The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1872-01-19

Se4.
said that every member OF that committee be-
longed to the Republican party since Its In
ceplion in the State, and 1t might have been
expected at least that as to the Republican
officials, whom they were called upon to speak
of, they would s'be to their errors ever kind,
aud to their faults little blind" They had,
however, presented o volumlnous report,
giving. as we'll as facts and figures, great
many inferences of their own. In that re-
port he. as a State official, had been held up
to the reprobation of the people, and had
been charged with frauds and malfeasance In
office. He did not stand there to shrink from
any investigation of his official acts, but to
state certain further facts that he had 10 bis
possession, and then to demand, II the House
they Institute still more rigid aud search
Ing Investigation as an act of Justice to HIM
self and the State. He might, If he
chose, clear himself from these charges
BY taking higL moral ground-by saying
that, inasmuch as the report did not clearly
aud. distinctly impllcate him in fraud, they
had no right to lay the charges at his door,
or he might divert attention from those
charges by attacks npon the character of his
accusers. He would, however, take neither
Of these courses. He had no enmity against
the members of that committee-they had
merely done what they supposed to be their
duty; but, If they had the right to draw their
differences from the facts tney had obtained,
he had right to meet and answer them. He
read from pages 254, 255 and 256 OF the report
the charges that had been made of frauds 10
the purchase of arms, &C., and proceeded TO
explain that the State had bought one thous-
and Winchester rifles under the following cir
cumstances: While the last Legislature was
In session, Hon. Mr.. Winchester came here
4 Ill tha nd
Dennis, who was then chief clerk In the ad-
iutant-1eneraps Office, for the purchase Of
some Winchester rifles. The first he had
heard of it was the joint resolution introduced
Ia the Assembly. The Governor had then
ordered him to go to New Haven and con-
tract for one thousand guns at thirty-three
dollars each. He had nothing to do with
the contract; that had all oeen arranged
before between Dennis, Winchester and The
Governor, and he did not know up to the
present time whether Mr.. Winchester had ever
been paid for them. AS to the Springfield
rifles that had been altered, he had been Or
dered by the Governor to 60 to washington
and draw the quota of war material allowed 10
the State. Each State was entitled by law to
supplies for the State militia to the amount OF
seven thousand dollars per annum, but In the
case OF the Southern States no allowance was
made for the years of the war. He had chosen
springfield muskets, which were charged at
seven dollars each. He had drawn ten thous-
and of them, worth seventy thousand dollars,
or ten years allowance, counting forward from
the time they were issued; and he wanted 1t
understood that the War Department only fur
nished the ten years supply 10 advance on the
understanding that If South Carolina was ever
going to need arms during the coming ten
years 1t would be during the two years lmme-
diately succeeding that grant. Then he was
ordered to have the Springfield muskets al
tered into breech-loadlng rifles at as low
price a., possible. He had gone 70 New
York, and he acknowledged tt for a
military officer, he had very small ac-
ouaintance with military affairs, such as
the prices of war material, &c. DE
had gone to the financial agent and asked
him where he should go to get that kind OF
work done at the lowest rates, and ne had
been introduced, by Mr.. Kimpton, to l1ls =.
q. Pond, of whom the report speaks. De goe
Mr.. Ponds rates, and on looking around
found that the prices he charged were the same
as had been paid by other States for the con.
version of muskets, and he made contracts at
those rates. He had never received any money
for making those contracts, and he did not
then know whether Pond had ever been paid
for the contracts. He had never seen MIR.
Pond since that time. he had been approach.
of the ioint special financial Investigating
committee, and informed that they had found
q terrible margin In the arms account, and
that he was mixed up In the transactions, and
he had then and there asked them to make
the fullest and most searching investigation OF
that part of their work as an act Of Justice TO
himself. The committee had stated that the
alteration OF each of these guns had cost SIG b6
more than the Remington Company charged
for bran new gun OF their manufacture, but
If that were true he submitted that the
Remington Company must sell very cheaply
Inasmuch as the guns that he got
from the United States Government
cost, Including the 81 charged By the govern
ment and the So IS charged for ALTERATION,
the Remington company charged for new
weapons, he could not see how their profit on
guns was made. The committee had stated
the cost of these arms and alterations, on
pages 245 and 273 of their report, a. S206,-
COZ &c, and they had said that this was In ad-
dillon to the amount paid for Winchester
rifles. he submitted, In refntation of this
charge, original copies of all the contracts he
had ever entered into for the alteration OF
arms and the purchase of ammunition, which
he said were on exhibition at any time In the
adjulant generals Office, and which were as
follows:
For altering 5000 mussets on the Roberts
system. em.......................... l4I5
For altering 10000 cartrldge.boxes. 1850
For altering SO 10 muskets on the Remlng.
ton system. m................- 4o,ooo
Total. slSs, 925
Beyond this amount of sl33,925, he knew
nothing of any contracts with Mr. Pond, or
anybody else, and as to the report of the Joint
special committee which ewelled the amount
to s2O6, ,602 &c, he knew not how 1t was made.
In conclusion he said that he did not desire
10 excu'pate himself at the expense OF the
Governor, but he believed the Governor to be
as innocent as himself in these transactions.
He had seen letter In the Sumter News,
copied from the New Yorker Staats zeitnng,
in which the writer had said that the writer
had conversed with Mr. Bowen, who had said
that the recent vote upon the impeachment
resolutions had been forced upon the House,