Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 October 1878 — BEN BUTLER’S BRICKS. [ARTICLE]

BEN BUTLER’S BRICKS.

A Hitherto Unpublished Chapter from the History of the Late Electoral Conflict. Unmistakable Evidence in Writing of the Perjuries of the “Visiting Statesmen.” [Washington Cor. Chicago Times.] One of the most remarkable chapters of inside political history connected with the Presidential count investigation has been related to the Times correspondent by a gentleman visiting in this city. It is a full explanation of how were obtained the dispatches which the New York Tribune has been publishing in small installments from day to day, showing Tilden’s alleged attempt to manipulate the vote of Oregon. The gentleman referred to above has accurate and complete information concerning the publication of these secret dispatches, and he also says that the publication of this lot is only a small part of the story to come. In discussing the dispatches obtained and published by the Tribune, the gentleman, who is a Democrat, says that nothing will be shown by the Democratic dispatches published beyond the fact that money was legitimately used by the Tilden people. Every one of the Tribune dispatches published has been translated, and this informant claims that they will prove only that $6,200 was expended by the Democratic National Committee in Oregon, $3,000 being paid to a firm of Oregon lawyers who controlled the Portland Oregonian, $3,000 to Cronin for his expenses in coming on to Washington, and S2OO to pay the expenses of the Democratic electors in Oregon to and from their place of meeting. He says that there was no other expenditure of any character whatever. There was no attempt to purchase any electors. The man Patrick, who was sent out as an agent of the Tilden people, proved to be an irreclaimable idiot. His dispatch that an elector must be bought was enough to show the great mistake that was made in sending this jabbering, impudent man upon so delicate a mission where common sense and a decent reserve were at least essential. It is claimed that none of the dispatches captured will show that auy encouragement was given to this proposition of Patrick’s. Another evidence of the idiocy of this man Patrick is cited in the fact that he used a cipher he had formerly employed with a firm of business men of Detroit, who were able alinpojj at uiiuc to txanolato oraizy messages. The dispatches that have been published came from Ben Butler, and he exchanged them to his political advantage with the paper that published them, while he, at the same time, got a further price from John Sherman for allowing these dispatches to be published in a partisan organ. How Ben Butler obtained them, and the small arsenal of dispatches yet unpublished in Butler’s possession, to be produced later, is thus graphically related by the gentleman interviewed. Said he: “You remember when Morrison’s committee was orgauized in 1876, and sent to New Orleans to investigate how the vote of the State of Louisiana was stolen, that the Senate hastened to empower Morton’s Committee on Privileges and Elections to also make an investigation to counteract anything damaging in the disclosures that might be obtained by Col. Morrison. When Morrison arrived in New Orleans he served a subpoena upon the local officers of the Western Union Telegraph Company to produce all dispatches received and sent bearing upon the election. The local managers refused without the consent of those higher in authority. The matter was referred to Mr. Orton, then President of the Western Union Telegraph Company, and he, to make delay, said that he could not give up the dispatches without referring the subject to the Executive Committee. This gave the Senate committee time to serve its subpoena, also calling for the same class of dispatches. Morton himself - had sent a great many dispatches when he was in San Francisco looking after matters upon the Pacific coast, and he was very anxious that they should not fall into the hands of the Democrats. It was for this reason that he stopped issuing subpoenas. Orton came over to Washington and, it is understood, had a consultation with the Republican leaders. At any rate, when the Executive Committee decided to give up the dispatches, under protest, they were shipped in a trunk to the Senate committee instead of to the Democratic committee, who were entitled to them first by right of prior subpoena. Ido not care to charge that Orton had an understanding with the Republican leaders to send them these dispatches first. At any rate, the dispatches were as I have said. The Republican members of the Senate committee sorted over the dispatches and took out all that had been sent and received by their party leaders. They also sorted out carefully the Democratic dispatches. Of course, in the great mass of dispatches, filling a large trunk, were many unimportant ones from nobodies and containing nothing new. The Democratic members of Morrison’s committee nominally had access to these dispatches, but they never saw any of the Republican dispatches so carefully taken out by Morton. Now, to gallop ahead with the story, when the dispatches came to go back to the Western Union Telegraph Company it is a fact that only the unimportant ones were returned. All of the dispatches from and to the Democratic and Republican leaders were retained, making a compact bundle nearly two feet square. Whether the telegraph company ever noticed this or not I cannot say—at least I have no knowledge of their making any complaint or attempting to recover them Now there comes the most important and highly interesting ipart of the story. Two hours after the trunk was reshipped to New York the bundle containing all the important dispatches mysteriously disappeared from the Senate committee room, and it has been since found that it was conveyed to Butler’s private office and placed upon his desk. This mysterious transfer, it is claimed, was without any knowledge of Butler, and is surmised to have been the work of some mischief-loving person who desired to

