Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1870-07-13

From the St. Louis Republican,

Al Ugly Frecc VI AhhSsV'y.
From the St. Louis Republican,
We have already acquainted our
readers with>the main particulars.o Of the
recent attempt by the Rev. Col jacques
to make a raise out of the national treas
ury, but itis not too late. to recur to the
subject for the parpOseIofJcalling atten-
ton to some other features Of his case,
affecting persons of higher position, and
indirectly even the national character
itself.
There is no severer or surer test OF the
moral tone Of party or a government
than its conduct indoing the dirty work
which unfortunately so often indispen-
sable in war. Certain rules and maxims
in regard to it have become settled
among honorable men, ,bto preserve their
own characters from contamination by
the unavoidable official intercourse with
the tools they are compelled to use.
They profit by the treason and honorably
pay for it, but despise the traitor. Arnold
was made British ma jor-general, ,butno
British oiiicar associated withahim. The
report of the spy is received and re-
warded, but he himself remains unrecog-
nized, suspected, watched and con-
te emned. If caught, he is allowed to be
hung; and so disgraceful is the service
that the general who has authority to
send whole divisions to certain destruc-
ton in storming impregnable works,
cannot order even camp follower to go
ON service as o spy. q The importance OF
such service and the danger attending it
may often redeem it from obloquy; still
the recognized moral code of war is that
IN official Orr quasi-ofbcial intercourse
between belhgerents, Especially iffor hn-
name purposes-real or alleged, or the
furtherance of peace, the permission to
enter an enemys lines shall never be
abused for the purpose of espionage or
treachery. Such conduct is universally
adjudged to disgrace the government
permitting it. q
Apart from the diplomatic puerilities
which forbade formal official intercourse
between the two civil chiefs in the late
civil wal, while ludicrously enough they
did not prevent such communication
between the military, the visit of Col.
Jacquessto Richmond, in the summer oi
1854, must be regarded as that of anlae.
credited messenger of the President OF
the United States. His station as a
minister of the gospel added to the
strength of his position; he himself duly
paraded it to inspire coincidence. Mr..
Davis treated him as an honorable mes
senger of peace, notgas belliger entspy.
Now, however, Col. jacques appears, by
his own showing, to have gone there
solely and purely as a paid spy. lie
produced before the congressional com
mittee, which examined his claims, a
written leave of absence, signed by Mr..
Lincoln himself and an order of Maj
Gen. Thomas stating that the leave Of
absence was granted ITO enable him to
perform a special service for which he
had been designated" Thus all his
yarn to Mr. Davis about his being led by
yearnings for peace to volunteer visit
to Richmond was merely spy false
hood. He was simply sought out as
fit person for dirty work, and
I" with those papers, he says,
came to me at the front letter from
President Lincoln, giving me full in
structions as to what the President
wished me to accomplish, and at the
same time directing me as far as posi-
BILE to keep out of Washington" On an
order from Mr. Lincoln, Gen. Grant re-
quested the Confederate Commissioned,
Col. Ould, to "meet Col. jacques, of the
seventy-third regiment Illinois yolnn-
teers, United States army, on important
business in the line of his duty. In
vindication of Gen. Grant it should be
added that the report shows he was un-
aware that jacques was to play the spy.
On this request, under flag of truce, he
was received into the Confederate lines
as a United States officer in the line of
his duty" He remained three days in
Richmond, ostensibly and ostentatiously
seeking in interviews with, Mr. Davis, as
brother Christian, to lay the founda-
tions for peace. By his own evidence
it now appears that he made use OF that
! visit to enter into communication with
spies in Richmond, which led to his re
turn thither afterward as a regular men,
Der of their profession, with disguise,
false name, papers, etc. i'
1t would have been much better had
the Lincoln administration paid their
spy pars0n all he demanded, and charged
it to the secret service fund, than have
left him to make these nauseating dis
closures. High names and high person
ages are usually kept out of direct deal
ings with spies, and for the national rep
utation it would have been better had the
Radical party epntrIyed IN some way
even now to bury in oblivion the fact that
this was not the case with its leaders,
,Jacuuess could have done his spying on
| his first visit to Richmond as well as he did
II on the second, without dragglHg the
official names of the President of the
United States and the Geperal-in-Chiet
Of their armies into the fnire with him,
Yet instead of burying this purifying
piece of secret historys tue Radicals seem
bent on handing it round TO the public,
and in an official record keeping 1t per
manently right under the noses OF all
historians. Of our civil war. Senator
Harlan. of Iowa, ,himselfalso clergyman,
volunteers to c0rroborate the account OF
Colonel jacques. When asked before the
committee about his 1ohaTacIer for truth
and veraeity and as man OF honor,
be thus answered, on an Intimacy with
him of over twenty-five years; would
eIHH . aIaIdoOD