Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1871-01-22

act OF his lie. he was probably Ire8n
from one Of these symp0siG when he
went into court in the Sickles case,
and lOundly Dragged that he was the
son Of sldUe-hoLdiHg parents. His
| father was a North CarOlinian and his
mother q Virginian. You may see
| that part Of his speech on page 81 Of
the printed trial. 1t is hard to run
with the hare and hunt with the
hounds, but Stanton seems to have
mastered the difficulty.
y
THOROUGHLY CONVERTED AT LAST.
There is another fact c~orrobOrating
/ your view which you have not men,
toned, but of which you are fairly
entitled to the benefit. When Mr..
Stanton went into the War Depart
ment he Immediately began to act
with reckless disregard of his sworn
duty. He surrounded himself with
the most lOathsOme misCreant5 and
used them for the fOulest purposes.
Law, justice and humanity were ut
terly outraged. Those who knew
him as I did, and had heard him curse
the perpetrators Of such crimes only
a month or two before, exercised the
charity which beiieveth all things,
and concluded that he was moved by
some headiong impulse which had
suddenly reyOlutiOnized all his
thoughts, feelings and principles of
action. But your proofs show that in
the kindness of our construction we
did not give heed enough to the max
i'm, Memo repelte fjlt tuypiSSiB5js.
On the whole, it must be admitted
that YOU have made out this part of
your case. With Democrats he was a
Democrat, enjoying their confidence
and taking their favOrs, while he
caused it to be well understood among
"men Of your school in mOralsand pol
itics" that his devotion to the DemOc-
racy was entirely simulated. 1t is now
also clear, beyond doubt, that to
Southern men he avOWed himself a
full-blOOded secessiOnist.
WAS STANTON AN EMBEZZLER?
A word before we part about the
two hundred and fifty thousand dol
lars raised out of the treasury for
Governor Morton. Taking your ac-
count of that business as correct, I
proved IN my former letter that it
was in the highest degree criminal.
You left no escape from the cOuclu-
sion that the parties were guilty Of
-embeZZlement under the act of 1916. /
Your narrative of the transaction iu-
pressed il with all the marks Of what
is called in the flash language of
Washington, "a big steal" You
showed that the parties themselves
so understood it at the time, for YOU
put a conversation into their mouths
by which they are made to admit
their liability to prosecution and
imprisonment. There might have
been some hope for you yet,
if you had recanted your first
assertion, or admitted the errors Of
yUur statement, or made some effort
to explain away the effect Of it, by
showing that you did not mean what
you said. But you hold fast to every
word of it; not a syllable do you re-
tract. On the contrary, you insist that
it is efrOHterY in me to affirm that a
debt was due to the State, and that il
paid according to law. What you
in your last, in addition to your
first statement, makes the case look
worse than it did before. BUTT is not
true. The payment was not made on
account of arms furnished TO loyal
in TebelliOus States, nor was
he money given to the Governor, to
be discussed by him on his own re-
possibility as agent of the President.
That much l can say on the official
authority Of the present Secretary of
War, who wrote me on the 9th Of
asst month that ''the transactions ap-
pear to be based upon the claims of
he State Of Indiana for expenses t7-
'lTTe6 in raising volunteers" But
Governor Morton isstill above ground, ;
md can take care of himself. If he
made q raise out of the Treasury {
authority Of law, and in
iefiance OF the penal statutes in
.uch Eases made and provided, he
owes it to you to confess his guilt full
Y and freely. If ne is innocent (as L &
him to BEL it is due to him {
ielf and the memory OF Mr.. Stanton I
hat he deny your allegations, and {
Exhibit the true state Of facts, without i
ielay. The sum Of the case, as it (
low stands, is this; Mr.. Stanton put !
ntO the hands Of Gov. Morton, not a 7
warrant as you say, but a requisitiOu,
IN which the Governor got out OF ths y
treasury two hundred and fifty thou
and dollars. Ifthis requisitIOn was
Jased on a just claim, and drawn
a fund appropriated to the 6
payment Of il, the whole transaction {
vas perfectly honest, exceedingly
commonplace, and precisely similar
other acts done every day, before g
md since, by all the seCretaries-a
nipple discharge Of routine duty in I
no responsibility Whatever, /
10 honor, and no blame. But il
uited y0uri ideas to glOrify Stanton by
declaring that he took the great re-
possibility Of helping Mr.. Morton to L
he money contrary to law, against
he principles Of common honesty,
md in violation of his oath, a
hereby exposing both him
elf and his acComplice to I
he dangerOf prosecution and impris-
,nmeEt in the p~enitentiary. This a
vas the feather you stuck in his cap; /
or this you think him entitled to the f
grateful admiration of his lOVuE {
Ountrymen." / sought to deprive Z
i'm of the decoration you bestowed O
n him, by showing that the money b
vas paid according to law on a claim t
satisfactorily established ,OutOf money &
egularly appropriated to that pur- e
.Ose. l tried to prove that it was not n
mbezZlement, and that there was p
criminal in it. But this took b
ae loyalty out OF it and left it without b
ny merit in your eyes. ThereupOn L
fly into a passion and become a
busive, which shows that your moral
exceptions are very much distorted, t,
nd makes nae fear indeed that you b
re altogether incOrrigible. b
This paper has grown much longer S
nan l intended to make it, and [ f
ave no space for the exhOrtatiOns L a
lCa1t to give you in conclusion. / o
ave you, therefore, to your own re- 81
ectiOns. J. S. BLACK. d
The Pulpit and the Press. p
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