Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1862-01-10
House of Representatives,
,shinoton Citv Doe 10 1861

Washington City, Dee. is, 1861.
Your sense of justice and the friendly
relations that have always existed between
US, will, trust, allow ME brief space in
your columns to correct a very great mis-
take into which your excellent and racy
Washington correspondent has fallen in his
letter published last Saturday. He says.
"be has searched diligently to find one SIN
gle member Of either house who proposes
to defend Fremont" that ''the most he
can hope from those members who were on
his staff in Missouri is entire silence" and
that g if Mr.. Coliax says word in his
behalf, be will surprise those who know
him most Intimately"
The fact Is, members who stand by Ere
mont are numbered by the scores My
belief, as | have stated 10 each of the four
editorials wrote on the subject, has been
that be may have mistakenly given his con-
fdence to some men in St. Louis who,
though men Of great energy, abused his
confidence for their own gain; but that
the attempt to saddle on him the charges
against McKiustry, who was quartermas-
ter general at St. Louis before he went
there. and whom he had no more power
to remove than he has to remove you from
the editorship of the Tribune, and for
whose acts be WAS ne more responsible than
Gen. Mcclellan is for the official acts OF
the quartermaster-ge general here, Gen. Meigs
is, in the last degree unjust.
Probably money may have been injudi-
ciousIy expended in the western depart
ment-possibly one-tenth as much as has
been wasted in the department of the Pc
tomac, though hope not. But l shall
not trespa on you, if you print this let
ter, any extended defence OF Fremont
He will speak for himself. Suffice it to
say without making any catalogue Of
names, that amongst those in the house
who sympathise with him, and who state
openly that they have not lost confidence
in him as a man, as a general or as a pa
triot, are Speaker Grow, Thaddeus Ste
vens, chairman of the committee on ways
and means, and the leader of the house :;
john T. Potter, chairman of the commit
tee on pablic lands; John Covode, chair
man of the committee on public expendl-
lures; G. B. Sedgwick, chairman of the
committee on naval affars-names which
sllude to- not because they are better
than scores Of others, but because they
ale widely known to your readers. thrust
you who ''know me intimately" will do me
the justice to believe that | never desert
ed a friend because of public clamor or ad
versty; and that I never hesitate at the
expression of my convictions, in or out OF
congress. We may all Of US be very de-
luded, but | know that my opinion is a
conscientious one. and that I would to-cia Y
gladly give my pay for this whole congress
II Fremont had been sent to Port Royal
instead OF Sherman. Let me add, that il
there should be a Fremont debate here,
you will probably have to look to the
Globe for 1t and not to the telegraph a
debate on Tuesday, in which C.,l Shank,
of Indiana, Gone OF Fremont S aids in Mis-
souri, } VIM. Morris Davis of Pa and The
writer hcreot. participated on one side, and
Col. Blair on the other side of the contro-
versy, was not alluded to in the congress
sional proceedings telegraphed from here
to the associated press north and west
Yours truly.