notwithstanding the President has used ever}-^ possible means at his command to secure its continuance in force till after the next Presiden- tial election, even descending to play the part of lobb3'ist at the Capitol, as in the instance of the struggle in the Senate on the Santo Domingo Treaty, the House has refused by a decided vote to comply with his demands. We sincerely congratulate the people of the Southern States, of all races and shades of color, upon the over- throw of that most pernicious and unnecessar}^ measure, alike destructive of public justice and human liberty. It is just this class of legislation which has done more than all things else to keep alive the unfortunate issues of the rebellion, and array against each other two races of men who, under a wise and conciliatory system, would be found to be a mutual advantage and protection to each other, dividing the responsibilities and sharing together the blessings of free government. CHAPTER XIV. APPOINTMENTS and APPOINTEES. Borie, Secretary Navy. — He nominates his successor Robeson, who arranges to pay the fraudulent Secor claims, and the old Governor claim.— The 10,000 Navy rifles.— Governor Blair's report. The Post- master-general and the Chorpening claim.— He lobbies in the whisky frauds interest.— The Secretaries of War and the Interior.— Delano and the Georgia Railroad.— Secretary Fish, his son-in-law and the Spanish gun-boats— General Butterfield and Black Friday.— Legate, Governor of Washington Territory.— George H. Butler, U. S. Consul-General to Egypt._His qualifications.— W. W. Holden of North Carolina, Minister to Peru ! The first Secretary of the Navy, under General Grant, was Adolphe Borie, of Philadelphia, a gentleman of large wealth, who had contributed liberally to the fund ex- pended in the purchase of a house for General Grant in that city, and upon the sale of which the latter is said to have realized a handsome sum of money. It is reported that General Grant was favorably struck with the manner in which Mr. Borie's name /^;/;r^ upon the subscription list, and made some pertinent inquiries about him at that time. When his nomination was sent to the Senate for con- firmation, there was a good deal of inquiry, especially among the officers of the Navy, as to who and what man- ner of man he was, for neither the name nor fame of Mr. Borie had gone much abroad. We know very little of his administration of the Navy Department, his term having been a very brief one ; for, on the 25th of June, 1870, less than two months after his appointment, Mr. Borie resigned his office. But, there was one privilege accorded to Mr. Borie upon his retirement, which is quite unusual. He was (160) BORIE NOMINATES ROBESON. i6l permitted to name his successor— the Hon. George M. Robeson, of New Jerse}- ! In one respect at least, Mr. Robeson resembled Mr. Borie, for neither of these gentlemen had any special knowledge of naval affairs. Mr. Robeson, however, had the advantage of being a lawyer, and was supposed to be able to bring to bear upon his official duties, a certain amount of legal talent which might be made available to the Government in many ways, and it certainly would appear from the manner in which he conducted the affairs of his office, that the old habit of diving into musty files of papers, and raking new issues out of old settlements, was continually upon him. At any rate, one of his first achievements was to dis- cover that there was a very large sum of money due to his frieqds Messrs. Secor & Co., on a contract made in 1862, for building three iron-clads for the Govern- ment. It is true, the Government had not only paid the Messrs. Secor the whole of the contract price for these vessels, but a large ''bill of extras " besides, making a total of $1,901,195.58, which entirely closed their traiis- action with the Government. All this was prior to the year 1865. The Messrs. Secor, however, whilst they admitted that the Government had kept its faith with them, com- plained, with others, that they had sustained heavy losses on account of the rapid advance in the price of materials and labor, and they united, with some forty other contractors, for building iron-clads, in a petition to Congress for relief, backed up by a powerful " lobby." Finally, after a good deal of dormg- and ^ome special legislation, all these claims, including that of the Messrs. Secor, were adjusted and paid off by the Government. In this settlement the Secors received the sum of $115,- 539.01 ; the Act under which it was paid to them con- taining these words, "which shall be in full discharge of all claims against the United States, on account of II l62 SECORS MAKE ANOTHER HAUL. the vessels upon which the Board made the allowance," etc. The Secors accepted this money in full payment of all demands against the Government, and any lawyer other than Mr. Robeson, would have known it to be the end of this business ; but not so he, for after assuming the duties of Secretary of the Navy, almost his first act was to dig out this old claim and set the machinery in motion which furnished him with the thinnest possible excuse for paying it ; and he did pay the Messrs. Secor ninety-three thousand dollars out of the appropriations for the Navy Department for the current year! He paid it in hot haste, and upon a holiday, altogether on his own re- sponsibility, not only in violation of law, but also of the rules and usages of the Navy Department, as old as the Department itself; and when this is brought to light he has the effrontery to tell us that " it all depends upon the construction of a statute." So do the crime of theft and the penalty of hanging, Mr. Secretary.* But this is not the only instance in which Secretary Robeson has taken the law into his own hands. There is the case of the steamer " Governor," swamped at sea whilst in the service of the Government. At first, the claim to which her loss gave rise, was re- jected by him. Afterwards it was allowed, at $52,000; * The following extract is from the minority report of Governor Blair : "That this payment was not only without law, but in direct violation of law, there can be no doubt whatever. It took out of the Treasury $93,000, against the prohibition of a plain statute, and gave it to parties to whom the Government owed nothing. It was done also against a wholesome rule of the Department, that one administration shall not open accounts which have been closed by another — its predecessor. "The money was taken out of the appropriation made by Congress to pay the current expenses of the Navy Department for the current year, to pay an old iron-clad claim. Admiral Porter had remonstrated against it, and Mr. Lenthal had declared it illegal. " It has been suggested by the friends of the Secretary, and by himself, that it was a question of the construction of the statute. But the statute is too clear for construction. The claim had been brought before Congress, patiently heard and settled in full, and the Secretary knew it." ROBESON AND THE NAVY RIFLES. 