Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1867-11-27
Detective Bakers Testimony.

Detective Baker, in his evidence on the i'm
parchment case, charges the President as being
implicated with Jefferson Davis in 1864 and with
Mrs Cobb Of pardon brokerage notoriety,ln '66.
Inregard to the former, he alleges that ne came
possessed of a letter in 1865 which he had
identified as the handwriting Of Mr.. johnson,
dated early in 1864, addressed to Southern
man." which from memory, tie detective says
gave adyiceto Jetferson Davis and information
concerning the movement of troops about the
capital and elsewhere Further on the Dctec-
tive says the letter was dated at Nashville, and
was addressed to jefferson Davis, and was APP
parenty in reply to one received from Davis,
or from some one in authority, from the TACT
that it starts out with the ackno w4edgment OF
another letter 1t goes on to makesug gestlons
as to some delayed policy which Ia been adopt
ed by the Confederacy La su6bA O. place he
refers to Parson Brownlow in T&NssRere terms.
Baker then goes on to state that lie took the
letter to the White House and had the signature
positively identified as that of the President by
Colonel Browning, who, without seeing the
BODY of the letter or knowing its contents, sug-
gested that parties were in the habit OF forging
Mr. johnson s signature to letters otrecommen-
dation Baker says he got the letter from John
w. Adamson, No. 90 Myrtle street, Nashville;
that it was stolen from Mr.. Johnson's table;
that Adamson says that he (Adamson) did not
take the letter. but that Governor Brownlow's
son employed negro man TO puroln 1t. BAKER
declares that he never disclosed the fact OF his
having the letter except to members OF Con
grcss aud General Eckcrt, of the War Depart
men1, and states that afterwards, when some
of these congressman, Mcssrs Hotchklss,
| Schofeld, and Van Acruan and others called
on him to see the paper it was, alas! too late !;
he had returned it. Baker adds that two per
sons read the letter with him. and one of them,
he says, was G. G. Watkins, whom he met
with Adamson. The other party is not named.
As to Mrs Lucy Cobb. Baker says he ex-
! amined her at his headquarters April Sth 1866,
| telling her that woman Of her reputation had
no business about the White House, to which
she replied that she was there by the know
| ledge and approval Of the President, and then
| she produced two letters written by the Presl-
| dent, one to get her husband o place under the
Postmaster General, and the Other to have her
| appointed in the Treasury Dcpa 'tnent Ba-
| ker, as in duty bound to HIMSELF does not give
Mrs Cobb any good character; he says she told
| him that she had obtained a pardon for party
| in Richmond, receiving $4,000 therefor, and
| that she afterwards presented pair OF gloves
| to Robert johnson with i $500 bill in each
Que. The detective winds up with a disgust
ing story about Mrs Cobb's presence with Mr..
| johnson in his room at the kirkwuOd House
on two nights after he was President.
Concerning the testimony Of Baker, Messrs.
Marshall and EIdridgc of the Impeachment
Committee say:
I'm every important statement he is contra
dicted by witnesses Of uDquestloned credlblllty
and there can be no doubt that 10 his many
previous outrages, emitting him to an uneuvl,
able Immortality, he has added that Of wiIlluI
and deliberate perjury, and we are glad to know
that no one member Of the committee deems any
statement made by him as worthy of the
slightest cre'tt.
Clothed with power by a reckless admin
istra,ion, that creature not only had the license
to arrest, without crime or writ, and I'M
prison without limit citizen Of the republic,
but that he actually did so arrest thousands all
over the land, and filled the prisons all over the
country with the victims OF his malice, or that
| Of his masters"