Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1871-03-24

| LETTER FROM HON. ,. Ets BECK.
| WAsHNeToN, March 10, 167l-Hon.
J. A. J. Creswell, Postmaster General
srR: I received the following letter this
morning: ai.1 "a asiams $50 @ a
PosToFgIoE DETACHMENT, CONTRACT
| OFFIoE, WAsHNGToS, March II, 1871
| SR: The Postmaster General, desiring
to re-establish the mail service on the
Louisville and Lexington railroad, be-
tween the cities of Louisville and Licking
ton, IN Kentucky, as soon as can be with
safety to the agents in charge of them,
direct me to inquire whether, in your
opinion that service can be now restored
without risks to such agents as the De
partment may see proper to employ.
Respectfully soliciting your views, am
very truly, CUES A. SMITH,
Second Assistant Postmaster Gen.
Hon. James B. Beck, House of Repre-
sentatives, Washington, d. @.
AS the letter was written by your direcs
ton / assume the answer ought to be di-
rected to you. / left Lexington In the
esrly part of December last and have
been here, discharging my duties as
Representative, ever since. OF course, ]
can have no personal knowledge as to the
matters inquired of, but / have no doubt
that the mail service can be performed as
safely between Lexington and Louisville
as it can be between New York and
Washington, or on any other route in the
country, without risk to such agents as
the Department may see fit to employ
unless the Department takes very special
pains to select as its agent some person
against whom some private individuals
may have real or imaginary grievances to
complain of-in such q csse do not
think that the fact you had made
him q mail-agent would secure
him against insults that would
be offered to him by the aggrieved parties
if he was not Postoff1ce official. The
great mass of the people along that route,
Democrats and Republicans, are as law
abiding and orderly as are in America,
and confess / regarded your action in
the stoppages of the mails of that route
the most arbitrary, oppressive and I'M
warranted act, under all the circumstan-
ces, have ever known; and now, after
all that has been developed, my original
opinion is strengthened and confirmed.
I hope at an early day to find an oppor-
tunity, as q representative of the people,
to lay the facts upon which this conclu-
sion is based before Congress and the
country. The distinguished Senator from
Kentucky, Hon. J.W. Stevenson, has al
ready developed the fact on the floor of the
Senate, that your letter to Hon. James
Blaine, Speaker of the House of Repre-
sentatives, of the 18th inst, is q gross
perVersion of the facts, and it is hard to
see how you could fail to know that it
was. Desiring to do you no injustice,
will set forth the facts as briefly as l can.
In your official letter to Speaker Blaine
you say:
II have the honor to report that in obe-
dience to this act have discontinued the
mail service on the Louisville and Lexing-
ton Railroad, between the cities of Louis
vile and Lexington, in the State of Ken
lucky, in consequence of the imminent |
peril in which the life of an agent en-
ployed by the Department to accompany
and distribute the mails has been placed, |
by notous demonstrations, along the route. |
''The agent referred TO, whose name is
William II. Gibson, returning on the Goth |
of January, 1871, from Lexington to
Louisville, when the train halted at North |
Benson, found number of men as
sembled at the station, one of whom, a
large and powerful man, violently en-
tered the mail-car, struck the agent tIe- |
mendous blow in the face, and endeav- |
ored to drag him out of the Car, crying, |
'We'll kill you'll come out come out!' |
A struggle ensued, during which the train !
started and the assailant leaped out, and |
number of shots were fired at the train"
When you wrote that statement you |
were in possession of the statement of |
facts made by Il. G. Hodges, the local |
mail agent, Republican, and, presume,
one of your own appointees, which |
proves your letter to be untrue in many |
essential particulars, it was made at the |
request of Senator Stevenson, then Gov |
ernor of Kentucky, and read as follows: |
LOUISVILLE, CIECTNNATI, ETC., RAIL
ROAD, NORTH BENTON STATION, Jan. 90, |
1S71.-I hailed the train for passenger |
to go to Louisville. -Four strangers rode |
up Just before the 3:45 train was due, |
When the train was within seventy-fYe |
AAND VI bhC 6bobtOA buC 6bOuNCob HAL VI 4
the party stepped out on the platform
and drew a Colts Navy revolver, saying
he intended TO kill the negro mail agent.
l begged him to desist and called on some
gentlemen to disarm him. His own
friends came around him and took his
pistol from him. When the train was
even with the platform, and running very
slow, the man still bent on assaulting the
negro, jumped into the mail car alone and
attempted to drag the mail agent out; but
the train moving off very quickly he was
frustrated, and jumped from the train
after it was in motion. There was only
one man entered the car; the other three
ran up alongside the mail car, but took no
part. After the train started off one of
the men fired pistol into the air. The
men were all strangers in this section and
rode off as soon as the train went cut IF
sight. "H. G. HODGES"
Senator Stevenson ssysi-I hope you
will turn to the Globe of this morning
and read his speech:
81 have given you the statement of the
mail agent / gave it to the Postmaster
General, and asked him if he had any
other information touching that overt act.
He replied that he had not, but that he
had received a dispatch stating that
threats had been made, and that the mail
guard of soldiers would have to be
doubled; and believing that the mail
agents life was not safe, he ordered the
mail to be stopped"
How you could write such letter to
Speaker Blaine, when, as you told Sens-
or Stevenson, the statement of Hodges
was all the information you had as to the
overt act, if you did not intend to de-
;eiYe Congress and the country, is past
ny comprehension. You assert that ga
number of shots were fired at the train"
Hodges says that Is not true; that only
1ne pistol was fired, and that was fired
INTO the air after the train started.
You conceal the fact that the only man
who sought to injure the agent or show
ID any disposition to do so, had been
iisarmed by his own companions before
he train reached tie station; but / for
bear further comment the statements
,neak for themselves. While in vour let