163 fifty per cent, of which was divided among the solicitors before the Department, one of whom was Mr. Simeon Johnson, who appeared in the Secor case, and who had been newly tacked on at the suggestion of a friend of the parties. There is something rotten in any department where one half of an honest claim must be given away in order to secure its payment ! Our readers will not have forgotten the little affair that leaked out in the course of the French arms investi- gation. An intimate friend of the Secretary's was employed by a Philadelphia firm to negotiate the purchase of 10,000 Navy rifles,for which, if successful, the agent was to receive one dollar on each rifle as his commission. It was ac- cepted, and the agent received $10,000 for half an hour's work. Now, if these rifles were for sale to whomsoever should apply for them^ as the Secretary would give us to under- stand, why was it necessary for Poultney and Trimble to employ Mr. Markley to induce the Secretary to sell them at a loss to themselves of ten thousand dollars ? or why should our Government lose $10,000 by selling these rifles so much below what Poultney and Trimble were willing to pay for them ? Either our Government or Poultney and Trimble lost ten thousand dollars quite unnecessarily, if what the Secretary says is true. In speaking of the contract made by Mr. Robeson, on behalf of the Government, with Mr. John Roach, of New York, tor marine engines to be set up in the U. S. steamer Tennessee, at a cost of nearly four hundred thousand dollars, and also with C. Pennock, for two iron torpedo boats, without allowing any competition in either case, through advertising for proposals to do the work. Governor Blair, in his report, says : "That Mr. Roach has a most excellent bargain for himself there can be no doubt whatever. He made it substantially as he wished, and had no impertinent interference by other people. The other people had no means of knowing anything about it. It was a private correspondence, set 164 ROBESON DISPENSING THE PUBLIC FUNDS. on foot by Mr. Roach himself, and obligingly kept from the public by the Secretary of .the Navy. Mr. Roach thinks no one else could have inter- fered, but he prudently prevented all danger by having the matter kept en- tirely quiet. "What has been said in regard to the contract for the repair of the steamer Tennessee, applies equally to the contracts for the torpedo boats. They were made without advertisement, and much in the same manner. The prices paid are no doubt somewhat higher than they would have been if competition had been invited. "' Mr. Abram S. Hewitt, a very intelligent iron maker, testifies that the iron contracted for with C. Pennock, should have been furnished at a much lower rate, and there seems little doubt that such is the fact." One hundred and forty-one thousand dollars were proven, before the House Committee of Investigation, to have been paid out by Secretary Robeson, in clear viola- tion of law ; ninety -three thousand of which were paid to the friends of the Secretary, to whom the Government was not indebted to the extent of a penny. Not only this, but the whole course of action, in regard to the Secor swindle, from hunting it out of its tomb of a pigeon-hole, among forty others just like it, to its hurried payment upon the order of the Secretary, upon New- Year's day, against the custom of the Departments, was managed and specially directed by the Secretary himself. Indeed, ever since he has been in office this "Jersey lawyer," who has been growing rich all the time, has per- sistently violated the law by thrusting aside all the safe- guards of his office against the worst of abuses and frauds; paying off rejected claims, making immense con- tracts, trading off Government property, building boats, and purchasing Naval supplies without color of right, or the trouble of advertising. It is in this way that hundreds of thousands of the public moneys have been squandered or lavished upon favorites ; and yet, Mr. Secretary Robeson is not only retained in office, but stands higher than ever in the esti- mation of the President ! The Postmaster-general has also been charged with squandering the public moneys in a manner altogether THE CHORPENING FRAUD. 165 without precedent or justification. Since his official term the practice of making- straw bids for carrying the U. S. Mails in some of the States has grown into a regular sys- tem. The wa}^ of it is this: A mail route is offered for competition in the usual manner. There are many honest competitors, but also some dishonest ones, who procure offers to be made .by fictitious bidders below any reason- able rate. When tho contract is to be given out, these under-bidders do not appear, and as the Postmaster-gen- eral can only award it to the lowest bidder, he may pro- ceed to let the contract for the time being by private agreement ! ^y this course honest bidders are thrown out and dishonest ones put in at an immense loss to the Government. The Postmaster-general also assisted the notorious Chorpening to draw no less a sum than $444,000 from the U. S. Treasur}^ in settlement of a fraudulent and dishonest claim, upon which not a dollar was justly due. In allusion to this act, Mr. Dawes, of Massachusetts, remarked : " The Postmaster-General, in my opinion, as I told him, and as I have told this House, should have stopped in his investigation before he came to a conclusion which entitled this party to draw out of the Treasury the sum of $444,000, when there had been filed in his department time and again the report of those to whom that claim had been submitted, to the efTect that not a dollar was due to the claimant." The Postmaster-general too, in imitation of his official superior, has tried his hand at lobbying, and if we are to credit his statement, not