Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-04-07
WASHINGTON.
The Robeson Investigation.

has been in the Navy forty-five years, and
was President of the Board which examin-
ed the SecOr claims. The Board concluded
that the law of 1868, which allowed Secor,
Perrines & Co., $4,000 in full settlement
did not appear to apply to the case, but as
the members were not lawyers the question
was for the Department to settle.
Chief Engineer Loring, who was one of
Boggs' Board, was examined. Did not know
whether any Of the bills presented by the
Secors were marked rejected by the former
Board. The member of the Secor Compa-
ny who appeared before the Board was not
sworn as to his account. The Board took
no declarations other than those of the
officers composing it.
MIR. King, Chief of Bureau of Steam En-
gineering, was examined by Secretary Ro-
beson: Testified that the Board was au-
thorized by Congress under the direction of
Secretary Welles. The claims of Secors
were ruled out as not coming within the
law.
Mr.. Archer, of the committee, remarked
that it appeared from the report of the
Marchand Board that $521, ,195 had been
paid to the Secors for work over and above
their contract prices.
Witness said that he presumed that state
ment was correct.
Mr.. Archer-And the Secors received
SIZE, 900 damages, and 1000 bribes.
Mr.. Brodhead, Second Comptroller of the
Treasury, testified that he was the officer
having the ultimate decision Of accounts.
When vouchers come to him for the pay
ment Of S93,Q00 to the Secors, his impress
sion was that the allowance was a mistake.
He took them up to the Secretary Of the
Navy and called his attention to law 6S.
Witness and the Secretary went over the
law together. 1t was not unusual TO re-
open accounts. 1t was sometimes done il
it was supposed the claims were just. He
never had any direction from the Secretary
of the Navy to favor anybody, but be re-
ceived letter from the Secretary as fol-
lows:
Nary Department, Washington, 16, 1871.
Dear Sir: Mr.. William Ingham, Of the
firm of Shoemaker & Inghaln, coal dealers,
Of the city of Philadelphia, is a son of a
personal friend of my own, and is known
to me as a gentleman of charter and re-
sponsibility. l shall be glad if his firm can
have fair opportunity to supply coal, the
same as required to be purchased for the
use of the navy, subject of course to the
provisions of law on that subject, and to the
best interests of the country. Very truly
yours, GEO. NJ. robson, Sec. of Navy
To Mr.. Alex. w. Russell, Purchasing
Paymaster, Philadelphia.
The Committee adjourned at half past
ten O'Clock until Monday evening.
A DisgracefuI Affsir-MOre COrrup
tfOn Unearthed.
Special to the Cincinnati Gazette.
WASHINGTON, April 4.-The Bower
and DeLarge contested election case from
South Carolina continues to develop new
and startling features, the first evidence
collected by both parties, being to es
tablish mutual charges of ballot box stufing
bribery, forged certificates, and corruption
in general, until it finally became question
of which was the least entitled to his seat
On this point DeLarge was promising fai
to get the best Of it, when his attorney
locked up his evidence, demanded a 81 ,50l
fee, and failing to get it, went over Il
Bowen as attorney against DeLarge. Th
latter in the meantime abandoned the cas-
entirely at this point, and INDUCED in dissi
patton to such an extent that his characte
bid fair to become more notoriOusly inta
nous than that of even Bowen; and to adj
to the bad features Of the whole, Bowen'
attorney, Butts, who had deserted DeLarge
himself was subjected to several crimina
prosecutions here lately for attempting Il
debauch young school girls, and was for
hidden, upon his release under bail, to ente
the room of the Committee on Elections
Finally DeLarge got a new attorney
who to-day argued the motion to dis
miss BoWen's contest on the grount
that he had accepted a State Office il
the meanwhile, and had thus become ineli
gible. The committee will not decide thi
point for several days, and, even though tn
! point be sustained, it will not confirm De
Large in his seat. In case the cOmmitte
| sustain either of these contestants, tn
| question will then remain whether tn
House will refuse to give them seats o.
moral grounds. Bowen has only bee
saved from serving term in the State pris
on through the Presidents pardon, while
One-half that is said of DeLarge be true,
pardon would not even save him.
Damaging Discoveries by the Senat
Arms Committee.
| SpeClal TO the OlnClnndtl commercial.
WASHINGTON, April 4.-The discoverie
made by the French Arms investigator!
! Committee, this forenoon, were Of the mos
! damaging nature. The two witnesses eX
amined were Gen. Rufus Ingalls,, of Ney
! York, and Gen. w. B. Franklin, Vice Pres
| ident, and Agent of the Colts Arms Com
pany, of Hartford. Gen. ingalls, testif
! ed that he obtained, in 1866, iv
thousand dollars worth of the stock of tn
Remington Company, and held it until
| wear and half or two years ago. He di
not remember whether be had it in his owl
name or that of some other person
when he sold it, or whether it wa
| in his possession in January, 1871. He di
remember, however, that he sold it to Co
! Squire for three thousand dollars. He di
not know of his own personal .knOwledg
that any other officers Of the army or CO.
eminent officials were owners of stoC
in the Remington Company, an
he refused to testify as to wha
he had heard. On that poll
his testimony is especially interestin!
from the fact that few minutes before, II
gals had emphatiCally denied that he ha
any connection with the Remington Con
pany during the FrancO-Prussian War, an
further, Col. Squire on the 10Th of las
month testified distinctly that no one ell:
besides the Remingtons, himself, Mr.. Shel
herd, Mr.. Heller and Mr.. Brooks held al
stock in the Remington Arms Company,
did in the year 1870. Squirrels testimon
Oh this point is; f'The stock is all owned
the family. The men other than those b
onging to the family own, think, OF
| share, so as to enable them to be director
! These were the stockholders in 1870, an
they were ALL"
Gen. Frauklin's testimony discOvere
two very important facts. The first Wa
that neighbOr and especial friend of Rob
son was employed by Poultney & Trimb
to negotiate with the Navy Department f
the purchase of the ten thousand nav
rifles, and was paid by them ten thousan
dollars for this service. The other pOiT
was, that the War Department, in 1877
sold to Gen. Franklin, for Samuel R ming
ton, nine six barreled Gatling guns, and n
ceived in payment nine ten-barreled gun
although no report of this transaction, {
any reference TO it of any kind has eve
been made in the Bureau or Department n
ports, in the report of sales sent to tf
! House of Representatives, Jan. p, or in IL
testimony Of the Secretary of War or al
Government officials. Franklin testife
that everybody with whom he dealt kne
I tr,o4 Dap,;y14Ou I,aI bOuobt tbasa Eatli