Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 August 1876 — Ex-Solicitor Wilson’s Statement. [ARTICLE]

Ex-Solicitor Wilson’s Statement.

Bluford Wilson, «x‘Solicitor of the United States Treasury, was before the House Com mittee ou the whisky trials in St Louis, on the 27th ult, and gave in detail his knowledge in regard to the late whisky prosecutions in the West, and particularly in regard tQ.the connection of Babcock with,them. Wilson said that there was no lack of coopeAtion on the part of the President In the whisky cases generally, until Babcock became involved, when s coolness between the White House and the Department ares'*. He also testified that, in a conversation with Gin. Horace Porter, soon after the discovery that “ Sylph” telegram was

In Babcock's handwriting, Porter gave an exploration of the diapateL to the effect thqs It related Jo movezjpnts of Oertaln parties going to fit. Louis ou bridge business, mid said that the signature arose from the fact es there bein| a certain woman wlio had given the P/esident much trouble, and whom McDonald bad been requested by Btbceck to get away from Washington, because she had been annoying the President The President subsequently deniod to Wilson the s ory told by Porter. Wilson testified thst when be first heard this story from Porter he believed it to be false, and he still believed so. Mr. Wilson was further examined on the 28th, and gave in de» toil bis reasons for thinking the President did not show tbc same sympathy with the whisky prosecutions after as before the evidence tending to implicate Gen. Babcock in the frauds. The witness read several letters and stated several conversations between the officials and others, which letters and conversations had led him to the conclusion stated. He testified that the annoyance which it was said the woman “Sylph” ?;sve the President was by her cforts to blackmail him in St. Louis. Mr. Wilson stated, in reply to a question by one of the Committee, that he attributed the differences between the President and himself to the fact that the former believed Babcock io be Innocent, and, so believing, he conld not sympathize with the prosecuting officers or with the Secretary and witness in the part they took with reference to BabcockV case. He further stated 'bat his own judgment was that whatever differences arose between the Secretary and himfcelf on one side, and the President on the other, were due on the President’s part to misconception of the motives and purposes which actuated the Secretary and witness, to misinformation as to facts, to willful and deliberate perversions of facts to the President by scoundrels whom they were endeavoring to bring to punishment, and their friends, for the purpose of bringing about a disagreement between the President and the Secretory, to create embarrassment to the prosecution, and, if possible, to defeat their purpose. Wm. O. Gavitt, Special Agent of the Internal Revenue Bureau, was before the committee on the Ist, and testified to the effect that Mr. Wilson had instructed him to go for Bristow for the Presidency, and had given hint to understand that the policy to be pursued wasHo be governed by that idea. Mr. W. had said the President was backing the movements against the whisky rings. Yaryan had alqp undertaken to instruct the witness to work for Bristow, saying it was policy to do so. Mr. Bangs, United States District Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, was also examined on the Ist, and gave an account of the whisky trials at Chicago. No evidence has bden disclosed which in the slightest degree implicated Gen. Logan or Mr. Farwell in the whisky frauds. Mr. Wilson was further examined on the 2d. His testimony was mostly in explanation of his private papers and their subsequent examination by Treasury officials. His statement is substantiated by the afti davits of Messrs. Winslow and Dixon, private Secretaries of the witness, who packed the papers. Wilson testified that he hud never had any evidence implicating Logan or Farwell except the statements of ,local prosecuting officers that those gentlemen' were suspected. He had never himself expressed any belief or opinion that they were implicated, and he preferred not to do so now. In regard to the abandonment of the prosecution against Ward and Wadsworth, ne said that he had always firmly opposed it. Mr. Wilson directly contradicted Gavitt, the revenue agent, who had testified that the Solicitor had instructed him to go for Bristow for the Presidency, and read a letter accusing Gavitt of indiscretion and disreputable conduct while iu Illinois, on account of which, he was withdrawn from that service. Yaryan, however, admitted having l told Gavitt that “ this Blaine business must stop,” because Gavitt devoted more time to polities than to business, while it was contrary to orders of both Yaryan and the Commissioner for special agents to interfere with politics either, directly or indirectly.