without avail, for at the time when, at the earnest solicitation of Secretary Boutwell, a joint resolution was introduced into Congress, which, if passed, would render possible a thorough investigation ot the great whisky frauds in Baltimore, Mr. Creswell illus- trated his position in respect to the movement in a letter to one of the " ring " as follows : " Washington, May 8, 1S70. " Thomas M. Lanahan, Esq. " My Dear Sir : As regards the joint resolution introduced by Butler, and now pending in the Senate, you can say to our friends that there is no 1 66 OTHER SECRETARIES GO FOR PLUNDER. danger of it passing in that shape. / have thrown my personal and poliiicai influence against it, and apprehend no danger in defeating it. " Very respectfully, " J. A. J. Creswell." Nor have the Secretaries of War and the Interior been at all backward in improving the opportunities afforded by their respective offices to turn an honest penny or oblige a friend. The former being, like his companion of the Navy, of the legal profession, deals largely in " statutory construction," but he has had the greater fore- sight to originate the laws and then construe them to suit himself, and in order that they may not occupy too much attention on their passage, he is in the habit of tacking them on as riders to the Appropriation Bill. It was in this way that the free trading s)^stem upon the Indian frontier was abolished or changed into a few profitable monopo- lies, the brother-in-law of the Secretary, in imitation of a noted example, being appointed to the most desirable of them. These trading districts have actually been farmed out by the appointees of the Secretary at the rate of one thousand dollars a month, and this too for the sole privilege of seUing goods to the " noble red men ;" so that the ef- fect of the law is not to provide discreet and capable trad- ers, but to create monopolies to be themselves traded in ! A similar exploit of the Secretary of the Interior, allud- ed to elsewhere, was an innocent little " rider " which oz'er- rides the" CivW Service " rules for making appointments, of clerks in his Department. Mr. Delano has also tried his hand at Railroading, at least he, tosrether with a few unconditional Grant men, have obtained the lease of the principal road in Georgia, with the help of Governor Bullock, at eleven thousand dollars a month less than a another respectable company stood ready to pay for it.* Wc should not pass over the most important Depart- *"The " Western and Atlantic Railroad " of Georgia, was leased by Gov- ernor Bullock to Secretary Delano and others, for $25,000 a month, al- though another company stood ready to take it at §36,000 a month. GEN. BUTTERFIELD ASS't SUB-TREASURER. 1 6/ ment of the Secretary of State in silence, for whilst we are free to say that it is our unwavering conviction that its Honorable incumbent is above and beyond even the suspicion of dishonesty, yet that he is not altogether " the right man in the right place " at this juncture of our national affairS) is a common belief. It is to the Secretary of State that we are wont to turn for a clear enunciation of, and firm adhesion to, the Ameri- can doctrines in our intercourse with other nations. Upon him too we are accustomed to rely for a becoming atti- tude in all individual cases of wrong or oppression at the hands of foreign powers. It is not too much to say that the course of INIr. Fish in these regards, especially in reference to Cuba and San Domingo has come far short of the mark. What could be more humiliating in this connection, than the circum- stance that the Spanish authorities, guided doubtless by the estimate which their advisers have formed of us, thought it expedient to employ as their counsel in the matter of the Spanish gunboats, detained at our wharves, the son-in-law of Mr. Fish, who was at that date a com- paratively obscure practitioner of his profession in the City of New York. How is it that our Ministers of State have acquired a reputation here and elsewhere, so low in the scale of political morals, as to justify the imputation to which this employment gives rise ? Those to whom this inquiry is most pertinent may also be able to tell us, upon what grounds of belief respectable foreign journals have recently pointed out the Adminis- tration of General Grant, as the most corrupt of any on the face of the earth ! General Butterfield whilst still an officer of the army, was appointed Assistant Treasurer of the United States, at the New York Sub-Treasury ! We should hardly think it worth while to mention a circumstance which has become such an "old story" in the practice of our model President, were it not that the Assistant Treasurer was most suspiciously mixed up l68 JAMES F. LEGATE. with the Black-Friday gold muddle of Fisk, Gould & Co., and unless rumor does him great injustice, his individual share of the profits of that adventure were by no means inconsiderable. At any rate, when a Committee of Congress was about to be sent on to make some inquiries into the General's connection with this outrage, he relieved himself from their disagreeable inquisitiveness, by hastily resigning his office. It is quite likely that it was pretty well understood at Washington, that in a certain event, that resignation should be'feent in, and immediately accepted. But the people had a double hold upon General But- terfield, for he was still an officer of the army, and an advance was made upon his new position. The General, however, was too old a soldier to allow himself to be sur- prised upon his post and he resigned his mihtary office also, and the committee fell back upon the main body at Washington. We extract the following from General Butterfield's little work upon " Out-Post duty :" " Hold the enemy in check as long as possible when compelled to retired One of the President's later appointments to office, is that of the notorious James F. Legate, of Kansas, to be Governor of Washington Territory, and yet the Presi- dent must have known enough of this Legate's connec- tion with the Kansas election frauds to require no ad- ditional proofs of his utter unfitness for an office of such great responsibility, or in truth for any office at all. In speaking of this appointment the Springfield Repub- lican says that although "his (Legate's) transfer from Kansas will unquestionably be a benefit to that State and its people, the placing him over those of Washington Ter- ritory only increases his capacity for mischief." And the writer of that paragraph was familiar with his political record, for it is notorious ! We might follow out the subject of Executive appoint- GEORGE H. BUTLER. 