The Hawk-eye and Iowa patriot. (Burlington, Iowa) 1839-1843, 1841-01-21

~
ling note was received from the acting
commissioner --.,-.--r
..Mr Hebard, Chairman of Committee:
misunderstanding that the commit.
tee are receiving testimony from some
who are my personal enemies, I have
sent to enquire whether or not, have
right to be present or the chance to be
heard in any way in relation to the
matter.
| am, sir, in haste,
c. SWAN"
To which the committee. replied as
follows
"DoLBEE's HOTEL,
Iowa City, Dec. %, 1910.
TO C. Swan, acting Com'r, &c.
Sir, The committee have received your
note by Mr. Mccormick, and in answer
would state that they are not aware that
they have 9 received testimony from per-
sons who are your personal enemies. y
The committee conceive that the acting
commissioner is not on trial before them,
and consequently has not right 10 be
present, except by courtesy Of the com
mittee.
Yours, respectfully,
A. HEBARD.
The minority assented to the propriety
of this answer; al any rate, he did not
dissent from it. | am satisfied, sir, that
the position taken by the committee was
a correct one. 1t is the ground assumed
by all similar committees. 1t is the
ground taken by the committee appointed
under Gen. Jackson's administration to
investigate the affairs Of the United States
bank, and also the ground taken by the
committee appointed subsequently, to ex-
anime the Custom House at New York.
So that if the committee had excluded the
acting commissioner from being present
at the examination of witnesses, neither
he nor the minority has any reason to
complain. But we did not SO exclude
him. The acting commissioner it is
true did not obtrude himself upon the
committee, but he was present just when
and as often as he saw fit to be during the
whole of the examination, and was never
told to my knowledge to leave the room,
or that the committee would not extend
to him the courtesy of being present. In
a note subsequently written to the CON-
mittee by Mr. Swan in the following post
script:
"P. ST. did not write you that line
out of any disrespect 10 you or the CON-
mittee. but was advised by men who saw
Capt. Irish go into your room, "a man
in whom the people have no confidence. J
G. SWAN"
Whether this postscript was designed
as an apology for writing to the commit
tee to know whether he had right to
be present, or as pretext for an attempt
to invalidate the testimony of Capt. Irish,
is matter of little consequence. Why
this gratuitous attack upon Capt. Irish !?
Were the committee incapable of Judging
for themselves, whether the statements of
Capt. Irish were entitled to credit? As
| have introduced this postscript here, Sir,
| will cheerfully state, as an act of JUS
tice to Capt. Irish, that the committee
came to no such conclusions respecting
him. There are few men among us who
appear more intelligent than Capt. Irish,
and have seen nothing to shake my
conviction that he is gentleman of in
tegrity.
l will notice another sentence in the
report Of the minority. He says:
''For the purpose Of obviating the nee
essity of submitting separate reports, the
undersigned requested the committee 10
report the facts as a0e found them, with
out coloring, shade, or comment, and al
low each member to append such other.
statements as sense ofduly might dictate;
but was informed that they had their re-
port prepared as it must be submitted
Determined to submit a separate re-
port, the minority seizes upon the most
trivial circumstances, and fortunes them
into pretexts for doing SO. Some day
or two after he had heard the majority
report read, he called upon the majority
and made in writing the proposition, OF
request he speaks Of. AS one of the
committee | refused to reply to it in
Wiling. Ttludrktii9 tttdt i DelleVeu TIC re-
port to be correct, that | would consent
to no alterations, aud that in my opinion
the proposition was ill-,imed to say. the
least of it. The minority then drew from
his pocket roll Of manuscript and read
a number of pages Of what he said was
his report. The next day the reports
were submitted TO the Legislative Assem-
bly,.
The minority says that he s'feels bound,
from sense of duty, to say, that there
was an apparent disposition to collect the
gossip found afioat in the city, SO far as
the same could in any way affect the stand
ing Of the Acting commissioner, else, why
should a gentleman be called from dis
tant town and kept in attendance for near
ly week, ranging the city, and occasion
ally presenting a written communication
to the committee, while the undersigned
had no means of judging whether the per-
son aforesaid was acting in the capacity
of an assistant prosecutor, or what was his
connection with the committee until the
common talk of the CITY informed him that