Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1870-06-14
JACOB THOMPSON.
Instructions to Him by Judge Iers. S. Black,
of Pennsylvania.
7rom the Clncinnati Commercial. ]

From the Cincinnati Commerciall
1t has been the fashion Of loyal peO'
ple to cOnsign the ex-Secretary of the
Interior to the most hearty and re.
morseless condemnation. Scarcely a
word has been heard from the other
side, while epithets and charges have
been exhausted to prove that Mr..
Thompson was a rascal and pol
frOon, who had been denounced with
out reason, by Mr.. Stanton, in the first
cabinet meeting which the latter at
tended upon his selection by Presl-
dent Buchanan. We had a most
thrilling display in this city, OF Mr..
ThOmpsOn's predicament on that Oc-
casiOn when Mr.. William johnson,
late of the Cincinnati bar, Iut now OF
the bar of Washington City, pro-
nOuDced his eulogy upon Mr.. stanton.
1t was deeply cOlOred and dramau
cally delivered. Those who heard it
We're prepared TO believe ii, and did
believe il. But we do not remember
Mr.. Stanton as the reckless individual
who could provoke at the same sit
ting, and that morally, two such an
tagOnisms as Mr.. John Floyd and Mr..
Jacob Thompson, either of whom fOr
courage was quite equal to Mr.. Stan
ton or the average OF men. We there
fore did not give in to the story. Mr..
Black in his late attach on Senator
Wilson's eulOgy of Mr.. Stanton seems
TO know all about the facts said to have
been the basis of Mr.. StantOn's al
legged trespass on Mr.. Thompson, and
be makes short work with the state
me0t:
But perhaps the most extraordinary
of ali your averments is that the Secs
retary of the Interior permits the
robbery of trust funds. You did not
mean il to be understood that a rob-
berry occurred which ne knew moth
ing about, and of which he was,
therefore, as innocent as any other
man. You intended to make the i'm
preston that he wilfully gaze his per-
mission to the criminal a. oOrtatiOn of
the funds in question, made himself
an accessory to the felony before the
fact, and was as guilty as if he had
done il with his own hands. You
could not possibly have believed this
unless You perversely closed your eyes
against the light Of plain truth. All
the circumstances of the transaction
TO which you refer are as well under
stood as anything in the history of the
country. a committee of Congress,
consisting of men opposed to the Sec
retary, examined the evidence when
1t was fresh, and reported upon it.
The correctness Of their judgment has
never been impugned. In the face
of these recorded and well known
facts you deliberately set down
and write out, or get somebody
TO write out and publish to
the world on your authority, the accu-
satiOn that Mr.. Thompson has COM
mitted an Offense which should make
him infamous forever. The force Of
mendacity can 90 no further. ] admit
that you are loyal man in the modern
sense Of the word, and a Senator in
Congress from most loyal State; and
il is equally true that Mr.. Thompson
was a rebel; that he was for years an
exile from his home and country, pur-
sued wherever he went by an EXecu-
tive proclamation which put price
on his head. This gives you an i'm
mense advantage over him. But the
fact is still true that no depart !
ment of this Government was
ever managed more ably or more |
faithfully than the Interior while |
he was at the head of it. You may |
have all the benefit of loyalty, and |
YOU may weigh him down with the |
huge burden of rebellion; neverthe- |
less, his mental ability, good sense
and common honesty put him so I'M /
measurably far above you, that you /
will never in this life get horizontal
view OF his character"
When any man who has been basely 1
and continually belied, gets such q
from one who knows the |
truth, and is both able and willing to |
testify to it, we feel that humanity /
owes the benefactOr its gratitude. /
Such cheap takers and shallow think
ers as Mr.. Wilson will discover that
while they have done no special in /
Jury to the fame of other men, they |
have failed TO advance their own.
The remarks on the anti-ThOmpSOn 4
charge, is perhaps the best passage in
the reply. We congratulate Mr.. |
who now resides at Mem
phis, upon the annihilatiOn of the |
worst scandal against an honest man.