Washington sentinel. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1856, 1855-06-23
GOVERNOR REEDER-oNoE MORE.


In his letter of reply to Mr.. Commissioner
Manypenny's report of his alleged fraudulent
purchase Of Indian lands, Governor Reeder thus
closes
But to return to the object OF this letter My
colleagues are absent from the Territory, and
cheeriully assume this defence upon myself
Your report on these contracts makes, as l have
shown, fierce charges of fraud. II they are true,
l am a dishonest man; II false you are Standerer.
One Of as, then, disgraees the office he holds, and
IL is time TO kno,o rhieh is The man In reio Of
this, propose TO you, sir, compact, that il you
shalt before the first day Of Ortober Her, make good
these charges 10 The satisfaction Of the President, he
shall al once remore me from office; and If you
tatl, the same penalty shall be mettd om 10 you.
You have sown your miserable, baseless, inexcu-
sable calumny broadcast over the Union, and now
solicit, challenge, defy you to this test. If
there is spark Of maniness in your composition
you will not shrink from it. desire 10 goad yot
10 lis acceptance. Office in my estimation is of
little value; reputation is pricelessi and my only
fear that you will decline this OF based upon
the cogent evidence that your e of these
commodities is in an inverse ratl nine.
| shall make this letter public, and await your
early reply, addressed to Easton, Pennsylvan
| express the hope that your reply will be
categorical, distinct, and positive acceptance
refusal Of my proposal, without any evasion of
the point or creation OF new issues. | Will make
no other issue, and enter into no discussion with
you until this is disposed of, and your reply, if
moi published by yourself, riH be published by
A. Fl. REEDER.
G.. w. MANYPESNY, esq,
Commissioner Of Indian Affairs.
1t will thus be seen that the indignant Governor
not only publishes his own letter, but himself
ha bnyn fall In
order to make his triumph complete, he says:
/" And yeur reply, if not published by yourself,
lrH be published By me. +"
Mr.. Commissioner Manypenny in his reply,
says vers pithily, 81 might safely rest the case"
on your proposition to leave TO the President the
decision to which of the two is guilty, you Of
fraud and official delinquency, or of SANDER;
and in regard to the threatened publication of his
reply BY Governor Reeder, the Commissioner
says: g AS ! am not in the habit of publishing in
the newspapers of the day the official correspon-
dence of this office, ! must leave to you the
pleasure of giving this communication to the pub
lie
This pleasure, Governor Reedcr, notwithstand-
ing his grandiloquent threat has very carefully
avoided to indulge in.
The matter being thus left by both parties to
the arbitriment of the President, his decision is
given in the notes of Secretary Marcy and At
tomey General Cushing. The tribunal Of the
Governors own choice has pronounced him
guilty of the charges upon which he sought
verdict-the arbiter declaring that the testimony
as il now stands, unless controverted, renders
him too impure to hold communication with the
Executive.
But this correspondence shows the Governor
himself to have been doing just exactly the
naughty things he charged upon Mr.. Commits
sioner Manypenny. He was using his official
position to undermine the Indian Agent, whose
reply, if true, exhibits Governor Reeder in
more unfavorable light than does even the report
and reply of Mr.. Commissioner Manypenny If
ever charges came home to plague their author,
these certainly seem to do so to Governor Reeder.
1t was, at the time of Governor Reeder's ap-
pointment matter Of surprise that person in
his profitable practice should not only accept the
office Of Governor Of Kansas, with its small
salary, and its hardships and responsibilities, but
that his gratitude and JOY were so great that
language almost failed him to express his obliga-
tons TO the friend who obtained the appointment
for him. But this secret, Illegal purchase Of In
dian lands solves the mystery. He had scarce
got the appointment, when he entered upon an
examination Of the lands of the Territory, for
the purpose of purchasing We have, therefore,
every reason to believe that the governorship was
sought only as means Of carrying out these
speculations, previously concocted and arranged
And yet this Governor Reeder is the man who
not only denounced the Indian Agent, who in
terfered TO prevent his unhnllowed purchase,
and sought to browbeat the Commissioner of In
dian Affairs, but who went through the country
denouncing pro-slavery men who were better than
himself.
BY this practical utilization with the Free
soilers, We should not be surprised to find the
Governors " antecedents" wholly absorbed by that
INSCRIPTIONS set, and the Governor himself
distinguished leader of the party.