The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1869-08-26
THE DENT LETTER. GRANTS BROTHER
iN-LAW AND BOUTWELL,
WASHINGTON. ID. C.

w ASIllNGlON, j.. -, AUG. II. lSGt.
To Hon. Geo S. Boutwell,, Secretary of the
Treasury-SIE:-I shall make little apology
for asking 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 ofthc
forum am entitled to 4 Defence Aman-Y on
hold an Office of the Republic and your acts
therefore, are legitimate subjects OF criticism
| by the humbIcst citizen thereof But in some
respects we are alike. For instance. we are
both asprants fora place, with this difference
YOU aim TO be the next President. with
every assurance Of success, except IN the
opinion Of the pcoplc--while seek an hum
bier place with hopes in n 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 I'M
grateful and INSCRIPTIONS Us the means of
success. Your organ Ghc Now York SUM in
the same breath ridcules the capacity Of your
master and dwells with emphasis upon your
peculiar fitness for his office. Your excellent
friend (AIr. Tulloclz) became 50 reckless in
the manipulation of your department in the
interest Of your ambition and so unmindlul of
the wishes Of the President and the country,
that to save yourself from an explosion of
popular Indignation you found it convenient
to transfer him to another sphere of scandal
Gus activity, where his talents might be exert
ed with equal effect and less ctfrontry. Nir-
ginia. Tennessee. Mississippi and Texas (not
to mention anything so humble as mySelr)
were Instructions in the way of Your success.
because through President Grants intervene
ton, in excluding the proscriptive clauses
from the organic law these States are brought
in the Union and firmly welded to his sup
port. Now this is in direct conflict with your
systematized plans, for what Gen Grant gets
in the next Presidential election clearly Mr..
Boutwell, will not get, and therefore have YOU
denounced the Conservative Republicans Who
are for Grant. That you may obtain the pro-
scriptive Republicans, who are for Boutwell,,
and by some deNtcrous management and oc-
cult 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 denuncation Of the Conservative
Republicans-a party created by his magna-
nimity, and triumphant through his encour-
agement. But, sir, your purpose is easily
dscerniblc, and has a two-lold ohjcct--namc-
ly, to destroy the national Republican party
in the South, and then to reconstruct from its
shattered fragments a Boutwell, party, with
no Richmond in the field to strike for youl.
crown. But if you cannot succeed in this
scheme of desperate enterprise, YOU mean to
ruin everybody clse-l result, from the pres
ent appearances, much more likely to be
reached. Your official Intervention for Wells,
for instance, gave thirty Thousand majority to
Walker. Your lctterto Stokes gave Scntcr to
Tennessee by an overwhelming vote of seven
ty thousand. Your marvellous political sagac-
ity is now active in Mississippi. Texas will
repeat your calamity, and again overwhem
you with discontinue and defeat Superadd
to these results OF your unapproachable folly
the imposition on these States Of your IRON
clad oath and the alienation is complete, land
ing them all in the outstrctched arms of Dem
Ocracy But the consequence of your folly
does not stop here. Ohio, Pennsylvania (and
others will follow decide their political sta
tus in October, and the North will echo back
the condemnation Of the South and peal in
your ears this fact, that there is still left
enough of the incorruptiblc virtue of the Re-
public to rebuke you for the wanton repres-
sion 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 super
structure tumbles about our ears in hopeless
ruin. When you were appointed Secretary
of the Treasury, and unanimously confirmed
by Senate Of every shade of political opin-
ion did you not take an oath to administer
your Office impartially, and for the exclusive
objects 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 a time with a little
brief authority? Then sir, how do you ex
| plain this perversion ofits legitimate uses and
functions into Il means and an instrument of
oppression, to force and compel an election Of