169 merits to almost any extent, showing how it was that the President elevated to places of honor and trust, those whom, by the exercise of ordinary prudence, he must have known to be already corrupt in morals and bank- rupt in principle ! but the subject is not a pleasant one, and we are constrained to be done with it. But even beyond the members of his Cabinet, family relations and military favorites, the appointments to office made by General Grant have been in very many instances of the most unworthy description, but it is impossible for us at this time to particularize them, inasmuch as the contagion of peculation and stock-jobbing in office ap- pears to have pervaded every avenue of the public service. Even our Honorable Ambassadors at the Courts of St. James and Madrid are not without some taint of the milder of those evils. But their conduct however undig- nified and reprehensible, is thrown completely in the" shade by that of the principal representative of the Ad- ministration in Egypt, who is no less a personage than George H. Butler. At the date of his appointment, this typical Butler, was too well-known in the lower stratum of society, to give the President the "benefit of a doubt" as to his personal unfitness for any place of honor and trust, and his career abroad has rather more than sustained the natural expectations of those who knew him best. Located at the seat of Empire of the mother of all the sciences, and screening himself from punishment beneath the folds of that flag which he dishonors, Consul-General Butler has been from the first a debauchee in morals, and a trader in office. Brutal by nature, and profligate by habit, he has only disgraced the office he has been per- mitted to occupy, without being able to fill, and the country which owed him nothing in the beginning, owes him something 710W, and that is, his immediate dismissal from all official connection with the Government, waving his recall. Under any one of our former Presidents an Ex-Gover- nor of a State, and a fugitive who had been impeached of I/O W. W. HOLDEN. high crimes and misdemeanors, tried, convicted, turned out of office, and forever disqualified to hold office under the Government of that State, would not have been con- sidered quite the sort of a man to represent this Govern- ment in the character of minister at a foreign Court. Such was \V. W. Holden, recently of North Carolina, and General Grant in appointing him minister to Peru, has signified his acceptability as a fit exponent, not of the United States Government surely, but of the other U. S. G. whose lease upon it is fortunately about to expire ! We might proceed to show that when the indisputable proofs of the social and political dehnquencies of various incumbents of Federal offices, as well those abovenamed as others, were laid before the Executive, not only were they retained in their places, but his evident displeasure was manifested towards such as had in this manner undertaken to remedy a public evil. For these things the President must be held morally responsible, for he who, having a knowledge of the fraudu- lent intent or practices of another, and whilst holding in his hand the power to thwart and put an end to them, yet refuses to act, makes himself in effect a party to the fraud. The President of the United States is not himself above suspicion, and now that he is about to make his appeal to the people for their justification of his four years of churl- ish misrule, let us see to it that their verdict be in accord- ance with the requirements of honor and the principles of justice. CHAPTER XV. SUMMING UP. \Ve have observed that upon the termination of the war, and the withdrawal of the two contending forces from active operations in the field, General Grant estab- lished his permanent headquarters at the seat of g-overn- ment. x\t this period it docs not appear that he had formed any decided views upon those topics which most nearly concerned the welfare of the nation. His political status could therefore be best estimated at zero. It was his occupation of this neutral ground to which he owed much of his popularity with the people. They had remarked, with an accuteness of perception which j-ears of self-government had served to intensif)', the approach of that fearful struggle which was to estab- lish the bounds of human libert}^ in the United States, and determine for all time the fate of the Republic, and they had watched with prayers and heart-yearnings, the wavering course of battle. Earnestly indeed they prayed for a warrior-chief over whose advancing columns might be seen to circle the ominous eagles of victory. At length he came ; dimly at first they saw him upon the war-plowed field, but as victory on victory followed in his course, closer and closer they gathered him to their hearts, and when at length the angel Peace came with his " healing wings," their prayers were answered and they asked no more. But he who had so manfully stood "on the perilous edge Of battle' was too firmly seated in their love to be given over to (171) 172 SUMMING UP. the fate of common men, and as the time drew near when the people were to choose their most exalted magistrate, it was clear enough to be seen that the choice would fall upon General Grant. Now it was that our future President began to shape his opinions accordingly as he perceived the drift of public sentiment, for although in name there were two political parties in the field more or less thoroughly organized, many of the questions which had theretofore divided their councils, were no longer presented among the living issues of the day. The old political parties which had confront- ed each other upon so many fields, were in a state of dis- integration, and others were being formed upon questions which were newly presented, chiefly in regard to recon- struction and finance. UpxDn these new issues it was the policy of General Grant to remain, silent. We have shown that he was prevailed upon by Presi- dent Johnson to accept the place of Secretary of War, ad intcrivi, and become a member of his Cabinet, and, for a time, at least, his views upon public affairs, appear to have been in harmony