Democratic Sentinel, Volume 13, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 August 1889 — TRESCOTT IS IN CLOVER. [ARTICLE]

TRESCOTT IS IN CLOVER.

A Man with a Shady Record Practically in Charge of an Important Bureau. [Washington special.] The real head of the State Department during Secretary Blaineto absence is William H. Trescott, of South Carolina. Trescott holds no official position, but appears to be in the epjoyment of a comfortable income, as he lives handsomely. Probably he is paid out of the contingent fund, and since Marell 4 he has virtually done little but attend to the work for which Walker Blaine draws salary—the claim office. How well these men are qualified to work together this peculiar field may be inferred from the fact that it was Trescott and Walker Blaine who were sent as special commissioners to Peru during the brief but enterprising reign of Blaine in the Garfield administration. Blaine has stuck by Trescott ever since, and appears to be afraid to let go of him. He has made Trescott a member of the American congress which is to meet here in October, and seems anxious to take very good care of him, notwithstanding his record as a secessionist. Probably the good citizens who lifted their hands in holy horror at the appointment of Mr. Lamar to a seat on the Supremo bench will be glad to know what Mr. Trescott’s war record was. Some years ago Joe Holt, of Kentucky, who was Postmaster General under Buchanan, was in Washington. A friend asked him to go along with him to call on Mr. Trescott, who then lived in the old Wadsworth house, on H street, for a long time occupied by Mr. Blaine. “No,” said Holt, “I will not call on Trescott. The last time I saw him he met me on the steps of the State Department early in 1861, and told me our GoverTiment was to be wiped from the face of the earth, and a confederacy created in its place. ”

Bluff old Joe Holt would not shako Trescott’s hand, not because the latter was a rebel, but because he was a traitor. Trescott’s record was exposed by Hay and Nicolay in the Century of October, 1887. Letters written by himself, by Bhett, Floyd, Gist, Drayton and others show conclusively that Trescott was a member of the Washington cabal which not only tied old Buchanan’s hands but actually sent guns to South Carolina. Though Trescott was at this time Assistant Secretary of State and under oath to support the United States Government, it is conclusively shown that he was one of the spies who from the inside were watching the interests of the South, and it was through his hands that confidential communications from leading spirits in the secession movement passed. Walker Blaine says his father regards Trescott as the “most accomplished diplomatist in America,” and it is known that Trescott, the special Peruvian commissioner and agent of the secessionists, who wanted all the garrisons removed from Sumter and Moultrie, possesses the confidence of the Secretary of State to such an extent that he is now virtually at the head of the State Department, in special charge of the bureau of claims.