The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-02-15

urging me- in the warmest terms, TO aid in DIS
placing hun from the position which he was so
| signally dIsgracing.
/ am not prepared to assert anything in regard
| to his pecuniary honesy, but II is undoubtedly
| tTue that all over the Confederate States he
had men employed to purchase supplies for
| his department OF notorously bad character,
not a small number Of whom are known 10
| have accumulated large fortunes during the war,
| the names OF some OF whom l could, were 1t
| necessary, quite easily specify, having brought
| their miquites heretofore to the view of the
| Confederate Congress. The heartless tyranny
| pracised by this monster of iniquity in all the
| States OF the South, in connection with the
system of forcible lmpressment established has,
| i am persuaded, scarcely ever been equalled.
| His brutal Indifference to the sufferings of the
| Confederate soldiers, by ali OF whom he was
| most cordially detested; his indecent and habi-
| tual disregard OF the acquisitions made upon hls
| department, from time to time, by various mill
| tary commanders with whom he was necessarily
thrown into contact; hls open aud notorious
employ OF disrespectful and contemptuous
language in regard TO those in official station 10
whom he was legally subordinate are matters
upon, which it would be now super6uous to
dwell.
Yet he was retained in the Commissary De.
partment for tour years, in utter contempt of
remOnstrance, OF complaint, and of direct and
positive accusations of delinquency 1t is even
true that Mr.. Nortnrop was not a constitutional
officer; alter the commencement of the perma-
nent Confederate Government he was never
nominated to the Senate. But, though this
matter was brought 10 MIR. Davis special notice
by grave PROCEEDINGS in both Houses of Con.
gross, he still hello on to Northrop, nor did he
even degn to present his name to the Senate for
tie sanction of that body up to the latest mo.
ment of his own official existence.
seldom.
The career of Mr. Seddon, as Secretary of
War, will long be remembered by all who ever
entered the War Department, while he sat en-
throned therein, with unmingled regret and
Indignation. 1t may be safely asserted that he
did not possess one OF the qualities needful to
credltable and useful peri rmance of the duties
which were now devolved ON him. He was
never able to learn even the ordinary routine of
Official business, aud often scorafully declined
attendance to matters of the most urgent I'M
porance. lie was as arrogant and insulting to
those who approached him in his Official Sdncttt7n
as he was notoriously servile and faWning to his
own executive chiei. He eylnced, from his very
entrance INTO Office, an utter disregard of all
constitutional oblio ations and in the exercise of
the authority committed to HIM he proved him
self to be the most heartless and rufianly tyrant
whom ever yet saw in the possession of official
power. Though he had always been an ardent
State-rights man in profession, up to the break.
ing out OF the war, il soon became evident that
he had never sincerely cherished the smallest
regard for the principles embodied in the we'll
known State-rights creed; and he habltually
uampled under loot, and without blush upon
his lvid and atrabLhous visage, all the anciently
recognized munlments OF State sovereignty.
GENERAL HINDMAN ONE OF DAVIS PETS.
General Hlndman, OF Arkansas, when q very
young man, had, in the Slate of Mississippi been
a most noisy and interruptions advocate of JET.
fe1son Davis and secession at that time pro-
pounded-had afterwards gone to Arkansas
where he had led for several years a very turbu.
lent and disreputabe lie, but by force of party
drill, had been sent for a year or two to the
Federal Congress-when the war broke out. was
almost Immediately given a high military com
mand, and was rapidly promoted, until, as a
maiorgeneral, he was sent to the State of his
own residence, for the purpose of holding an
important position there. This man, as his own
formal report to the War Department evidenced.
hndlng, as ne said, that the very comprehensive
of the conscription law were not
quite comprehensive enough to suit his PURPOSES
deliberately ampliied them by proclamation:
declared martial law throughout Arkansas and
the northern portion of Texas, and demanded
the services of all whom he had thus illegally
and tyTannicaly embraced in his own wide
sweeping consumption list.
All who refused to obey his mandate, as he ex-
pressly confesses, were apprehended, subjected |
tn trial by military court appointed at the in
slant by Hindman himself, and when convicted |
as a considerable number were of an offense |
which he unblushingly acknowledges in this |
land, he had them eGecuted and going even be- |
yond the internal Jefreys himself in his bar |
parity, he, as he also ostentatiously declares in
that same report, took care TO be present to |
witness the dying agonies of his victims This |
man seized upon all the cotton and other pro- |
perty for which he had use las he boldly avows), |
burnt some, retained some, and appropriated |
third portion to such purposes as he pleased.
His crueltles we're so enormous in Arkansas |
that 1t became unsafe that he should remain
there longer.
sEDDON AS A CHEAT.
And yet Mr.. Davis retained this man in the
)thce OF Secretary OF War, amid continual indi-
cations OF popular indignation and disgust from
month to month and from year TO year; nor
would he have been at last seen to vacate the
Jt1elal position which he had so long deeply dis
lonored, but for the undeniable fact that / had |
1lrectly CHARGED him upon recorded testimony,
hat is to say, upon the evidences supplied by
The books OF his own department, OF having |
caused to be paid to himself by his own Official
forty dollars per bushel for his
whole crop OF wheat for the year 1864, while
he was, by the instrumentality OF forcible i'm.
pressment, compelling the farmers of North
Jarolna, Georgia, and other States to yield up
heir wheat TO the Government officials at the |
inadequate price OF from seven to nine dol
ars In Confederate paper. | made this ex- |
position IN the last speech which | ce- |
lvered In the Confederate Congress. Mr. Sed-
Ion resigned the Department OF War the very |
next day. AS chairman of a special committee |
't the Confederate Congress, organized at my |
'wn instance, for the purpose of inquiring into
,ases OF illegal imprisonment / obtained from !
he superintendent of the prison house In Rich |
nond, under the official sanction OF the Depart !
hent OF War ITSELF grim and shocking cata- |
ogue of several hundred prisoners then in con-
lnelnent thereln, not one of whom was charged |
With anything but suspected political inhdeliy, |
me this too, not upon oath in single instance. |
3eiore could take proper steps to procure the
ilscharge OF these unhappy men, the second eus- |
pension of the writ of liberty occurred and I
presume that such of them as did not die in lail
emained there until the fall of Richmond into
he hands OF the Federal forces.
THE ERLANGER LOAN.
frN- -.