Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1870-06-17
JACOB THOMPSON.
Instructions TO Him by Judge Jere.
S. Black, of Pennsylvania.
Eror, tba f-;roi,n,ti Cor,r,n-c;,l

From the Cincinnati Commercial
1t has been the fashion of loyal peo-
pie to consign the ex-Secretary of the
Interior to the most hearty and re-
morseless condemnation. Scarcely q
word has been heard from the other
side, while epithets and charges have
been exhausted to prove that Mr..
Thompson was rascal snd poltroon,
who had been denounced without reason,
by Mr.. Stanton, in the first cabinet meet
which the latter attended upon his selec-
ton by President buchanan. We had
a most thrilling display in this city
of Mr.. Thompson's predicament on that
occasion when Mr.. William Johnson,
late of the Cincinnati bar, but now of
the bar Of Washington City, pronounced
his eulogy upon Mr.. Stanton. Ii was
deeply colored and dramatically delivered.
Those who heard it were prepared to be-
lieve it, and did believe it. But we do
not remember Mr.. Stanton as the reckless
individual who could provoke at the same
sitting, and that morally, tive such an
tagonisms as Mr.. John Floyd and Mr..
jacob Thompson, either of whom for
courage was quite equal to Mr.. Stanton
or the average of men. We therefore
did not give in to the story. Mr. Black
in his late attack on Senator Wilson'S
eulogy of Mr.. Stanton seems to know all
about the facts said tG have been the ba-
sis of Dir. Stanton's alleged trespass on
MIR. Thompson, and he makes short work
with the statement:
'fBut perhaps the most extraordinary
of all your averments is that the Secre-
tary of the Interior permitted the robbery of
trust funds. You did not mean it to be
understood that robbery occurred which
he knew nothing about, and of which be
was, therefore, as innocent as any other
man. You intended to make the i'm
preston that he wilfully gave his per-
mission to the criminal deportation of
| the funds in question made himself an
accessory to the felony before the fact,
and was as guilty as if he had done
| it with his own hands. You could not
possibly have believed this unless you
perversely closed your eyes against the
light of plain truth. An the circum-
stances of the transaction to which
you refer are as well understood
as anything in the history of the
| country. A committee of Congress,
consisting of men opposed to the Sec
retary, examined the evidence when
it was fresh, and reported upon it. The
correctness of their judgment has never
been impugned In the face of these re.
corded and we'll known facts you deliber,
ately set down and write out, or gei
somebody to write out and publish to the
world on your authority, the accu-
sation that Mr.. Thompson has committed
| an offense which should make him infa.
nous forever. The force of mendacity
can 90 no further. l admit that you are
loyal man in the modern sense of the
word, and Senator in Congress from Q
most loyal State; and it it is equally
true that Mr.. Thompson was .
| rebel; that he was for years al
exile from his home and country, pur
sued wherever he went by an Executive
| proclamation which put a price on hi:
| head. This gives you an immense ad
vantage over him. But the fact is still
true that no department of this Govern.
ment was ever managed more ably OF
more faithfully than the Interior while
he was at the head of it. You may
have all the benefit of loyalty, and yor
may weigh him down with the huge bur
den of rebellion; nevertheless, his menta
ability, good sense and common honesty
put him 80 immeasurably far above you,
that you will never in this life get hori
zontal view of his character. y 4
When any man who has been basely
and continually belied, gets such 8
vindication from one who knows thu
truth, and is both able and willing tC
testify to it, we feel that humanity
| owes the benefactor its gratitude.
Such cheap takers and shallow think
ers as Mr.. Wilson will discover thai
while they have done no special in
jury to the fame of other men, they kavt
| failed To advance their own. The re-
marks on the anti Thompson charge, i
perhaps the best passage in the reply.
We congratulate Mr.. Thompson, who
now resides at Memphis, upon the ami
hilation Of the worst scandal against an
honest man.