The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1869-08-26
ANOTHER POLITICAL LETTER FROM JUDGE
DENT


ANOTHER POLITICAL LETTER FROM JUDGE
DENT.
The following letter, addressed TO Secretary
boutwell,, is d pungent criticism of that gentle
mans political course, and likewise indicates that
Judge DENT possesses other virtues as politician
besides that of broher-in-law to President GRANT.
His boldness and truthful exposition of the extreme
Radicals represented by BOUTWELL, are truly re-
freshins, and commend him TO the favorable con-
sideralion of the public
WASHINGTON, D. c., August II, 1869.
To Hon. George S. BoutweN, Secretary Of The
Treasury-SlR: l 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 byTfl the rules of the forum am entitled to
defence Again, you hold an office of the repub-
lie, and your acts therefore are Legitimate subjects
of criticism by the humblest citizen thereof. But
in some respects are alike. For instance, we
are both aspirants for place. with this difference:
You aim to be the next President, with every as
surancc 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 flI-
ture we both stand adverse to the judgment of the
country. In the pursuit of your ambition yon are
ungrateul and dunscrupulous as to the means OF sue
cess. Your organ, the New York Sun, In the same
breath ridicules the capacity of your master, and
dwes with emphasis upon your peculiar htness
for his Office Your tool, Mr.. Bullock, became so
reckless in the manipulation of your department in
the interest of your ambition, and defiant OF the
wishes of the President and the country, that TO
save yourself from an explosion of popular lndlg-
nation you found it convenient to transfer him to
another sphere of scandalous activity, where his
talents might be excrted with equal effect and less
cffrontery. Virginia, Tennessee, Mississippi and
Texas-not to mention anything so humble as my
scf-were Instructions in the way of your success;
because through President Grants Intervention in
excluding the proscriptive clauses from their or
ganic law, these States are brought into the Union
and firmly welded 10 his support
| Now this is III direct conflict with your system
atizcd plans For what General 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 proscriptive Republicans
who are for Boutwell,, and by some strange, de1-
ferrous management and occult political strategy,
you have so worked upon TIE confidence of the
President rs 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 Conserva-
tive Republicans, q party created by his magma
nimty and triumphant through his encouragement
But, sir, 'your purpose is easily discernible
and has two-fold object, namely, to destroy the
National Republican party in the South, and then
to reconstruct from its shattered fragments Bout
we'll party, with one Richmond in the field to strike
for your crown. But if you cannot succeed in
this scheme of desperate enterprise, you mean to
ruin, "a result, from present appearances, much
more likely to be reached
Your official intervention for Wells, for instance
gave thirty thousand majority to Walker Your let
ter to Stokes gave Senter Tennessee by an overwhel
ming vote of seventy thousand. Your marvellous
political sagacity now active in Mississippi and
Texas will repeat your calamity, and again over
whelm you with discontinue and defeat. Super
add to these results of your unappronchable folly,
the imposition on these States of your iron-clad
oath, and the alienation is complete landing them
all in the out-stretchcd arms of Democracy
But the consequence of your folly docs not stop
here-Ohio and Pennsylvania and others will fol-
low. Decide their political status 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 incorrupible virtue Of
the Republic to rebuke you for wanton rcpres-
sion of that most sacred rght-the elective fran
chise 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 supersructure tumblcs about our ears
in hopeless ruin.
When ytu were appointed Secretary of the TT, as
ury and unanimously confirmed by Senate of
every shade of political opinion, did you take m
cath to administer your Office lmpartally and for
the exclusive objects Of its creation, Ito collect
the revenue and control the finances of the coun-
try? 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 and funct-
ions into q means and instrument of oppression to
force and compel an election of obnoxious rulers
upon the people of the South.
Is such course consistent with yoar cath of
Office or do you call this great moral idea? But,
Mr. Boutwell,, though you have thus prosituted
the power of your office for purposes of oppres-
sion. "without the warrant of conscience or law"
il may be that you can tell me by what authority
you assume TO pronounce upon my political ortho-
doxy. Who constituted YOU the infallible hope of
Republioanism :? -
Who gave you authority 10 hurl the political
anathemas of the party Again what right had
YOU to commit the Administration to your policy !?
Have YOU to learn yet that you are only part Of
the Administration, and not the whole OF 1t !!
though your friends believe that monomania has
seized yoar mind on that subject, and that you
verify believe Yourself "the State"
Very respectfully, LOUIS DENT.
THAT eoMEr.-A correspondent of the Atlanta
LntelLigenccr furnishes the annexed information
concerning the appearance of the expected comet,
labout which some Of our friends are exceedingly
dubious