Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1854-05-06
"FoUR YEARS OF FRAUD p.. ONE OF INTEGRITY.

ing out In reckless wholesale generalization, tne
often refuted specific calumnies against the admin
istraton Of one who quilted the Presidency with un
suhed honor, and generally esteemed by the men,
of all parties, whose esteem is worth having, as any
of his predecessors since the days of WASHINGTON
One Of the " series of monster frauds " of which
the administration of Mr.. FILLMORE has been ac-
cused and which for months was trumpeted forth in
all the Democratic papers of the Union, with the
Union here at their head, is " the case of Aexan-
der Ramsey" The charges against him were OF SO
,onstrous character that it was thought necessary
to appoint commissioners, and cut out for them the
not unpleasant job Of travelling to St. Paul, in the
Territory of Minnesota to investigate the charges
The testimony taken by the Commissioner was
referred to the Committee on Indian Affairs
Of the Senate, and the report of that commit
tee upon it, which was . spbinitted, considered,
and agreed to" on the Oath of February last,
contains the following honorable tribute to the ca
pacty and integrity of the man upon whose charac-
ter had been heaped every opprobrous epithet which
party ingenuity and industry could invent or find:
That they have carefully examined all the testimony
taken by the commissioners during nearly three months
of Minnesota and have arrived the conclusion that the
conduct of Governor Ramsey was not only free from
blame, but highly commendable and meritorious. Not
one of the charges preferred against him has been sustain
ed by the testimony On the contrary the witnesses of
the compainants themselves in almost every instance,
have negatved them; proving, conclusively, that he
neither violated the stpulatons of the treaties
dertoed by the parties to hem nor was governed in his
conduct by motives other than such enttle him to
commendaton both as man and On officer.
In the disbursement of the funds arising under the
treaties he acted in accordance with the understanding
between the commissioners who negotiated them the In
dans and the traders for whom provision had been made
The payments of the moneys made by him under the
direction Of and in strict accordance with the views and
instructions of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs"
How many of {" the reckless calumniators of
Mr.. RAMSEY and of Mr.. FILLMORE have published
this plain fair, and complete acqutta Of these gen.
temen of all the infamous charges, eagerly seized
upon and repeated by them, with greater and fouer
exaggeration at every repetition in their respective
circles of influence Why, the charges against the
integrity of Mr. RAMSEY were reiterated with such
minute crcumstantiaty of detail that the best
friends Of that gentleman, unacquainted with the
history Of his official course, were deferred from at
tempting his defence and we owe it entirely to the
over-anxiety of his political enemies to convict him
that commission was appointed to investigate his
official conduct.
Another of the "monster frauds" which this
sweeping denunciation of " the Wing Administra-
ton y is no doubt intended to include was the
/" Galphin claim" SO called notwithstanding the IT,
resistible evidence put before the public, officially
and otherwise that this claim had been allowed as
Polk, Notwithstanding the proofs adduced that the
State of Georgia had recognised the claim of inte-
rest, and that the United States in assuming the
debt, stood spso acto in the place of Georgia, and
were as much bound to pay the interest as to pay
the principal. But it happened that the gentleman
who had been for many years the agent Of the
claimants had been selected by General TAYLOR as
one of his Cabinet. This was enough for the reck-
less calumniators" to furnish ground for "impli-
eating some of the most distinguished Wings in the
country" in the "monstreus frauds" begun and
carried through all their forms under Democratic
Administration, and only consummated' under
that of the Wings as a matter in which they had
nothing to do but to consumnsate
Another of the monster frauds " charged to
Mr.. FILLMORE is that of the "Gardiner case,"
though it has been incontestably proved that the
moment the first rumor reached his ears that suspi-
cion attached to the claim he instituted searching
inquiry, sent commissioners to Mexico and ordered
prosecution Of the individual accused 1t is noto-
rious that the trial of that individual occupied the
time of the Criminal Court here more closely and
aboriously than any that had been brought
before it, that the first jury could not agree; that
he was tried second time, with the added testmo-
ny Of second commission of inquiry; and that,
when the last jury brought in their verdict of
guilty" the man committed suicide.
These and similar things considered, we agree
with the Government paper most heartily that
the historian, when he comes to write of the last
i've years, will be appalled, at the complacent auda
city with which the truth has been sacrificed by an
unscrupulous party"
FROM HAVANA.
The ieading news from Havana to the 28th ult.
consists OF proclamations, of pardon, through the