The Plymouth weekly Democrat. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1860-1869, 1869-02-04

that Secretary Stanton had disposed of
the duplicates. The contents ofthese doc
uments were discussed at Gen. Grants
headquarters, and member of the staff
communicated the matter to the CORE
spondent of the New York Times, who
first made it public.
"It may be asked how Secretary Stan
ton can deny these facts, but those who
know him best find little difficulty in an
swering it. Perhaps the fact that they
are in the handwriting of Gen. Halleck,
and signed by him, will be urged as an
excuse for his denial but their contents,
when published, and we presume Gen
Grant will publish them some time, will
show that both Secretary Stanton and
President Lincoln knew what was written,
and that all was written under their direc-
ton.
"Officers of the Nineteenth Army
Corps knew of this correspondence at the
time, and Gen. Banks was urged to obey
| the order, but he ventured to disregard it.,
and the fall of Vicksburg, few days
later, vindicated Gen. Grant, and the War
Department saw fit to call Gen. Banks to
account for his disobedience. He kept his
own counsel, knowing that the publica-
ton of the correspondence, or the fact of
| its existence prior to the recent election,
| would injure the Republican party, and it
is only made public now by the friends of
Gen. Grant.
"SOme weeks since, while Secretary
Stanton was talked of for position in
| Grants cabinet, our Washington cores
pOndent expressed the opinion that he
would not be invited TO such position,
and few days later-abOut the time Gen
| Grant obtained this correspondence-his
| friends announced that he proposed to re-
/ main in private life. If it should turn out
that he took advantage Of his position as
Secretary of War to destroy important
| public documents, and especially those
which might preveLt his own political
preferment, it will be cause for regret tc
the country that this determination was
not reached some years ago"
NEW YORK, Jan. %.
The Herald has the following impor
tant communication, signed "W":
NEW YORK CITY, Jan %, 1862
Seeing the contradictory statements pub
lished in the papers regarding the facts, OF
otherwise. OF an order having been issued
from the War Department to Gen. Banks
shortly before the fall of Vicksburg
directing him to relieve Gen. Grant, l beg
| W SldIC TIC cAdCI ltCtS VI TIC Cd>C, ouo
thus settle this much controverted matter
While Gen. Grant was operating in from
of Vicksburg, was employed as clerk il
Secretary Stanton's office, at the Wal
Department at Washington. Secretary
Stanton wrote two orders, directing me
TO make two copies of them-one for tele
graphing, and one for filing. The first o
these orders was addressed to Gen. Banks
directing him to proceed at once to Vicks
burg and relieve Gen. Grant The SECOND
order was addressed to Gen. Grant, direct
ing him to turn over his command to Gen
Banks on the arrival of the latter, wh'
had been ordered 10 relieve him. l d,
not pretend to give the wording of thes
orders. l have given, however, thei
exact substance, and they should be OF
file now in the War Department, unles
they have been removed. l will state
further, that the copies of these orders
which were to be transmitted by tele
graph, l sent by a messenger to the Wa
Department telegraph office, by order c
Secretary Stanton. These copies shout
also be on file in the latter Office"