Evening star., 1869-12-01
WHO - @NoTTP"
4 rSorrY QUESTION.
To BE Or NOT To BE.
Is 1soswen q Republican?
. .e.s H~nf GA~a EMf 4tI
WASHINGTON, November ., is6.

1s 1SOsweH q RePubiican!
Meet says Net.
.i wAsHIseToS, November ,, 1863.
EDITOR or SrAR:-.'who is wm. Z. Mott 2 -
This was the savage inquiry of the Dogberry Of
the City Collectors ofice-F. A. Boswell--on
Thursday evening last, at A; Grants indgna,
Of his being Republican In the dark days OF
Republicanism, when il required courage TO be
Republican," Nothing to man Of spirit. or
of the least dehcacy Of feeling, is more morrffy-
ner to answer who he is. Several have kindly
offered to take this answer upon themselves
to state who am, and what have been in the
Republican party for the last twelve years; but
fmiously at my head on Thursday evening, 1
hope 1 may be pardOned In replying over my
ewn signature, a., I'm doing 30, L can better show
su1S % snd so !ss nSyso q g our
distinguished individual. but one who, from
his seventeenth year, Clay or an, anti-
slavery Whig, remained Wing mp to
through the nominaticn Of General Scott at
Baltimore. Never for . single day n Demo
crat-never in single instance acting or voting
wlth the party any issue or
old Wing party became emphatically anti-Dem m
oeratic. =. Nott'' simply hated the pro-siavery
Democracy, Hence, during the dark days OF
w
well known here as Republicans; and during
those days il was not SO much the physical peril
which a man avowing himself Republican had
to encounter as it was the daily storm Of ObIoquy
and derision In every relation of life. ' Nott''
nevertheless bore il all. His name may be found
on the early rolls Of the old Wigwam, in 1860,
and Boswell can verify the fact by referring to
either to MT. Martin Bueil or to Mr.. Lewis Gle
phane. /" Mott" voted for Major A. e. Rich
ard-fOr Collector, 1 think-the first Republi-
can nominee in this city for any position; and
he will not readily forget the night in November,
1850 when, as one OF little band Of Republicans,
numbering not more than seventy-fve or one
hundred men, he marched from the old wig
first nomination. IL was truly perilous night.
This little band was lined on both sides, ali the
way, by mob Of rOughs and angry people,
eager to assail ii. A blow would have produced
luctant escort II coPperhead policemen. Where
tcds Boswell on that nights A contributor at an
early age for the press, !" NOtt' might claim that
his political record may be found in anti-Dem-
ocratic presses for twenty years past, dating
back to a time when he was only eighteen years
old. Although never a candidate nor an aspi-
rant at any time, for political position, vet he
has laboIed faithfully, frequently far into the
principles,-nOt merely for his party in this city.
but i'm the cOuntry-at the last Presidential cleo
tiOn writing for q half dozen papers, two i'm this
city-and with what ability and success he might
he is willing to confess, ON file at one
Of the Departments from leading men who speak
from personal knowledge Of the matter. This
record, but IL is one which none can blot out
one Of STRAIGHTFORWARD and consistent Repub-
licanism from the beginning-during the dark
days OF Repablicanism, when, indeed, it re-
or acknowledge himself Republican = an
earnest worker always from principle and i'm
support of Republican principles, without pay
known to hundreds of our good people-tp
Democrats as well as Republicans. But B0s-
well knows, or pretends to know, nothing
about it. confess that is rather I'M,
Policeman % M under % the old regime, Boswsli's
knowledge OF men and things should be SO
extensive, accurate and complete that not to be
within his knowledge is most mortifying. Poor
"Nott!' But Boswell's knowledge or apprecia
ton Of . man may be conjectured from arecent-
ly reported conversation Of his respecting
friend. He asked :"H0w Is it that (naming
him) is 50 popular-he never makes speeches J"
conception of man Of parts or worth.
Now, having shown ''whO is NOtt,'' may not
ask and show who is Boswell, and the causes
and motives Of his savage onslaught upon Nott''
on Thursday last. Some months ago felt COM
PEELED, i'm a pamphlet, to expose the ingratitude
OF Boswell to Mr.. Bowen, and his designs against
the Republican party-hjs Ignorance" slow
snnnne," "puerile vanity" "ealgaf uleker--s" !"
trOtted out the "mOuntebank" in all the tOggery
of his profession, and laid bare his antecedents
or political records coPperhead carpet-bag-
ger in 1860, accused OF threatening to go out
with his State (Maryland) if she seceded-of
voting against cOlOred suffrage i'm 1865, and
opposing it again in 1866, in the Philade-
phia Convention Of Southern Loyalists, with
much more. i wrote nothing i'm malice, but all
from sense Of duty to the party, which was in
peril Of being rent into factions. The facts
Of the pamphlet were apparently, home thrusts.
They manlfestly sunk deep into Boswells heart,
and after nursing his malice for months, he
eased himself Of its load in the malignant out
burst OF Thursday last.
Now these animals which bray SO loudly and
tiercely are truly terrible fellows, particularly
and little children. j will give notable
and characteristic instance. 1t occurred SO late
as January, 1856. One F. A. Boswell was then
cOlored boy, only nine years old, OF pilfering
some trifiing amount from him. Boswell ordered
his arrest. There was no evidence then, nor has
any since been ascertained, against the poor boy;
but to force or extort confession frop MN, bos-
we'll brutally ordered two n0licemen to shower
him, boy only nine years old.
have before me the record Of the Board OF
Police which tried one Of the policemen for the
act a. ncy lowered him again and again
in the language q 5ne com.
fession. The mother stood by pleading for her
child-she urged, "yOu are trying to make my
boy tell lie." But all to no purpose. Boswell
himself after the twS aae 1e nsor sor
boys head. This shOwering was very severe
and really terrible in its effects upon the boy.
But what mattered that to Boswell: his money
This is a characteristic act Of the Radical Bos-
well-the ultra-Radical BOswell-on1y 50 tar
back ~ January, 1856; and who now questions
the Republicanism Of Mott. Well might the
member of the Police Board who presided at the
trial saw in his repOrt that the t0rtufing of