The Portland daily press., 1873-12-04
The CARPENTER Scandal.

summer by the new Ioih A'e0""o anu oIu-
er journals. Senator Carpenter has not seen
fit to make a defense, but it seems that his
colleague. Senator Howe and other friends
have taken different view and have spared
no pains to arrive at the real facts in the case.
The Times says that the true facts have been
known to it for some time. The case is brief
ystated by the Times as follows:
Mr.. Carpenter went, during the summer,
to Long Branch, having an appointment with
the President on business. He was accom-
panied BY the lady in question, who was put
in his charge by her husband. Arriving
there about in the afternoon, he went d.
rectly to the West End Hotel and applied for
rooms, and was informed by the clerk that
there was not vacant room in the house,
and had not been for several days. The clerk
and Mr.. Carpenter were well acquainted, the
clerk having been formerly in Wizards Ho-
tel, Washington, where Mr.. Carpenter and
his family had boarded two years. The clerk
gave Mr.. Carpenter note of introduction to
the Ocean House, and he went there and OBJ
tanned a room for the lady and one for himself.
At Z o'clock he took tea at the Presidents,
and spent the evening with President Grant
until 30. He then returned to the hotel,
where everal gentlemen called on him, in
whose company he remained until about ~
O'Clock, and returned to New York the next
morning.
Ramsdell-a correspondent of the Tribune,
who was imprisoned about two years ago by
the Senate on Mr. Carpenters motion, for
contempt in refusing to testify in regard to
the stolen treaty, ard who vowed vengeance
on Mr. Carpenter at the time, and seems to
have watched for an opportunity to retaliate
for what he regarded as an njary-was stop
ping at the West End Hotel. He at once
repaired to the telegraph Office and sent a
dispatch to the Tribune, saying. that Senator
Carpenter had arrived at Long Branch, and
had been refused a room at the hotel, '.for
reasons best kn0lrn to himself and the pro-
prtetor Of the hotel
This telegram suggested base falsehood,
a. Ramsdell well knew at the time. He. de-
vised it, as he himself admitted afterward,
solely for the purpose of ..getting even" with
Senator Carpenter. After this had gone
through the press, there came charge made
by Brick Pomeroy, in his sheet in this City,
that Mr.. Carpenter was refused room be-
cause he was in a state of beastly in oxica-
ton, and it was said that his appearance
'was dirty and filthy in the extreme'
A few days were allowed for this to be cop
led by the press, preparing the public
mind to believe that Mr.. Carpenter, in such
condition, might be guilty of anything, and
then the moral editor of the Tribune came
out with column of his usual wild Western
rowdyism, charging Mr.. Carpenter with hav-
ing outraged the decency of the land by
Haunting paramour in the face of decent
mothers and wives.
The charge of ''beastly intoxication" was
necessary basis upon which to rest the
other charge; for no one would believe that
MI. Carpenter was such natural-born idiot
as to do what was charged, if ne were sober
and in his right mind.
To refute the charge of drunkenness the
Times publishes letter written by President
Grant to Senator Howe in which it is stated
that Mr.. Carpenter called on the former at
mis- residence at Long Branch the same even
ing that he was charged with being ''beastly
intoxicated, and that in an hours CONVEX
sation, the President declares that he saw
not the slightest evidence of intoxication or
even OF having been drinking. Following
the letter from President. Grant is one from
Mr.. Farrar, the clerk of the West End Hotel
which declares that he could not give Mr.
Carpenter room because there was not
vacant one in the house. The writer further
states that '.Mr Carpenter was neither in
toxicated, nor guilty of any improprieties
whatever"
The following letter from DR.. Bliss of
Washington disposes of Mr.. Ramsdell himself
and shows what kind of men are employed
by the Tribune:
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA BOARD OF HEALTH
H.. r. WASHINGTON, Oct q, 1873
DEAR SIR: saw Mr.. Ramsdell, who telegraphed
to the New York Tribune in regard to Senator Car
Rs4ter 8 Deng refused rosms at the West End Hotel
IN Long Branch. in June last. Soon ate Mr.. RAMS
I T return to Washington l then informed Mr..
isdv IN aas was personally acquainted with the
On seysral occasions during the last three years;
Vat he had made q mistake and done the lady a
got epen aoth Carpenter" This he repeated in sub
stance several times during the conversation lead
to punish Senator Carpenter for his course as Chair
man Of the Senate Committee in the matter Of the
stolen treaty. MIR; Ramsdell was formerly my chief
CLERK at Armory Square End Hospital during the
late war, and our l'tions have been and now are
intimate, and this conversation convinced me that
have been to Others and that he was oniy actuated
by design to retaiate upon Senator Carpenter and
seemed 70 rejoice that he had inflicted injury upon
to iohGt the facts might be.
make this statement as matter of Justice, both
70 the v 1say injured tIE and Senator carp,ptsT
Following the above is letter from Sena-
tor Spencer of Alabama, who visited tile West
End Hotel at Long Branch the day after the
telegram respecting Senator Carpenter, ap-
peared in the Tribune and there saw Mr.
Kamsdell. The closing paragraph of the letter
isaas follows:
saw the Tribune correspondent (Mr. RamsdelD
few moments atterward and referring to the tele-
gram in the Tribune, asked him what 1t meant and
whether there was any truth in it. He admitted to
me that there s0ds truth aChatever in ch1t scould
be implied from the telegram. afterward talked
with the room clerk upon the same subject and he
told me you were refused room only because every
one in the house was occupied.
1t would seem that these facts, however
latedheir appearance, conclusively prove the
Rrcuudless and malicious character of the re-
peated charges of the Tribune.