Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1845-1854, 1849-08-20
Ernn tha nb;o Statesman.
From the Ohio Statesman.
The New York Tribune and Its Infamous
Attacks on Col, Weller.

The New York Tribune and Its Infamous
Attacks On Col. Weller.
Our readers will recollect the basely in
famous charges the New York Tribune
preferred against Col. Weller, first charg-
ing him with staying for months in New
Orleans on drunken frolic, and when the
last falsehood was exposed, changing the
location to Chagres, and charging him
with spending his time in that place with a
prostitute instead of prosecuting his journ-
ey to San Diego, where the United States
and the Mexican commissioners were to
meet within given time to run and mark
the boundary line between the two coun-
tries as provided by the peace treaty.
The first charge we gave to our readers
as preferred by the Tribune, in its own
language, and by witnesses, which the
Tribune dare not impeach, we showed the
total falsity of the charges, and demanded
the name of the "genllemnn direct from
New Orleans" upon whose authority the
Tribune editor said they were made
This he refused to give, and in changing
the location and crime, he promised ii we
would publish the evidence, verbatim, with
out seeing it. until after the promise was
made, he would furnish us certified copy.
TO get at the bottom Of this affair, we con-
sented- d-the evidence was furnished and
from it we proved the Tribune editor fall
sifier by his own witness, and in other re-
spects proved the i kess totally unwor-
thy of belief-a base and reckless libeller
and fit instrumen! TO do the dirty work OF
Horace Greeley.
As matter of sheer justice to Col. We'll
Ter, we demanded that the Tribune editor
publish his own evidence, as he furnished
it TO US, with our evidence to prove it un-
W orthy OF credit. In rep ly TO this demand,
the Tribune of Monday last has the follow
ing:
"W ell, sir, you have demanded it; now
let US see you get it"
We are frank to confess that we never
expected the Tribune to publish either its
own evidence or our comments upon it..
Had that sheet been conducted by an hon.
orable man, both would have been prompt
ly published, but from one who sinks HIM
self and his paper so low, as to make it
the vehicle through which the administra-
tion assails private character as an excuse
for its removal of democrats from Office, we
could expect neither justice or honorable
conduct.
The charges against Col. Weller were
the most serious that could be mode. He
was appointed to highly important SER
vice by Mr.. Polk, and was charged, first
with neglecting his duties by laying drunk
for week at New Orleans, and then by
delaying with a prostitute at Chagres, so
as to render it impossible that he could
reach San Diego in time to perform the
duties assigned him. And what would be
the effect of the delay. The meeting ol
the commissioners of Mexico and Of the
United States, to run and mark the bounda-
ry line, was one Of the conditions upon
which tie treaty Of peace was concluded
between the two countries.
la its first attack on Col. Weller, the
Tribune put forward, most prominently.
that fact stating at the same time that Mex
leo, finding the gold mines of California
more prolific than they supposed, was anx'
ious to recover them, and would gladly
avail themselves Of any excuse to annul
the peace treaty. The failure of Col
Weller, by his neglect, to meet the Mexi-
can commissioners, would have furnished
the pretext, and indeed would have vitiated
the treaty, and the two countries again
placed in state of war, and for the thous.
ands who would have been slaughtered,
Col. Weller would have been held respon.
sible. The charges, then, Of the Tribune,
were the most serious that could be made,
for they not only involved the private
character Of Col. Weller, but directly rs.
serted that by his own criminal negligence
in the performance Of duty, which he had
taken an oath we'll and truly to perform, he
was involving his country again in the hor.
rors of war. If sustained, they would
have given John b. Weller a name and q
fame as infamous as that which attaches to
Benedict Arnold, and made him a being
for scorn 10 point its slow unerring finger
ut.
After making such charges, knowing
them to be false, the Tribune editor adds
not to his infamy. by refusing to publish
the statement Of its own witness, and the
evidence TO prove it false; for previous to
that refusal, it had already struck the deep.
est vein ever chronicled in the annals oI
infamy. A part more base was never act.
ed by man, than that which has distin.
guished the editor of the Tribune through.
out this whole affair; and with the brand o
slanderer upon his forehead, we dismiss
Mr.. Horace Greeley to the contempt ano
derision Of the honest Of oil parties.
When Col. Weller returns to his home,
he will take such action on the subject as
10 him may seem most proper. His friends
have triumphantly viBdicated his name and
his fame from the assaults of the blood.
hound press who do the dirty work of Gen.
Taylor's cabinet; and here the matter for
the present may rest.
The Sub-Treasury.
Mr.. Dallas, in his recent eulogium pom