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


truth as did not suit your purpose. ~!
'sThe fact that the Southern States
neglected to take their proper and just
quotas, which they might have got
for the asking, satisfied the committee,
and no doubt fully convinced you, that
there could have been no fraudulent com.
bination in 1860 between them and the
War Department to rob the Government
of its arms for their benefit. That con-
cluded the whole case, since it was i'm
possible for sane man to believe that
such plot could have been formed and
acted upon at a previous time, and yet
preceding the war. Nevertheless, the
committee went back, and it was proved
that In 1859, before any war was appre-
hended-- before the election of Lincoln was
dreamed of-before thediyision ofthe De-
mocracy, which made his election posi-
BILE with million majority against him
Floyd ordered a transfer of 115, 200
muskeis from Northern to Southern arse
nails. This you parade with great flourish
as evidence of most wicked robbery.
But here we find you again at the disin-
genuous business Cs not that soft
phrase2) of keeping back truth which
would have spoiled the force of your
story. These arms aOere all tOorttLess
and atnSerVicedble. We had 300, coo of
them; they numbered the Nothern arsenals,
and could not be used; law had been
passed 40 authorize the sale of them; they
were offered for years at two dollars and
| fifty cents apiece, about One-tenth the
price of good gun, and they could not
be got off. Twice a considerable number
were sold, but the purchasers upon furth.
er examination refused to take them. OF
these 500, 900 condemned muskets, the
Secretary of War in 1859 ordered
| lI5, 900 to be sent to the South, doubtless
for the mere convenience of storage.
| To weapon the rebellion with arms like
these would have insured its destruction
| the instant its forces came into the pres
ence of troops having improved modern
guns in their hands. Floyd could not
have done greater injury to the South
ern cause than this would have been.
Nor is it possible to believe that Southern
leaders would have conspired with him to
purloin these useless arms in 1859, and
then, in 1860, decline to take the share
that legally belonged to them of the best
muskets and rifles ever invented. All
these facts appear in the evidence re-
ported by the committee, from which you
pretend to be making fair and candid oita-
tons, and you say not word about them.
off you were "a mere lawyer or any
lawyer at all, and would go before a judi
cial tribunal mutilating the truth after this
fashion, you would Immediately be ex-
PEELED from the profession, and no judge
would ever permit you to open your
mouth in a court of justice again. If you
would appear as a witness, and in that
character testify to the contents of a
written document in the way you have set
out this report to your readers, it might
be followed by very disagreeable coIse
quenees, which | will not shock your po-
lite ears by mentioning"
| We print elsewhere copiOus extracts
from that portion of Judge Blacks reply
which treats of the part the late Edwin
NJ. Stanton is made to play by his eulo-
gizer. These extracts leave no doubt al
to the character of Stanton, whose name
must 20 down TO posterity linked with
that of jonathan Wild, the most infamous
creature that ever appeared in London.
1t is evident that this portrayal of 'tht
great Secretary" was distasteful to Judge
Black. There is running through hi
article ga thread of gentle and kind feel
ing towards the dead, sort of hesitatiDl
seif reprohch "a being compelled to dis
paragc former friend, which is notice
, able, y but he could net shut his eyes Il
the damning proofs of the treachcry ant
insincerity of that man which Senate
Wilson brought forward. The Washing
: ton Patriot says: "Mr. Wilson seeme(
to think that he could, with entire safety
: say what he pleased about the Democratic
I dead, libel them to the full extent of hi
| resources, wound the feelings of surviving
} relatives and friends-in shOrl, 40 eK
actly what to a scandal-mOngerinl
mind, seemed fit and nobody wOult
S dare 10 reply. What grievous mistake
this was, Judge Blacks series of pub
locations demonstrate. The Senator, W
} doubt not, would give good deal if b
| had never listened to the seduction of tn
Orange-tinted tempter, and committed tn
folly, in his old age, of trying to be al
: author He had much better have lief
= Essayism to his rhetorical colleague
They, however, who have most reason Il
, deplore this beginning of strife, are thu
family and friends, if he had any, of thu
, late Secretary of War. The rugged
qualities which marked him in life nigh
be thought virtues, or kindred to virtue
by such as like that sort of truculent or
ganization; and the repute of those be
had. His conversion from Breckinridgt
Democracy to Radicalism, when he tool
office under Mr.. Lincoln, was per Sc moi
as strange as his who voted fifty -one time!
for jefferson Davis as President, and
then sprang, with leap of love, into the
arms of amorous abolitionism. But to
have it proved that he was false, insin.
cere, double dealing trickster, (qualitie!
as to which there is as little dissent be
traying his friends and patron, fetching
and carrying Cabinet secrets to oppesi
ton leaders, holding midnight meetings
with them, and then going, in the fresh
ness of the next days morning, to take
friendly counsel with his official associates
whom he had betrayed-this is what
those who are interested in Mr.. STAN
toms memory have to thank
Senator Wilson for. Mr.. Blu.
chanan was, as as we all know, very
far from being Gen. Washington either
in strength or sternness of character, and
Mr.. Stanton was not Edmund Randolph
but if, in those dark winter days of
IS6O-61, the then President had inter-
cepted the letter which Mr.. Dawes says
he read under the lamp aud without
| q word loiJ If hpfOrp jtl authOr II would