Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1865-10-07
scrinua Chnrre

Chicago Republicans makes public the re-
port Of a military commission, appointed
by General Washburne last winter, to in
vestigate certain very suspicious cotton
transactions-which duplicates General
Slocum, formerly commanding at Vicks-
burg, and at present Democratic candidate
for New York Secretary of State, in a
most gigantic fraud. The facts of the case,
as developed by a military commission
hal1I~-oLafa- Genaral Slncnm's name
came up for office, and therefore free from
all suspicion of political prejudice, are as
follows:
When General Grant started on his
grand raid around Yicksburg, which re-
suited in the capture of that city and the
opening of the Mississippi, the planters of
that section very generally fed. Among
them was one Joseph holland, living at
Milliken's Bend, who proved himself a
rebel not only by his fight but by his fol-
lowing rebel orders and burning up his
cotton, amounting to about six hundred
bales, before he fed. Some forty bales
were, however, saved from the fire by
other parties. Afterward, in the course of
the siege of Vicksburg, General Grant had
occasion to confscatea large amount of
rebel cotton and use it for the protection
of the boilers and engines of his vessels
while under the enemy's fire. In process
of time, after Vicksburg had fallen, and
while General Slocum was in command
there, this rebel holland, having
sneaked back to the protection of
the government which he had done
his best TO destroy, vas impudent
enough to make out a claim against the
government for six hundred bales of cot
ton, which, as he alleges, had been seized
by General Grant. In view of the fact
that holland had destroyed all but forty
bales of his cotton by his own hand; that
there was no evidence to show that even
this forty bales had been used by Grant.
and had not been sold to spectators and
that holland was an o%pen-mouthed rebel,
and all his property liable to confscation,
General Slocum treated the claim with
the contempt which its audacity deserved.
But a shrewd speculator, w. s. Grant by
name, got wind of the affair, and, after
buying up Noland's claim for one-sixth
it's nominal value, approached General
Slaenm on the subject. What natept ar
guments ne usvu WIN this officer it is i'm
possible 60 say hut they must have been
very 0Ugrnr5 nI uitiriu twU uays General
Slocum countermanded his former order
in the case, and gave directions that six
hundred bales of cotton be turned over
to Grant, to cancel the holland claim.
That lucky gentleman, who had bought
holland out for $4,000, sold his cotton for
about 100000, thus making a clear profit
Of a little over 100000 by the transac-
ton. How much of this handsome sum
he used in bribing venal officials is not
known, and far be it from us to attemptto
fathom such mysteriesl 1t is, however,
worthy of note, as an evidence of the ex-
~traordinary interest which General Slo-
cum took in the affair, that he sent a con-
fdential staff officer with Grant and his
cotton to New Orleans, and that that Off
Ger did not return until the cotton had
been sold and the money for it realized.
These facts coming to the knowledge of
General Washburne, who succeeded Slo-
cum in command, he caused the affair to
be referred to a military commission, of
which Colonel j. H. Howe, 124th Illinois
Infantry, was the President, orinvestiga-
ton. From the report of that commits
sion the above facts are gathered. The
general conclusion which its members ar
rived at is summed up by them in the fol-
pointed paragraph:
The commission call attention to the
singular fact developed in the testimony,
that although Joseph holland and his
agent had vigorously prosecuted and
pressed this. claim for weeks before the
commanding general of the district of
Vicksburg without success, and regarding
said claim as hopeless, had sold it to the
said Grant for the comparatively nominal
sum of $751; O0, yet within a dry or two
afterwards in the hands of said Grant, who
was an INSCRIPTIONS cotton speculator, and
who, according to the testimony, assumed
to have peculiar influence at said head
quarters it was allowed as a valid claim
upon the same proofs which had been sub
mitted in support of it by holland and his
agent.
This report was laid before to Inspector
General Marcy during his visit to Vicks-
burg in July last, and was by him for
warded to the War Department where it
now awaits final action.
. Such are the facts. They make a veryJ
dark Ousv- Nyr UeneraI Slocum, and, if that
gentleman is able to explain them away,
he had better set about the business at
once. We earnestly hope that he will be
able to free himself from the suspicion
resting upon his fame, for we are re-
.uctant to believe that a Union officer
army record has been SO brilliant al
MS should disgrace it by corrupt ccnniv-
lnce with a gigantic fraud upon the gov
eminent of which he was the sworn officer.
But, if he cannot clear himself it is the
luty of the convention which nominated
lin for Secretary of State to reassemble (
md ~repudiate him. Unless they do so the ]
Democratic party of New York will be {
committed to the support of a man upon t
whose eharactarr rests grave and dark sus- ]
iicion, and viii receive at the polls the t
it deserves. t-lys Z sy \
The American Board. =
The American Board of Commissioners 7