Port Royal commercial and Beaufort County Republican. [volume] (Port Royal, S.C.) 1873-1874, 1874-04-30
More Presidential Snubbing.

mittee appointed to present the memorial
of citizens of Boston against imitation,
gives the following account of the de-
meanor of the president at the interview
called upon Gen. Sherman, who
kindly offered to 90 with me to the Presi-
dent, and l gladly accepted his offer We
went, and were admitted at once, when
Gen. Sherman Immediately left the Presi-
dent and myself alone together, and no
other person was present during the
interview.
| stated to the President that large
public meeting, the numbers OF which
were estimated by the newspapers from
25O0 to 1000 persons, had been recently
held in Fanueil Hall, that resolutions had
been unanimously adopted, and COM
mittee appointed to present them, with
a memorial to be prepared by them, to
the President; that the legislation of the
House had advanced rapidly, and my
associates were unprepared to leave home
at the moment, and could not reach
Washington before Saturday; that | re-
gretted their absence, but as the paper
which I had with me had been signed by
every one of them delay seemed unneces-
sary, and [ requested his permission to
read the resolutions and memorial to
him, to which request he assented.
read the paper through without in
terruption from the President. When [
had finished he said; There are two
things in that paper which =! do not like.
The resolutions say the legal tender acts
were first declared unconstitutional, and
afterwards constitutional by majority OF
one vote. That is not exactly so. The
resolutions attack my administration, in
saying that the legal tender notes should
have been paid with the reserves instead
of using them to buy up long bonds.
This was the policy of my administration,
and such restitution is an attack upon 1t
which do not like. think that policy
is right, and they call it wrong. That
policy reduced the premium on gold from
"a per cent, to l3 per cent.
replied that it was the general under
standing that the citizens OF the United
States were at full liberty to assemble in
public meetings and pass any resolutions
which they saw fit and present them to
the PRESIDENT, observing proper courtesy;
that | did not write the resolutions, but
was the official organ deputed by the
citizens to present them to him.
He then remarked that in the memo
rial we deplored the passage of the orlgl-
nal legal tender acts, and he did not like
that; that the war could not have been
successfully carried on without them,
that the country had approved them. and
he did not think it right that we should
come to ask favor of him and at the
same time censure his administration. l
replied that neither nor the citizens Of
Boston asked any favor at his hands; that
they desired the right thing to be done;
that they had expressed their views OF
what the right was and presented them
to him; that they did not claim infallibili-
ty. and that he would act on his own
Judgment.
The next day a committee OF New
York merchants, representing, 1t is estl-
mated, five hundred millions of dollars,
waited on the President with memorial
similar to the Boston one. The president
appointed an interview and the COM
mittee was introduced. Just as Cyrus
w. Field was about to begin his address
Ben Butler entered and with a cunt
apology drew Grant away, into a window
recess, leaving the committee twirling
their hats for ten minutes. Then the
chairman again commenced, and was
again interrupted by the entrance ofsena-
tDrs Loogan and Carpenter, storing
opponents of the movement. Scna-
tor Logan stood in leaning at
t'tudc. with his hands in the pockets Of
his pantaloons and cigar in his mouth
during the whole interview. Senator
Carpenter entered the room with cigar
in his mouth, but after while took 1t
out and held it in his hand. Had the
Senators desired by their actions to ex-
press contempt for the Committee, they
could hardly have been more successful,
as the conduct of Senator Logan was not
only diScouteous and ungcntlemaniy,
but postiyely disgusting.