Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1872-03-08

store. He remembers Baron Garoit
came to the Office and spoke in res ard
to having the sale postponed fOr Two
or three days In order to allow some
German house to bid, that Is all the
conn ectiOn with any foreign govern
ment that witness knew. He knew
of no protest of the German govern
ment against the sale of arms; he
should have known If it had it been
made. The saleot FIVE hundred Spring
field arms to Remington q Co.. was
made by himself at private sale at
five dollars, few days previously.
About two thousand stand of the same
class were offered at Springfield
armory and arms were Withdrawn be-.
cause but g 80 each were offered. No
officer Of the ordnance or war depart
ments Of the United States govern
ment was interested, directly or indi-
rectly in the way Of commissions, or
otherw on sales of the arms to his
knowledge; nor had he any occasion
for believing that such was the case.
He knew nothing about the parties to
whom arms were sold having any
connection with foreign governments.
Dyer wrote witness a letter from New
York, saying that arms Of the model
of 1869 should be issued and those of
1856 Withdrawn, and directed him to
consult with the secretary of war IS
to the propriety Of selling the latter
and manufacturing cartridges for them
if necessary. The secretary approved
of the plan, and the sale was ordered
and made in New York.
This correspondence does not men,
ton Richardson's name. They were
sold at $21 60-within g few cents of
the original cost to the United States,
although they had been in use.
Senator SchurZ was present, by in
vitation, at the session of the senate
special committee, and put numerous
questions to Secretary Belknap re-
garding the sales of arms. The secre-
tary said that the arms were sold or
awarded to Remington before the
secretary was placed in possession Of
telegram to Squires, which was the
first intimation he had that Reming
ton was an agent OF the French gov
ernment. The arms were delivered
to Remington subsequent to the date
of the telegram. He could not now
certainly tell what name was signed
to the telegram, although according
to his best recollection il was that
of Remington. This telegram was
embodie in his evidence before the
house committee; but, after looking
at it, he said the name did not here
appear.
Senator Schurz closely interrogated
Secretary Belknap. about the dates
of the sales, but the latter could not
furnish all the desired information at
present. He, however, said that the
data was being prepared at at the
department.
An interrgstOry was put to Mr.. Bel
KNAPP involving the procuring and
use Ofa copy of letter from Belknap to
Fish, dated 18th January, 1872, in
which BeIknan acknowledged the re.
ceipt OF Fish's note, enclosing, by re-
quest of Debellanet, charge d'atfaires of
France, a copy of "a letter from
Remington to the president of COM
mission at Tours, containing a series
of allegations in regard to the pur-
chase Ofarms, etc., to which Belknap
replied. This letter it will be recOl-
lected was embodied in Senator Sum-
ner's preamble to a resolution asking
for committee Of INVESTIGATION. A
copy of this letter had been officially
communicated to the French charge
d'affaires but he had not made its
contents known TO other parties.
The name of a prominent Democrat
Mr.. Beck, lad been mentioned as
having heard it read, but that gentle
man on being spoken to on the SUBJ
ject denied the truth of the statement,
and another gentleman vino had
visited the department at the time
was alike ignorant of its contents.
The committee will at a subsequent
stage Of the examination examine the
other witnesses in order to ascertain
from whom copy of that letter was
procured.