The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1865-02-10
Letter from Mr.. Thurlow Weed.

/ Your Washington correspondent strange
| ~ misapprehends my errand to Washing
ton and my views in relation to Mr.. Hen
derson, the late Navy agent. So far from
/" en3eavOring to procure a settlement of
the suits against Mr.. Henderson, my
Judgment of the question is that these suits
ought to be vigorously prosecuted first,
because the accused, if guilty, deserves
punishment; and next, because if inno-
cent, he is entitled to public vindication.
made the charge against Mr.. Henderson
deliberately and upon information which
believed reliable. / sought THAT informa-
ton an account of the malignant and per-
sistent aspersions and calumnies upon my
self in the Eoening Post, of which jour-
nal Mr.. Henderson is proprietor.
Judge Pierrepont, during the recent
Opdyke libel trial, informing me that he
had been retained as counsel for Mr.. Hem
derson, inquired if personal differences
existed between Mr.. 81. and myself. Ire
piled that I did not know Mr.. a., and had
no personal i'll feeling towards him. He
expressed his own conviction that the
charges against Henderson were unfound-
ed, and that the evidence would satisfy nae
of their injustice. To which replied that,
having never Intentionally injured any man =.
I would cheerfully, when satisfied, repair
the wrong. Since that time no word be-
tween dge-Pierrepont and myself on that
subject has passed. And, while l had not
intended to speak of Mr.. Henderson DUR
ing the tendency of his trial, am now
bound to say that subsequent information
goes to confirm rather than weaken my
convictions in tho truth of the charges
against him. IF, therefore, the Navy De-
partment or the United States District At
torney fail to prosecute the matter to the
end" they will do less than their duty.
Official corruption is the rife and ruling
vice of our country. It is the vice that
most easily besets all governments in
vOlved in war, bat ours has been eminently
its victim. And. unhappily, amid the alb.
sorbing and intense feeling of solicitude
for national existence, the public sensi-
.bility has been so dulled that official dere-
lotions and rapacity go unre5uked. am
Informed, and believe, that through reck-
lessness or dishonesty in the Com.
missaries Department the government
has been recently wrongeds out of a
million of dollars by an open contract
for eighty thousand bags. of coffee.
Is it not time, then, that an example
should be made OF dishonsest government
ofiicia's3 The popularity in our case is,
that the most uascrupulOusly rapacious
officials are those who affect the highest
sense Of duty and patriotism--the "holier
than thou" men-the very censors of Off
cial integrity. ~,
Among the numerous letters elected by
a recent trial for libel in this city was one
from gentleman as high in position as in
integrity and character, from. which sub.
init an extract .u
Il has long been my earnest conviction that
the country Is in greater danger from these
carmorants who De tearing at its vitals than
from open and undisguised rebellion against
its authority. 1t has cost as much to satisfy
their rapacious appetites as to carry on the
war. The country owes you a debt of graft
tude for exposing the sham patriotism of these
modern apostles Of freedom, and for showing
that their virtue Is based upon their profits.
And now having disposed of an errons-
Gus Washington rumor, please allow me to
dispel an Albany imaginasiOn. In con-
neetion with hypothetical vacancy in.the
United States Senate, yoa were kind
enough to suggest me for that highly hon
CRADLE position. Were vacancy, for any
reason, to occur in the Senate, the Legisla-
ture itself is in no danger OF embarrass-
ment. Yet it may relieve others to say,
as ! do, that I am not candidate for
Senator, and that would not accept that
or any other Office. '+
THURLoW WEED.
! New York, Jan. "a, 1865.