The States and Union. [volume] (Ashland, Ohio) 1868-1872, 1869-09-01
LETTER OF JUDGE DENT TO
SECRETARY BOUTWELL,.
Scathing Rebuke to a Meddlesome
Politician.

"Elon. George boutwell,, Secretary
of the Treasury
"SIR-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 polit-
ical orthodoxy of my friends and my
self, and by ell the rules of the forum
I am entitled to a defense. Again,
you fold an office of the Republic, and
your acts, therefore, are Legitimate
subjects of criticism by the humblest
citizen thereof. But in some respects
we are alike for instance we are both as
pirants for place, with this difference
you aimed to be the next President,
with every assuranceyofsueces5 except
in the opinion f the people, while l
seek an humber place, with my hopes
in disastrous eclipse, except in the
Judgment of Mississippi. So, i'll Il e
probable results of the future, we both
stand adverse to the Judgment of the
country.
"In the pursuit of your ambition
you are uuscrupu.oIs as to the mean;
of your success. Your organ, the
New York San in the sumo breath
ridicules the capacity of your master,
and dwells with emphasis Oh your pc
culiar fitness for his office.
"Your excellent tool, Mr.. Tuilock,
became so reckless in the manipulation
Of your department in the interest OF
your ambition, an so defiant of the
wishes of the President and the
try, that to sav yourselye from an
explosion of popular Indignation you
found if epnvfnient2to tflhsfer Mp.hf
another sphere of scandalous activity,
where his talents might be cxerted
| with equal effect, an / less effrontery.
Virginia, Tennessee, Mississippi
and Texas, not to mention anything so
humble rs myself, were Instructions
in the way of your success, because
through Grants Intervention in exclud
ing the proscriptive clauses from their
organic laws, these States are brought
into the Union firmly welded to his
support. Now this in direct conflict
with your systematizsd plans, for what
General Grant gets in the next cleo
ton, clearly Mr.. Boutwell, VIII not
gel, saAd theeefore You have deH6lhced
the Conservative Republicans whoare
for Grant, that you may obtain the
proscript:ve Republicans, who are for
Boutwell,, and by some strange, dex-
ferrous management, and occult polit-
ical strategy, you have so worked up
on the confidence of the President as
tocause him to flourish the club with
which you intend to break his head,
by inducing him to join you in denuu-
citation of the Conservative Republicans,
a party created by his management.
"But, sir, your purpose is easily dis
cerned, and has a twofold object,
namely, to destroy the National Re
publican party in the South, and thea
to reconstruct from its scattered frag-
ments a Boutwell, party, with no Rich
mond in the field to strike for your
crown. But if you can not succeed
in this scheme of desperate enterprise,
you mean to ruin-a result, from pre-
sent appearances, much more likely to
be reached.
"Your official intervention for Wells,
for instance. gave 1000 majority to
Walker. Your letter to Stokes gave
Senter to Tennessee by an overwhelm-
my NOGe VI 1O,OUU. our marvellous
political sapgaeity,s now active inEMis
sissippi and FezasS wills fepeAt your
calamity, and again overwhelm Won
with discontinue and defeat. Sup
eradd to these results of your unap-
proachable folly the imposition on these
States of your ironclad oath, and the
alienation is complete, landing them
all in the outstraetched arns of Dem
ocracy.
"But the consequence of your folly
does not end here. Ohio and Penn
sylvania, and others will follow, de-
eide their political status in October,
and the North will echo back the con
domination of the South, and peal in
your ears this fact-that there is still
left enough of the ineorruptible virtue