The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1869-09-02
Judge Dent on Secretary Boutwell,.

The following letter, auureSseu 10
Secretary Boutwell, by Judge Lewis
Dent, brother.in.law to the President,
and candidate of the Conservative Re
publican party for Governor Of Missis-
sippi, is made pablo by permission of
the author. Its contents are Of a highly
interesting character:
WASHINGTON, D. c., Aug. II, 1869.
10 he Hon. Geo. S. BoutioeA:
SiR--I shall make little apology for ask
ing your attention to my letter, and less for
the nature of its contents. You were the
first to deny the political orthodoxy OF my
friends and myself, and, by all the rules Of
the forum, am entitled to defence
Again, you hold an Office Of the Republic,
and your nets, therefore, are lie itimate sub
iects of criticism by the humblest citizen
thereof But in some respects we are alike
for instance, we are both aspirants for place,
with this difference; You aim to be the next
President, with every assurance of success,
except in the opinion Of the people, while |
seek an humber place, with my hopes in
disastrous eclipse, except in the Judgment
of Mississippi. So, in the probable results
of the future, we both stand adverse to the
Judgment Of the country. In the pursuit of
your ambition You are ungrateiul and un.
scrupulous rs to the means of Success
Your organ, the New York Sun, in the
same breath, ridicules the capacity of your
master, and dwells with emphasis upon your
peculiar fitness for his office. Your excel.
lent tool, Mr.. Tullock, became so reckless
in the manipulation of your Department,
the interest of your ambition, and so def.
cient of the wishes Of the President and the
country, that. to save yourself from an ex
plosion of popular indignation, you find it
convenient to transfer him 10 another sphere
of scaudalous activity, where his talents
might be exerted with equal effect and less
effrontery Virginia, Tennessee, Missis.
sippi, and Texas, not to mention anything
so humble as myself, were distractions in
the way of your success, because through
Grants intervention in excluding the pro
scriptiveclauscs from their organic law, these
Stalesare broughtinto the Union, and firmly
welded to his support. Now this Is in di
rect conflict with your systematized plans,
for what Gen, Grant gets, in the next Pres.
ilential election, clearly Boutwell, will not
get, and therefore have you denounced the
Conservative Republicans, who are for
Grant, that you may obtain the proscriptiyc
Republicans, who are for Boutwell,, and by
some strange, dexterous management and
occult political strategy, you have so worked
upon the confidence of the President as to
cause him to flourish the club with which
you intend TO break his head, by inducing
him to join you in denuuciation Of the Con.
seryative Republicans, o party created by
his maguanimity and triumphant through
his encouragement. But, sir, your purpose
is easily discernible, and has a two fold oh.
ject-namely, to destroy the National Re.
publican party in the South, and thon 10
reconstruct from its shattered fragments a
Boutwell, party, with no Richmond in the
field to strike for your crown. But, if you
cannot succeed in this scheme of desperate
enterprise, you mean to ruin, result, from
present appearances. much more likely to
be reached. Your official intervention for
Wells, for instance, gave 30, 200 majority to
Walker. Your letter to Stokes gave Ten,
nessee to Senter by au overwhelming vote
ot 1000. Your marvellous political ga.
gacity, now active in Mississippi and Texas.
will repeat your calamity aud again over.
whelm YOU with discontinue and defeat
Superndd to these results Of your unap.
proachable folly the imposition on these
States of your iron clad oath, and the alien
alton is complete, landing them into the out
stretched arms Of Democracy. But The con
sequence of your folly does not stop here.
Ohio and Pennsylvania and other states will
decide their political status in October. and
the North will echo back the condemnation
of the South, and peal in your ears this
faat tlar 20 ell Ia a.
corruptible virtue Of the Republic to rebuke
you for wanton repression of that most
sacred right, the elective franchise. But,
SIR, this will not deter you from your mad
course. You will still persist until every
prop that supports our party is stricken
away, and the whole grand superstructure
tumbles about our ears in hopeless ruin
When you were appointed Secretary Of the
Treasury, and unanimously confirmed by n
Senate OF every shade Of political opinion,
did you not take an oath to administer your
office impartially and for the exclusive oh
Jeets of its creation-to collect the revenue
and control the finances of the country? Is
not that office the property of the nation,
and yourself only clothed for time with
little brief authority? Then, sir, how do
You explain this perversion of its legitimate
uses aud functions into means and an in
strument Of oppression. to force and compel
an election of obnoxious rulers upon the
people OF the South? Is such course
consistent with your oath of Office, or do
you call this great moral idea? But, Mr..
Boutwell,, tholgh you nave thus prostituted
the power Of your Office for purposes of op.
preston, without the warrant of conscience
or law, it may be that you can tell me by
what authority you assume to pronounce
upon my political orthodoxy. Who consti-
tuted You the iniallible Pope Of Republican
ism? Who gave you authority to hurl the
political anathemas of the party? Again,
what right had you to commit the Admins,
tration to your policy? Have you yet to
learn that you are only part of the Ad-
ministration, and not the whole of it, though
your friends believe that mononania has
seized your mind on that subject, and that
you verify believe yourself the State?
Very respectfully, LEWIS DgST.