Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-03-26
PIG IRON KELLY.
One OF His Misrepresentation Col
rected-LeGter from Jefferson Davii


One OF His Misrepresentation Cor.
rected-LeGter from Jefferson Davis.
MEMPHIS, Tenn, March 8, 1872.-Fred.
Beall, Esq, Attorney at Law, Okolona,
.Miss.-Dear Sir: / have to acknowledge
the receipt OF your letter of the 9th ult., in
which you draw my attention to an address
on the Northern Pacific Railroad, delivered
in Philadelphia last June by Mr.. w. ID.
Kelly, and particularly to the following ex-
tract
$50 startling were the advantages pos
sessed by this route (from Duluth to Puget
Sound) that the then Secretary of War,
Jefferson Davis, struck from the report of
Gov. Stevens, since so distinguished as
soldier and engineer, the estimate he pre-
sented of the cost, which was SIT, ,12i 900,
and inserted in lieu thereof $l30,7S1 ,000."
| might have answered you Immediately
by an assurance that Mr.. Kelly's statement
is wholly destitute Of truth, but thought it
better to delay my reply until / could fur
nish you With the facts. could only do
this by reference to official documents,
and this has taken some time, as was
obliged 10 collect them from others, the sell
zure Of nay library during the late war hay-
ing deprived me of the means ofdoing so by
reference to my own books and papers. 4
l can not understand why Mr.. Kelly
should refer to the official reports of the ex-
plerations made while / was Secretary Of
War, unless he supposed that his hearers
would never examine those reports for
themselves, and, therefore, never discover
that, SO far from demonstrating the ''start-
ling advantages" of the route from Duluth
to Puget Sound, they prove conclusiVely the
reverse; nor do see how the assertion in
regard to myself could strengthen his case,
unless he believed that should never see
the slander, or seeing it should not consider
it worthy of notice.
Under my direction as Secretary of War,
Capt. (now Gen. "a. A. Humphreys had the
general charge of the Pacific Railroad Ex-
plorations, and submitted report upon all
The routes. The figures quoted by Mr..
Kelly as appearing in my report, also form
part of the report of Capt. Humphreys.
All the reports, that of the Secretary of
War, that of Capt. Humphreys, that of
Gov. Stevens, aud the reports of other Off
GERS connected with that survey, are to be
found in the first volume Of the Pacific
Railroad Reports, published by order oft
Senate of the United States. On pages
IA and 145 of that volume, Gov. Stevens
estimate of the cost of the various proposed
routes will be found. Not a figure, word
or letter was stricken from or added to it.
1t was sent to Congress exactly as it was
received from Gov. Stevens, and printed
exactly as it was prepared by him.
The table of lengths, sum Of ascents and
descents, costs, &c, of all the routes, which
will be found appended to my report, (vol.
l., page 31) was prepared for me by Capt.
Humphreys, and is substantially the same as
that contained in the report of Capt. Hum
phreys, (vol. l., page 107) with explanatory
foot notes; the same as those attached to
the table appended to my report, the first of
which is as follows:
"These are the estimates of the Office,
those of Gov. Stevens having been brought
to the same standard of increased cost as
the other routes, and his equipments re-
duced to that Ofthe other routes. His esti-
mates were $117,121, 900 and $7,030,000.
Capt. Humphreys, in making his own
estimate of the comparative cost of all the |
routes, was necessarily obliged to
establish an uniform standard, which was
applied to all the estimates.
YoN will see from the foregoing that Mr.. !
Kelly made an unfounded statement when |
he said that struck out from the report of |
Gov. Stevens the figures of his estimate
and inserted others in their place; and you /
will also see, that in preparing his address,
Mr.. Kelly must have consulted the official |
volume of reports to which have referred,
and therefore made the statement knowing
It to be false.
In the very able report of Gen. Hum
phreys, he proves that the route of the SD /
parallel is much the shortest, least costly /
and most practicable of all the routes, and
.he experience of the past winter gives ma
,erial strength to his argument. But it did
not suit Mr.. Kelly's purpose, in demonstrat-
ng the ''startling advantages" of the route
rom Duluth to Puget Sound, to make any
'eference to the opinions of Gen. Hum
1hreys, whom he might also have described
Is distinguished as soldier and engineer"
he seems to have preferred TO misquOte
public documents, suppress truth, and, by
way of emphasis, resort to deliberate SLAM
Ter in assigning an unworthy motive to ac-
,Ount for an act which he had not even a
plausible pretext for asserting had been
reformed.
With many thanks for your kind interest
md good wishes, l remain, very truly and
yours, JEFFERSON DAVIS.