The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1868-09-18
'r"e Hon. Jerry Black On Secretary Seward
WHATS in the Wind NOws

The Hon. Jerry Black is the chief legal adj
wiser and Washington lobby man of certain
citizens of the United States who claim pos
session Of the little guano island Of Alta Vela,
in the Gulf of Mexico; but there is an opposi-
ton company in the interest of the Republic Of
Dominica which is in actual possession of said
island, Mr.. Blacks clients having been forcibly
removed. To reinstate them he applied to Pre-
sident johnson and was referred to Secretary
Seward, and the Secretary, after laborious
examination Of the case back to the first voy-
age of Columbus, made known his decision in
a heavy pamphlet, including numerous maps
and charts, showing that the island belongs to
Dominica. Whereupon Mr.. Black became
wrathy and got up big pamphlet to prove the
Secretary of State an ignoramus, and that this
guano island, with its guano placer, said to be
worth million or more of money, is the right
full property of his clients. Mr.. Black went
farther. Chosen in the outset as one of the
Presidents counsel on the impeachment, he
submitted TO the President that unless he
would agree to send down a ship-of-war to
Dust the other party holding and working said
island he (Mr. Black must Withdraw from the
Presidents defence and getting no satisfactory
answer to this sine qua non he did withdraw.
We had supposed that this would be the last
of this guano imbroglio; but this idea was
mistake. A letter of Mr.. Black Of the Goth
of last July to the President on this fragrant
subject has just appeared in print, and it is a
letter of such an extraordinary character as to
call for o passing notice. After statement Of
facts to show Mr.. Stewards ignorance or con-
tempt of the law touching this guano island
Mr. Black proceeds to personalities. He says
to the President :-''And you keep this drivel-
ling charlatan in Office. Nay, you keep him at
the head of the administration and give him
an influence only equalled by that which in for
mer times some old strumpet might have
exercised over the mind of an imbecile
monarch y and then he says that ''Madame de
Pompadour used her power with Louis XIV. to
fill the bastiles of France with the best and
most innocent men of that generation" but
that even ''she would have blushed to invent
false excuses for foreign robbers of her coun-
trymen :" and that ''the King of Bavaria, in
turned Lola Monies from his bed and board IL
she had dared to urge upon him an act of in
justice so gross as this Of the Secretary of
State in his decision on this guano case. Nor
does the excited Mr.. Black in his wrath stop
here. He demands the removal of Secretary
Seward Eat once and forever and says that
che has brought innumerable woes upon the
country" that she will never be faithful to the
right" that he is not even fifth rate lawyer,
and ''has always been a mere sneak" that 'he
is convert without conviction" and twill be
backslider upon the first temptation; that
''all men, in proportion as they love justice,
must despise him." and more to the same pur-
port.
The dispassionate reader will say that in
this letter Mr.. Black proves himself to be less
than fifth rate lawyer IN substituting violent
personal abuse for sober argument; that, in
fact, in throw ing his guano by the shovelful at
the head of Secretary Seward, the Hon. Jerry
Black deserves to be dismissed by his clients.
But this is not the point we are driving at.
| We should like to know why this ferocious let
| ter of Black Is published at this time II Is