furnish Butler with a hatful of bricks. ( Butler, like most men, was not disposed ' to look a gift horse in the mouth, and was quite content to have these imporI tant documents without being too par- ■ ticular from whence they came. They bore marks of authenticity upon their I face. Later in the session it came to the knowledge of John Sherman that Butler i had these dispatches. This occasioned I great demoralization in the Republican ■ ranks, as it was not known just what shoot 1 Butler would take. After some talk with . Butler, he allayed some of the distrust !of him by promising to give out the i Democratic dispatches as they were for publication, but he drove a sharp bargain. He was then an aspirant for the Governorship of Massachusetts and the Presidency. He regarded John Sherman as the most vital and powerful element in the administration. He therefore made Sherman agree not to fight him whichever course he (Butler) might take politically. This Sherman has strictly observed. In a quiet way Butler’s hold upon the treasury management in Massachusetts has been very strong. Butler’s compact with j the New York Tribune, the hard-money I organ of the administration, was that if 1 he gave the dispatches to it it should 1 not abuse him in its editorials during j the political campaign. This, too, has 1 been strictly observed by Mr. Whitelaw Reid, as can be testified to by anyone who has taken the trouble to read the : Tribune. Now, as to the dispatches in Butler’s hand, he does not care to drive ■ any bargain with them, but will put 1 them in as a closing chapter of Potter’s ; investigation. It will make a chapter that will prove startling to even the most hardened. These dispatches, in the first place, will convict some of the visiting statesmen of downright perjury, for it will be remembered that all of the visiting statesmen have sworn that they did not know one thing about the work of the Returning Board in Louisiana until the result was declared. Now, these dispatches show that every act and step of the Returning Board in its perjured track of crime was known at the instant of its accom.plishment, and telegraphed to Gov. Noyes in Florida every day by these visiting statesmen. Dispatches in their own handwriting show the greatest intimacy and exact knowledge of every detail of the most gigantic crime of the century. More than this, all of the details of the conspiracy in South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana will be shown by these dispatches. Talk about the revelations in the Democratic dispatches ! Sift them to the uttermost, and you will only find money sent to pay expenses actually incurred in legitimate work. When / Butler’s second installment of dispatches comes in, the revelations will be so astounding that there will no longer be any talk about the ones the Tribune is publishing. Of course, Butler wants to get all the good ho nan nnt, of his Tribune bargain; so it is possible this second batch will not Ise published until the campaign is near an end.” 1 A Poor Investment. Secretary Gorham says the Republican Executive Committee is again running short of funds. He also says that the money thus far subscribed by persons not holding Federal offices will not exceed SI,OOO, which, if true, indicates that the Republican “outs” believe that the Republican cause is hopeless, and that there is no use contributing money in its behalf. It is only a few weeks, however, since Secretary Gorham cheered his party with the news that there was not a time in its history when money poured more freely into the exchequer of the Executive Committee than it then did. What has become of all this superabundance of cash ? Was the bulk of it expended in Maine ? If so, what do the party managers think of the investmerit? If they do not realize more extensively on other ventures than they did in Maine, it will be extremely cruel to turn on the screws again.— Detroit Free Press. Result of Republican Legislation. The total value of exports from the United States increased from $269,389,900 in 1868 to $680,683,798 in 1878, an increase of $411,293,898,0r 158 percent. And yet all the profits and rates of transportation for all this immense and constantly-increasing carrying commercial trade, saying nothing whatever of the import carrying trade, is in the hands of foreign ship-owners, and Americans are prohibited by law from purchasing or navigating foreign-built vessels. In other words, the greatest producing and export nation in the world is completely at the mercy of a foreign marine for the transportation of its export and import products to market, and all this is the direct result of Republican legislation.— Exchang e.