with those of that official. Their subse- quent disagreements of a personal as well as political char- acter, have been dwelt upon at considerable length in a preceding chapter, and also the circumstances attending his nomination by the Chicago convention. It cannot be said that either of the two parties who presented candidates for the Executive office, were per- manently or even definitely formed. Nor can it be said that the unanimity with which the country rallied to the support of General Grant was indicative of anything more than a personal choice between one who had taken an active part in putting down the rebellion, and another concerning whom the impression had gone abroad, that he had bitterly opposed the objects of the war, and was unwilling to accept its results. In a word, the condition of parties at this time was such, that a choice was made rather more upon personal than political grounds, the political element being at the SUMMING UP. 173 best in a disorganized and incoherent state. It was the faith which was reposed in the integrity of General Grant as a man, and his abihty as an officer, and more than all, the common belief that he would be able before any other of our public men, to speedil}- restore the Southern States to their true relation to the Govern- ment, and so " temper justice with mercy," as to heal over the still bleeding wounds of the rebellion, which drew men to his standard. General Grant had induced this belief by giving utterance to a sentiment which met with the hearty response of the whole people, and the aphorism, " Let us have peace," was inscribed upon the banners of his party. He had also avowed his acquies- cence in the one term principle, which Andrew Jackson had urged upon the attention of Congress, years before, and which has ever since been gathei"ing strength. It was the lack of this constitutional restriction Avhich De Tocqueville, in his celebrated work upon " Democracy in America," pointed out as the one of greatest danger to our liberties. President Johnson likewise recommended a change in the Constitution in this regard, consequently when Gen- eral Grant showed himself so wise as to adopt the views of thc-e distinguished men upon a measure of the first importance, it was received as an evidence of his states- manship. The two foregoing propositions were the only ones which General Grant openly and unqualifiedly announced previous to his inauguration. And now after nearly four years have passed away and we find that he is once more put in nomination for President, we have availed ourselves of a citizen's privilege in respect to a candidate for public office, by reviewing his official course in the past, for the benefit of those who are too deeply engaged in other things, tO critically examine the facts for them- selves. Starting at the beginning of his official term we find it did not require the solemn pledges made in his in- augural address to bind his conscience to the faithful 174 SUMMING UP. execution of the laws. The Constitution and his oath alike enjoined it, so that having all these in one day it is the more surprising that he should have broken them be- fore the setting of the sun, by the appointment of his military staff to serve in various capacities near his person. As General of the Army it was both proper and neces- sary that there should be attached to his li^adquarters, an ample military staff, but on assuming the office of Presi- dent, he was not at all justified in taking these special aids with him into the White House, knowing well enough that the detailing of them to this service was con- trary to law, or if he did not know it, he committed a blunder, which in politics " is worse than a crime." He has actually clothed one of these military officers, (illegally of course), with the most extraordinary powers, greater indeed than have ever been exercised by an accred- ited ambassador at a foreign court, having conferred upon him authority to make a treaty shameful in itself, and turn- ing over to his command the United States Naval forces in foreign waters. He has provided the way for other favorites whilst holding commissions in the military service of the United States, to obtain offices of trust and other civil employ- ments, whereby large sums of money have been dis- honestly made by the practice of extortion. He has per- mitted a military ring to be formed about his person at the seat of government, and as it is believed, connived at the enlargement of the private fortunes of its members. He has required Foreign Ministers, Members of Con- gress and civilians to run the gauntlet of this military ring in order to be admitted to his presence. He has ap- pointed his own relations to office in numbers exceeding those of all his predecessors. He sent one of one of his brothers-in-law — a foreigner — Consul to Leipsic, where after being publicly disgraced he could no longer remain, he was promoted Minister to Den- mark, and although this brother-in-law has frequently and SUMMING UP. 175 almost continually disgraced his latter office, the Presi- dent persits in keeping him in it. He has appointed another brother-in-law to be Collec- tor at the Port of New Orleans, and although this ap- pointee has twice conspired to overthrow the State gov- ernment of Louisiana, using the United States militar}- and naval forces to effect his object, still he is retained in office against the renionstrance of^respectable citizens. He appointed a cousin to the office of Ganger at Chicago whom after being detected in stealing and dismissed by the Treasurer, he promoted to be Sub-Treasurer, and Receiver at Washington Territory, and now he is said to be a defaulter to the Government to the extent of $39,000. He has appointed other and various of his relatives to honorable and lucrative offices upon the sole ground of their relationship. He has accepted presents of large sums of money from various persons, whom he afterwards rewarded with offices to which were attached large incomes. He has connived with the illegal head of an irresponsible Government, to turn over to the United States, for a consideration, the Government itself and all its lands, , properties and liabilities. He has illegally, and by usur- pation of authority, employed the Naval forces of the United States to intimidate a defenceless people, and keep in power a military despot, who acquired his office through conspiracy. He