New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1871-02-04
CEN. COX AND TIE McGARRAH1Ng


An effort is making to injure the reputation
of the late Secretary OF the Interior, Ten. COX
of Ohio, through certain evidence introduced
before the judiciary Committee OF the House.
We say this is the Object, from the TACT that
no other can be discovered. Whether the late
President OF the United States, Abraham Lin
coin. issued patent to William McGarrahan
for the Panoche Grande Rancho, does not affect
the question at issue in any particular. Inc
Government of the United States in issuing
patent does not guarantee title 1t SIMPLY
auit-claims as against itself. The Supreme
Court of the United States, our highest tribunal,
has decided that said claim is Invalid. NO
action of the Interior nor any act of legislation
can affect this decision so as to benefit the
claimant McGarrahan. This decision can be
found in Sd Wallace, p. 733.
1t is claimed to have been proven and has
been telegraphed through the United States
that the Secretary in q tit OF insanity, for he
could have had no sane motive for Che act,
stole fifty-One letters and so mutilated the
records as to conceal the fact that Abraham
Lincoln had issued the patent referred to. We
have shown that there could have been no
purpose in this act of mutilation unless the
offender was so ignorant of law as not to know
the consequences of his wrOng-dOng. Gen
Cox is recognized as an able lawyer, and GER
tainly would not break Into the penitentlary
in so wanton manner as charged by his as
sailants. The motive for the theft is equally
obscure. Why steal file of letters and leave
the official record of the same undisturbed?
What Gen. Cox, as Secretary of the Interior,
!. ,Io,, aIa wit IN
the line of his duty. After the investigation
of the Judiciary Committee, where seven cred
table and impartial witnesses contradicted
the obscure assertions of Mr.. StOddard the
Secretary found that land patents were signed
and recorded in advance of authority from
the President and he Immediately established
the rule reversing such a perniciOus practice,
and in accordance with the evidence recOg-
nized by the Committee, he made an entry on
the face of the so-called record of the patent
in accordance with the facts.
If the statements sent at so much expense
through the telegraph originate with the legal
advisers and friends of Mr.. McGarrahan, his
case must be in desperate condition. Gen.
Cox, through a public career of acknowledged
usefulness, has won for himself character for
fected. To attack such man in this manner
is damaging only to the assailants. We can
not believe that Mr.. McGarrahan's legal advis-
ers or friends had any hand in the business.
There are certain ignorant and Over-zealous
people who believe that to sustain the Presi
dent it is necessary to attack his late Secre
tary. The President, believing that the New
Idria Mining Company claimed more land than
the mining laws of California and the laws of
the United States authorized it to hold, and
being unable at the time to investigate the
subject, ordered a suspension of the law grant
ing patent until after the Judiciary Commit
tee of the House had ended its labors by re-
port He at nc time Endorsed, directly or indi-
rectly, the claim of McGarrahan. Gen. Cox as
we think, somewhat unwisely took Offense at
this suspension, and retired from the Office he
had honored through his able and honest add
ministration.