The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-11-24
THE SUIT TO RECOVER THE
SWORDS or GEN. TWIGGS.

THE most recent sensation in the way OF
lawsuit against Union officer is the attempt
of q certain Rowena Florence to arrest and
prosecute General Benjamin f. Butler for
his seizure, at New Orleans, of three valuable
swords, which were once the property of
David L. Twiggs. This doubly disgraced and
dishonored individual was the meanest and
most despicable spirit connected with the
Rebellion AS Brigadier-G General of the
army of the United States he was entrusted,
in the early part of 1861, with the command
of all the military property and the army
posts in Texas; and before the Confederacy
was fairly organized, and without even a re-
spectacle demonstration of Rebel force or
strength being made against him, he delivered
all these forts, with other Government pro-
perty, worth at least million and q half of
dollars, for which he was personally respon-
sible, to the rebellious authorities of
Texas He committed this act of
treason and of theft so clearly against the
wish of the majority of his subordinate
officers and the private soldiers, that, after
vain attempt to seduce them from their allie
glance they were allowed to leave Texas, and
to return within the Union lines without mo-
lestation. AS soon as the Government at
Washington heard of this Infamous treachery.
an order was issued for the ignominious ex-
pulsion of the stealing, sneaking traitor from
the United States army, and he was, of
Course, not permitted to resign. The Con-
federate Government rewarded him by a COM
mission as a Major-General, and for a time
he was intrusted with the command of New
Orleans, but even in the domain of secession
the execrable nature of his conduct seems to
have been fully understood, and to have been
regarded by every mind not dead to all sense
of honor with the contempt it so richly
merited. AS his action had furnished the
closest parallel that can be found in
our modern history to the premeditated
treachery of Benedict Arnold, he had
no favors to expect when, in 1862, the Anne
rican army entered New Orleans, in which
oity he was then residing. Fully conscious
of the depth of his guilt, and of the fact that
he thousand times more richly deserved a
felons fate than Major Andre, who was
merely the unfortunate accompGce of Twiggs'
prototype, he hastily fed, and General Butler
and the Union officers took possession of the
quarters he had abandoned, as well as of his
property. If any mans goods should ever be
forfeited to the State, it should certainly be
those of the thief who had stolen vast amount
of Government property, and had intensified
this crime by acting as a double
dyed traitor. Among this property were
the three swords now in issue. Twiggs, fully
conscious that the surrender of all his effects,
as we'll as the destruction of his ignominious
life, would be but q slight atonement for his
crimes, devised scheme to save his swords,
by a short declaration, written during his
flight, that he left them to a certain Miss
Rowena Florence; but this deed of gift was
SO manifestly mere trick of a fugitive
scoundrel, that General Butler properly paid
no regard to it. Selling the swords, he sent
them to Washington, where they still await
the action of the national authorities. 1t is
difficult, under the circumstances, to imagine
any lawsuit in which the ground of action
was more untenable than in the present
instance. The swords long since passed
from the control of General Butler, and it
Is beyond his power to restore them to Miss
Florence, whose proper course, if her claim
is valid, is to appeal to Congress. But even
if her grounds for legal action were thou
sand times better than they are, it is high
time that the prosecutions of all Union officers
for anything they may have done amiss during
the war should cease. The nation has acted
magnanimously to those who were concerned
in the Rebellion. Not one of the leading
actors has been prosecuted 10y the courts, and
although the South contains thousands of
men who would have been liable to prosecu-
tisns, pardon after pardon has been issued,
until even their arch-criminals stand guilt
less in the eye of the law
The spirit which remains untouched by
this example must be to the last degree re-
vengeful and barbaric; and since it proves so
intractable and so firmly resolved that, while
universal amnesty is granted on the part of
the victers, there will be no grant of am,
nesty by the vanquished, fair-minded men in
all parts of the country should unite il
frowning down these attempts to revive bit
ter memories. If such thing is possible
Congress should provide for the punishment
of those who bring vexatious suits founded oil
occurrences of the war; and the Miss RowenG
Florences should be taught that such enter
prises will ensure them not only unenviablt
notoriety, but other penalties which ever
their hardened natures will not light,
invoke.
THE NAVAL QUESTION.