Richmond daily times. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1853, 1852-04-12

he nutnOr OF the pufuGfHpH NHs tuiu IL Nihul
falsehood. because | cannot conceive any reesona-
bic motive for such thing, and because
In the past personal relations between my
self and the editor of the Wing there has been
nothing that can warrant the conclusion that he
could do me a deliberate wrong. | am bound in
charity to suppose that he has loaned too willing
ear to the miscreant mischief makers who con-
tinually haunted the sessions of the committee.
and who went out to retail their falsehoods hourly
in the streets; or that he has been deceived by
some one or more who sought to accomplish, by
the results of their Investigation, either some endot
personal malice. of low political design BIT one
thing | must say, and do say, that there has beer
unintentional msapprehension, unintentional ms
representation. positive falsehood somewhere.
For SO happens that very soon after the commit
tee was appointed, before the Investigation was
commenced, and before | could know anything OF
the facts of the case, left this city for my home,
and did not return until the committee had been
two DAVIS in session. Unless, therefore, l could
be at home attending my affairs there and at the
same time in Richmond making the proclama-
ton charged by the Wing, the allegation as to
mysefis utterly untrue. may have said after
the Investigation and did say lin reply to
the thousand interrogatories by which l was an
noyed, the Wings among others, thatthe investi
CATION had its origin in certain difficulties be-
tween Messrs Gay and Rand, which. in their
progress, had ripened into bitter dislikes. l said
So | think So and have not a doubt of it. In say
ing this mean no imputation upon Mr. Gay
have no doubt that he thought there were abu-
ses, and that under sense of official duty, he
made his reports to the Governor; but none were
proved: his own evidence establishes none. He
suspected abuses, but could specify none, or name
any facts that were not fully explaine ed by the tes
timony of other witnesses.
In the next place the Wing, to make good its
charge that full Justice could not be done the Com
monweath asserts that sin the beginning, the
co,nmtt ee refused TO permit counsel to be employed
for the Commonwealth
This, sir, is a gross mistake; and if the
Editor of the Wing had sought information
from my friend from Wheeling (whose hon
esty he is pleased to admit) instead of hold
ing conference with the class of informers to
which l have already referred, he would have
been spared the modification Of committing this
error There was no proposition made, that L
know Of, to have counsel employed for the state.
1t was not made while | was present and my COL
leagues inform me that none such was made before
/ took my seat in the Committee. Sir, who was
to make such proposition. The Commonwealth
could not be present in person to make 1.-THE
House had not required us to make it-who was
there to make it repeat there such
proposition made. The Committee were the coun-
sci of the State, and if it was~composed of intelli
gent and honest men, the State needed no other
But there aoas a proposition made before
entered the Committee to allow counsel to Lieut..
Gay, but it was voted down, and, | must say,
properly. The idea of allowing counsel to q wit
ness on the stand to prompt him to some state
ments and warn him against others, is certainly
something under the sum-" Sir, truth needs
counsel, no prompting, no warning. man
who intends to speak the truth wants no counsel to
help him to DO it; and the committee accordingly
declined to allow Lieut. Gay counsel while he
was witness on the stand. Justice to the Com
monwealth-that very thing which the Wing
seeks for her-demanded this at their hands
But the Committee did this: they decided to al
low Lieut.. Gay counsel, whenever, in the progress
of the investigation, his character should be impi-
Gated They did the one, to secure justice to
the Commonwealth; they did the other that,-by
the investigation, private wrong might be
inflicted. There nothing, however, in the
course of the nvestig CATION, Mt all affecting the
reputation of Lieut.. Gay, and so the committee,
to the end declined to allow him counsel.
The Wing then goes to state that "he COM
xnittee acas rigid judge IN q criminal pros
ccution, and aoould admit no euidence that did not
bear upon the resolution aohach had been adopted by
the House."
Here again, there is gross error; and if the
Wing had had the patience to wait until it could
see for itself the journal of the Committees pro-
ceedings it would have been saved the commission
of this error Also
nal prosecution, it allowed the widest latitude to
the investigation. The nterogatores propound-
ed to the witnesses were of the most general and
sweeping character. such as were calculated to
elicit every thing in the knowledge of the wit
nesses.
] beg leave to cite few examples:
Question to Lieut. Gay.-"Please state whether you
know fanny abuses reference the construction of the
Washington Monument. If any, achat Mey?"
To John j. Palnaer-"Please 0ny thing that you
II,
ington Monument"
To Leaois Sererance.-"State anything you may know,
and hare not already stated reference abuses
ted with the Monument"
To John W. Daois.-"state anything further this
subject that you may know"
To J. T. Roge,s.-"State all you know in reference to
the alleged abuses in reference to the Washington Mon
ument.'
Such was the course of interrogatory: it was
broad enough in all conscience sufficiently so to
develop the whole TRUTH to bring out every abuse
and impropriety-and, if the a0hole truth was not
exposed, if any thing was kept back, it was the
fault of the witnesses, and not of the Committee.
Morris the statement any better founded that the
inquiries OF the Committee were restricted to the
resolution of the House. The broad scope given
to the investigations exhibited by the course of
interrogation just referred to- is full extinguisher
to this charge. 1t embraced everything -exclu-
ded nothing with the monument.
1t is true, that after the investigation COM
menced, and when the Committee were we'll
nigh exhausted by its labors, was decided to con-
fine the testimony of the remaining witnesses to
the points embraced by the resolution of inquiry
and those which had been raised by the previous
testimony but this was, in truth, no limit to the
investigation for at that stage of the investiga-
ton, most of the witnesses who pretended to
know any thing in the premises, had been exam
med, and moreover, after this decision of the
Committee was made, the same broad course of in
quiry allowed.
Sir, there was not only nothing done on the
part OF the Committee to stife investigation, but
will state, what was apparent to every member