also wantonly oppressed the inhabitants of a number of the States of this Union, sus- pending the writ of Jiabeiis corpus, making numerous arrests therein under martial law. He has knowingly appointed corrupt and incompetent men to office, other than his relatives, and refused to dis- miss others known to be guilty of peculation and fraud. He has absented himself from the seat of Government for months at a time to the great detriment of public affairs. He has repeatedly, and in the most unbecoming man- 1/6 SUMMING UP. ner, undertaken, by personal solicitation, and the use of Government patronage, to secure the passage of laws in which he took an especial interest. He has, during the last two years, bargained and con- nived with others to effect his renomination for a second term of the office he now holds ; and to this end he has systematically distributed the public patronage among his friends, and employed the military forces to control elections in districts which are opposed to him. He has permitted American citizens in foreign countries to be imprisoned, and their property confiscated, without making any proper effort to effect their release. He has treacherously permitted the illegal sale of Government arms and munitions of war to one or two belligerent nations with whom we were at peace. He is addicted to habits of intemperance which at times unfit him for the discharge of public duties. He has allowed his venality to involve him in a class of transactions of questionable honesty. He has knowingly permitted the deputies and salaried clerks employed in the various departments of Govern- ment, to be taxed for the purpose of raising funds to in- fluence elections, which is in effect appropriating the public moneys to a fraudulent object. He has conspired, with others, to enrich a few favorites by depreciating the national currency at the expense of the national credit. He has countenanced and encouraged the wretched carpet-bag governments in the South, which have inflicted upon the reconstructed States, wrongs which it will re- quire a full half century to obliterate. He has committed blunders resulting from his inex- cusable ignorance of law. He has acted the part of a demagogue, by urging the passage of an act regulating the system of making ap- pointments to civil offices as if it required a statutory law to confer a constitutional right, or permit the exer- cise of a sound discretion ; and he has alternately adopted SUMMING UP. 177 and abrogated the rules recommended by the commis- sioners of his own appointment. Me has, in numerous instances, made tenure of otilice depend upon mere subserviency to his partisan schemes. He has bestowed pa3nng offices, upon crafty and am- bitious parasites, who have shown him political favours. He has given his official sanction to monopolies which cut off enterprise and destroy competition. It signifies nothing, in a popular sense, that President Grant was renominated, and his policy endorsed at the late Philadelphia Convention. It was, indeed, a foregone conclusion, and the dele- gates, principals and proxies, might just as well have issued their orders from the Custom-Houses and other places of manufactured opinions, as to have gone through with the conventional formalities and that interesting spectacle of " the man on horseback." There was no heart in it ; nothing but the zeal begotten of patron- age and promises of future reward. But, their weakness is not to be despised. What they lack in moral force is compensated in money. Every federal office in the land is subsidized, and its incum- bents and their subordinates taxed to re-elect General Grant! Drawbacks upon salaries have become a matter of course. It is in effect and in reality the employment of the public moneys to corrupt the ballot, and it is arrived at by this circumlocutory process. The clerk who receives a $2,000 salary pays $100 of it back, and he knows v/hat it is for, and so does General Grant. The case is different now from what it was in 1868. Then the people broke loose from party leaders and would have Grant for President! Now they want quite another sort of a man — one nearer themselves, who understands their wants, and shares with them the manly burdens of life ; and they have not set up their candidate without the exercise of reason and judgment. It is in vain that the alarmed leaders cry Halt! or to the right or left ! The people are done with standing 12 178 SUMMING UP. under the shadozv of a party 7iame and wasting their strength in groundless divisions. No man is keen enough of perception to point out any clear distinction between what is termed a conservative republican and a war democrat. They are, indeed, one and the same ; and if the Cincinnati Convention was not the beginning and organization of a new political party, it was a gathering of men of all parties who, upon comparing notes, found there was no real difference between them. The party of the " Liberal Republicans " is the party of the people, and the leading issue of the campaign is between a purposed, honest and efficient government upon the one hand, and such an one as we now have, upon the other. It is absurd to claim that General Grant is a fair repre- sentative of Republican ideas. Putting him at the head of the Radical ticket does not make him so. He comes no nearer being a Republican than he does a Doctor of Laws, which the school-masters of " Old Harvard " have said he is. He may come up to their standard, but it is no compliment to men of learning to say so. Neither has the Executive set an example worthy to be followed in other respects. Like many of his favorites, he has grown suddenly rich. And how? Let us recall the words of the " Father of his country," in taking his farewell of the people on retiring from office. He says : " To conclude, and I feel proud of having it in my power to do so with truth, that it was not from ambitious views, it was not from ignorance of the hazard to which I knew I was exposing my reputation, it was not from an expectation of pecuniary compensation that I have yielded to the calls of my country; and that if my country has derived no benefit from my ser- vices, my fortune, in a pecuniary point of view, has received no augmenta- tion from my country. But in delivering this last sentiment, let me be un- equivocally understood as not intending to express any discontent on my part, or to imply any reproach on my