The evening Argus. [volume] (Rock Island, Ill.) 1861-1871, 1866-08-13
A Personal EXPLANATION.

| The Blanket Thief" who was turned out
of the army in disgrace, and who now edits
the CopperheGa Union and leads tho radical
| party in this county, published, on Saturday
a statement, charging US, lst with dishonesty
while in the navy I'd with being indicted
for stealing from w. L. Lee; and Sd with
perjury to procure the advertising of the let
| ter liss,-all of which are untrue, and known
| to be so by most people in this county. But
| there are others who do not know the facts
| and, for their information, we will devote .
| little attention to the living coward who pub
fishes the falsehoods.
In 1878 we held the Office OF purser in
the United States navy, and, while on the
| West Coast of Africa, we ascsrtained that
| we had dishonest clerk In our employment,
who had, in various small ways violated the
| laws of the U. S. The government had suffered
| no loss, but errors had been committed by
| which if our accounts were settled as kept
! by him, the government would have been de-
frauded out of small sum. We immediate
~ wrote 10 Commodore Conovsr, command
ing the squadron, stating to him all the facts
and asked permission to correct the errors
Instead of ordering it to be done, as he should
have done, he brought charges against US,
based entirely on our own voluntary state
ment. Of course we were the responsible
party and had to be accountable for the err
rors and dishonesty of our employee. The
trial was a mere matter of form no witness
whatever was called, and the whole matter
was concluded entirely upon our own state
msnt of facts. What the finding of the court
was we never were informed but we know
that whatever it was the President disapprov-
ed of it and set the whole thing aside. leav.
ing US in the service, the same rs il nothing
had ever been DONE Our clerk was imme.
diately sent out of the ship, never to return,
while we remained on board with all the
privileges of anv other officer, and were treat
ed as kindly and cautiously as any other Of
fcer. On our arrival at MADEIRA, we met an
opportunity to return to the United States, In
q passenger vessel, aud ON arriving home we
proceeded to Washington, corrected al the
errors in our accounts, settled with the gov.
eminent, received about T. thousand dollars
from the United States treasury, which was
found to be our due, after full and complete
correction of all errors, and final settlement
of all accounts-and then, not wishing to re-
main longer in the service we resigned, and
our resignation was honorably and uncondi-
tionally accepted, Is the following copy of an
official letter in our possession will show:
NAVY DEPARTMENT,
Washington, Oct. ID, 1853. J
SIR:-Your resignation as a Purser in the Navy
oil the United States, tondered in your letter OF
this date, is hereby accepted.
| am, respectfully,
Your obsdient servant,
ISAAC ToUcEY,
Secretary of the Navy.
To Mr.. J. B. Danforth, Jr late Purser u. s. Navy,
Washington, D. C.
The government never lost cent by US
nor should we have had any trouble IN the
service, but for the bad clerk we have aliud-
ed to.
As to the Cd charge, 1t is only necessary
to say that it is wholly false, in every partic'
ular; no legal proceedings ever occurred be-
tween MIR. Lee and US. or against us from
anything connected With him or our partner
w
ties we had were mutually settled and ended
and we are willing to compare our charac.
ter, for honesty, or ON any other point, with
his, any day.
As to tho Sd charge, we have the sworn
afidavits of six or eight witnesses which prove
that our statement as to circulation was less
than our actual number of subscribers, and
that whole manner, Ia piece of personal and
political spits), fell dead at the time, nobody
ever believing particle of the malicious
charges. The Indictment was quashed, very
much to our regret, for We wanted the case
tried After it was quashed. we published
the afhdayits of our witnesses, sworn to be-
lore Il. h. Bean. Esq, showing what would
nave bssn the testimony, and how complete
would have been our vindication, and how
perfectly crushing the condemnation of our
enemies. The chief eonspirator, whose false