Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1871-01-24
BLACKS REPLY TO WILSON.


the closing months of 1860 and the open
ing of 1861, and charged that that Ad-
ministration was in sympathy with the
"Secessionists" and aided them in many
ways. But Mr.. Stanton, who was mem
Der of Mr.. Buchanan's Cabinet, was ex-
cepted from this sweeping assertion. MIR.
Wilson labored to show that Mir. Stanton
was in sympathy with the Abolitionists,
and that he was in point of fact a spy on
the Buchanan Administration, reporting
regularly to the enemies of that Admins
tration everything said and done in the
confidential consultations between the
President and his Cabinet. Judge Jere-
miah S. Black, of Pennsylvania, was a
member of that Cabinet and personal
friend of Mr.. Stanton, and believing
implicitly in the honesty and integrity
of the latter, he promptly repealed
the imputation upon his honor in an arti-
Gle which ne published in the GALAXY, at
the same time defending the Buchanan
Administration from the charges prefer
red by Wilson. This brought out a
second article from Wilson, and now we
have in the February number the reply OF
Judge Black, which is the most terrible
excoriation we have read in many day.
Judge Black says to the Senator;
s'You wrote, or caused to be written,
and published in magazine of large cir
culatiou, an article in which you attacked
the reputation of certain persons IN a
style so scandalous that vituperation is no
name for it. Without reserve or qualifi-
cation you pronounced them guilty
of the worst crimes known among
men. The specific acts OF
which you accused them, and the oppro-
bious epithets you applied to them, were
as insulting as you could make them.
Most of the gentlemen thus assailed were
dead; but that made no difference to you;
your invective was not checked by any
regard for the feelings of friends or rela-
tives. The indecenCy of this was greatly
aggravated by the fact that you put it in
the form of a funeral psnegyric upon a
! man whose recent and sudden death
should have sobered your party rage and
solemnized your heart, or at least opera
ted as temporary sedative upon your
appetite for defamation. What was to
do? My first impulse was-no matter
what; did not obeyit. But concluded
that all the purposes of fair vindiGation
might be accomplished by a simple con-
trsdiCtion of your statements, coupled
with the plain reasons which would show
l them to be unworthy of belief, l did this,
| and 1 did no more Ibid it in terms SO free
from unnecessary harshness that | am
amazed this moment at my own m0dera
| ton"
A great deal has been said by Radicals
about Gov. Floyd, who was Secretary Of
Wsr under Buchanan, sending arms tC
the Southern States, preparatory to The
late war, and Senator Wilson has made
him an especial mark for his malcdictions
| So palpable is this that Judge Black say
1 to him: "But absent, unfriendod, de
fcnseIcSs, dcai-fallen in lost cause anC
buried il az obscure gravc-he was tn
very man of all others, in or out of th,
world, whom your maSnanimuy WOult
prompt you to attack" The history o
this matter is confined to the uffiCia
records of Congress, not easily accessible
and therefore not generally known, so W
reproduce what Judge Black says on th
subject:
Il committee was appointed by th
House of Representatives in January
| 1861, to ascertain how the public arm
distributed during the year 1860 had bee
disposed of Mr.. Floyd was not presen
at the investigation; he had not frien,
on the committee; it was organized t
| convict him il it could. Itrepnrted tn
evidence, but gave no judgment criminal
ing him with the offence you accuse hin
of. On the contrary, the opinion wa
expressed by the chairman that tn
charges were founded in 'rumor, specu
lation and misrepresentation But yo
take up the reported evidence and try t
make out a case which the committee di
not make out by carefully suppressing a.
the principal facts and mlsslating tn
Others.
"YOur charge of fTauduleutly sendin
arms to the South cannot he true of tn
heavy cannon made at Pittsburg for th
forts in Louisiana and Texas, becaus
they were not sent at ALL Floyd gave al
order 10 ship them on the goth of Decem
Der, 1860, but it was revoked by tn
! President before gun was started. 1t is
of course, possible that Floyd, in maxim!
the order, acted in bad faith; but there il
no proof of that. On the contrary, Col
Msynadier, an honest as well as a sharI
man, and a most vigilant officer, whC
knew all the facts of the case, and I'm
derstOod Floyds attitude with regard tC
secession and Union as well as anybody
in the whole country, cheerfully sc
about the business of carrying out the
order, though it was not in writing, ant
testified that he had no suspicion of any
improper object or motive in it. In fac
and in truth, Floyd was not, in sentiment
or in action, a secessionist until after he
saw that the breach between himself and
the President, which originated in Other
matters, was iIreparable.
''The great and important fact TO which
the resolution of the House directed and
confined the attention of the committee,
and which is made perfectly clear by the
I evidence, you do not refer TO at all, but
keep it carefully out of sight from be-
ginning to end of your statement. The
| question was and is, whether the Secre-
tary of War under the Buchanan admin
istration did at any time subsequent to
the first of january, 1860, treacherously
dispose of guns and munitions for the
purpose of giving to the South an advan-
| tage in the war which the leaders in that
section intended to make against the Fed
eral Government. This was the 'rumor,
speculation, and misappreAensiOn, TO
which the Chairman of the Committee
alluded; this is substantially what the
partizsn newspapers and stump orators
have asserted and re asserted over and
over again, until thousands of persons IN
every part of the country have been
made TO believe it; this is what you meant
10y your first article, and what you persist
in and re affirm by your last. Now
examine the facts. There was
/ ,nn,,ol