country on that account. [The first would be untrue — the other ungrateful. And no occasion more fit than the present may ever occur, perhaps, to declare, that nothing but the prin- ciple upon which I set out, and from which I have in no instance departed, SUMMING UP. 179 not to receive more from the public than my expenses, has restrained the bounty of several leg;islatures at the close of the war with Great Britain from adding considerably to my pecuniary resources.] I retire from the chair of government no otherwise benefited in this particular, than what you have all experienced from the increased value of property, flowing from the peace and prosperity with which our country has been blessed amidst tumults which have harassed and involved other countries in all the hor- rors of war. I leave )'Ou with undetiled hands, an uncorrupted heart, anc/ with ardent vows to heaven, for the welfare and happiness of that country in which I and my forefathers to the third or fourth progenitor drew our first breath." These are the closing words of Washington's farewell address. Let us fancy the terms in which General Grant could truthfully take leave of his office, in respect to the same matters ! Whence came his riches? and why is it that discord and commotion prevail in many parts of the country ? There never was a time of such general corruption on the part of those who are entrusted with office from the highest to the lowest. Leaving the President out of the question, how is it with some members of his cabinet ? Have they not wantonly violated the Constitution ? What have Mr. Creswell and Mr. Robeson to say to Art. 6 of Sec. ix, " No money shall be drawn from the Treasury but in consequence of appropriations made by law." An appropriation implies an object of appropriation. The lazv must make it and specify the object and not the Postmaster-General nor the Secretary of War ! An example of dishonesty in high places or what is just as bad, continual laxity, is always sure to be followed in lower ones. In respect to the Federal offices it appears as if he re- garded them as so many rewards for personal rather than party fealty, for he certainlyhas not been at all particular as to the moral or political antecedents of his appointees ; if they only showed a proper adhesion to himself, either by " gifts " or vociferously clamoring for his re-election — gifts of $100,000, of 850,000, of $30,000, and so downward in numbers almost incredible, — gifts of houses, one in I80 SUMMIXG UP. Philadelphia, one in Washington, one at Long Branch ! gifts of stock in corporations — monopolies which largely depend upon Government patronage and favor for their profits. There is the " Alaska Commercial Compan}-," about which there has been so much public scandal. The Pre- sident has stock in that Company, 830,000, of it, it is said. A good deal of favoritism was shown toward this Com- pany at the start, in its efforts to get under way, and if reports are to be believed, the management of its affairs in our newly acquired Territory among the icebergs, in connection of the fur trade, is reckless in the extreme. Then there is the "Seneca Sand-Stone Company," whose first officer is Governor Cook, of the new Terri- tory of Columbia. The President holds $25,000 of stock in this company, which has been awarded the stone con- tract for the new State Department Building, contrary to the express orders of the Building Committee of Con- gress, and to the great detriment of that structure and it is easy to understand what influences have overmatched their instructions. These presents of money, houses, stock, and whatever else were accepted by the President without hesitation, even with avidity, and compensated indirectly out of the Public Treasury, as in the instance of Leet and Murphy with their $100,000 per annum. It is all wrong that there should be any office in the Republic, to which are attached such extravagant in- comes. No one man's services are so pre-eminently above another's as to command a hundred times more pay, nor should it be tolerated. It is short-sighted enough to say that these immense incomes are paid by the Government, or come out of the Custom's revenue. What is the Government, which finally pays the tax upon imports? He who buys the necessaries of life, and is barely able to balance accounts at the end of the year, pays something towards the $100,000, which go into the pockets of our representatives, Leets and Murphys. SUMMING UP. I8l General Grant knows this, or should know it. At any rate, Congress knows it, and holds in its hands the remedy. A few such offices would eventually absorb the entire wealth of the countr3\ The President has been praised for his foreign policy, when it is notorious that it is the weakest and most anti- American that has ever humiliated the nation. He has been commended for his settlement of the *' Alabama Claims." Are they settled ? — for his Indian policy ! (just what that is we have been unable to per- ceive). Are the Indians quiet? Do they abstain from murder and rapine ? He is said to have reduced the public debt! What did he ever contribute towards that object ? It appears to be impossible for the President, who has been accustomed to the arbitraryness of a military com- mand, to shake off the old habit. He has an overweening fondness for military rule ; and he has held the civil powers in subjection to the military, in many instances, after the manner of the militar}'- districts of the recon- structed States, and against the policy of all free govern- ments. He has not scrupled to disregard the law, and even the Constitution has furnished no barrier to his usurpations. The provision of the loth section of the " Enforcement act," or as it is commonly called, the " Ku-Klux Law," was one of his pet schemes, and they are as tyrannical and unjust as it is possible for a law to be without conferring absolute powers upon the Executive. It ^z"^ confer almost absolute powers upon him. It makes him the judge as to whether a rebellion existed in a State, or town or count}*" of a State, from whose decision there was no appeal. Having determined in his own mind that a rebellion existed in any such county or town, after ordering by pro- clamation those engaged in it to disperse, he was authori- zed to employ the United States Military and Naval forces to any extent, for its suppression, suspending mean- l82 SUMMING UP. while the writ of Habeas Corpus ! He might do this in New York or Massachusetts, and he took good care to let us know it. He lobbied \\\'i\\ Congress to continue these objection- able features of the act in force until after the next general election ! He fairly begged for it. Those who know him best know his purpose. It was to elect himself iov another term by the use of the bayonet ! Those provisions of the act which remain in force arc bad enough in all conscience. They make the Federal judiciary an instrument of oppression, and it has been so made in South Carolina. The judge may set up his jury in his own way, and thus insure a conviction. Is it a wonder that under such a law men were unjust ? Supposing we were still a Colony of Great Britain, and England should enact such measures for our government as the American Congress has, and set such a man over us to execute the law as Ulysses S. Grant, how long would England's power remain ? Not a month, nor a day. There would be one universal burst of indignation and revolt ! The colonies never had half the cause for separating from the mother country, that the people now have for overthrowing the tyranny and blind one-man power of Grant, and if he were to continue in office an- other four years, and encroach in an equal degree upon the liberties of the country, small indeed would be our resemblance to the Republic of former days. It is high time for the people to crush out this wretch- ed usurpation of their rightful powers while yet they may. Their free representatives have met in a recent conven- tion, untrammelled and unpacked, and united upon that distinguished philanthropist and statesman, Horace Greeley, for President. CiNCINNATUS OR C^SAR, V^HICH SHALL IT BE ? I LIST OF BOOKS PUBLISnKD BV J. S. REDFIELD, 140 FTTLTON STREET, (between Broadway and Nassau,) New York. 1— Modern Women and What is Said of Them: A Kcpriut of a Series of Articles in The-Satunlnj Review. Fird ikries. I'lxtra cloth, beveled boards, S2 00 II. — Modern Women. — second series. 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X.—TJie Lover's Library ; or Tales of Senti- iiENT AND Passion.— By Bulwer,Southet,George Sand, etc. 1 vol., paper, 50 Xl.—Bedfiehrs Traveller's Guide to the City of New York, with a Map, paper, 25 Xll.— Little Breeches. By Jonx II ay. lUustrated, . 2.5 Xlll— Red field's Half-nime Vest-Bocket 31ap OF THE CiTT OF NeW YoRK, 50 XIV.— O?^ the Uses of Wines in Health and Bis- BASE. By Francis E. Anstie, M.D. F.R.C.P., paper, .... 50 XY.—Mow to Live on A- Dime and A- Half A- Dat. By T. L. Nicuols, M.D., paper, 25 XYl—Conjuf/al Sins Ayainst the Laws of Life AND Health. By A. K. Gardner, A.M., M.D., paper, . . . . 1 00 XYll.—lhe Kidney ; Its Structure , Functions AND Diseases. By E. II. Dixon, M.D., paper, 25 BOOKS IN PRESS. Literature and Boy ma. By Matthkav Arnold. Marriaqe and Bivorce. The Laws of the diiferent States of the Union ou these subjects, with the decisions of the Courts on mooted points. By Nelson Cross, Esq., Counsellor-at-Law. HotV to Cook. The theory and practice of scientific, economi- cal, hygienic and aesthetic gastronomy. By T. L. Nichols, M.D. Human Bhysioloyy. The basis of Sanitary and Social Science. By T. L. Nichols, M.D. T^V^O A^^LTJ^BLIG LIXTLE BOOKS. TRAv¥lER'S° GUIDE TO THE CITY OF NEW YORK. ►-« THE INFORMATION IT GIVES FOR 25 CENTS: I. It tells till ahfmt the " Tricks upon Travelers " on the Cars and Steamers, and after lauding in the city, and how to avoid them. II. All (ihotit Baggage Expresses and their charges for delivering baggage in the city and suburbs. III. All about the legal rates of fares for carriages and public porters. IV. All (ibout the different horse-car and omnibus routes; their rates of fare; time of starting of last cars and omnibuses at each end of their routes, and what ferries and railroad depots they connect with. V. All about the Ferries to the suburbs ; rates of ferriage and what Kailroads they connect with. VI. All about the principal Hotel?, their charges, whether by the day, or on the European plan; about restaurants and boarding and lodging-houses. VII. Topographical description and historical sketch of the city ; Popula- tion past and present; Sanitary provisions. VIII. All about the improvements in progress; the Public Parks and Squares; the Public Buildings; Public Works; and notable streets and sights. IX. All about places of Amusement; how to reach them and their prices of admission. X. All about the principal Drives around the City. XI. All about the Public Markets, Libraries, Churches, Picture Galle- rics and Artists' Studios, principal Charitable Institutions, Colleges, Literary and Medical, and the principal C'emclt-'ries, and how to reach them. XII. All about the departure of (^oastwise and River Steamers, and their rates of fare; the principal Railroad Stations and how to reach them. XIII. About ff(>i}iff Abroad. — Passports, how to obtain them ; List of Foreign Consuls residing in New York List of Foreign Steamers, their days of sailing, from what Piers and their rates of passage. How 10 Live on a-Dime and a-Half a Day. BY T. L. NICHOLS, M.D. WHAT IS SAID OF IT: " This book should be read by every one." — Manchester Union. "This concise little book contains much of common-sense and indisputable truth." — Washinc/ton Chronicle. "There need be no more dyspeptics." — Portsmovth Jmirnal. '"This is a plain, common-sense collection of hints on living, and more especially on pre- paring food economically." — Ironton Journal. "The book contains many useful hints in regard to living, and proves most conclusively that the dearest living is not the 'bcsi.'"— Lawrence Eagle. "The writer who points out the way to live more economically, is entitled to rank as a public benefactor." — N. Y. Star. "The theory sketched by the doctor is sure to make the baker and the butcher swear." — N. T. Wmicl. " It is well worth buying, reading and applying at least in part."— i)o»er {N. H.) Morning Star. "The practical suggestions with reference to different kinds of food and their relative value, will be found full of interest."— .Bu^ato Express. PRICE SS CENTS EACH. THE MODERN ULYSSES cc.in flis Political Record bt nelson cross OOUKSELLOR AT IlAW ' Wh«^u hart men combine, the good mnst aesociare." — Bvrke. N K w York J. -S. RE D FIELD, PU B L IISH E R 140 FULTON STREET 1872. PRICE 7r> C^ENTS. a c cf c . 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