The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1874-04-11
hit. SOLICITOR BANFIELD.


In looking over the Congressional Dircc.
tory, we find under the head of "Depart.
mcnt of Justice, the following entry ::
"'SoA'c't0r IF tic Treasury, TREASURY DE-
portmeW. E. c. Banficld. Until recent.
y, he has been man comparatively I'M
Known 10 fame, and Would have hoe,
spoken OF rs "One" Banficld, but he Inns
suddenly come into an undeservcd notorie-
~. lie has been selected to bear. not exact
~ the sins Of the world, hut the sins of the
treasury department Two diiIic ltics werc
found in saddling these sins upon him
namely, that his shoulders were not broad
enough, and then he wouldn't fear them
any way. As long as every one, outside of
those mixed up in the matter, were kent in
profound ignorance Of the "alf and 'nlf',
contracts, it did not matter much, but when
the whole iniquity was brought into the
light OF day, scapc goat was needed. I'm.
fortunately for those concerned. Mr.. So.
lcitor Banfeld was selected for that ,,ucn.
viable position. There were. however.
two difficulties in the way Of making tho
little thing work. In the first place. Ban.
iield thought, undoubtedly, that he had
SINS enough OF his own TO answer for, with
out assuming those of his SO called supe-
riors and, secondly, he seems strange MS
1t may appear, TO have conscientious scru.
pies about y- let us say stretching a
point lie has been examined before the
committee on ways and means, and his
WhOIc bearing and manner as well as every
word Of his testimony bore upon il the
impress OF truth. lie explained that the
duties ct his office were of two
classes. The first were imposed by
statute, and might be called original and
for the proper discharge of these Duties he
was responsible to the law. With this
branch, We have nothing to do. The sec
ond branch OF his duties lis to act. when
called upon, as the legal adviser and attor
ney OF The secretary of the treasury. I'm
tins branch he can originate nothing. He
writes nothing for the signature of the
secretary without written or verbal orders
and cannot originate anything lie then
goes on to show, that his whole action in
reference to these SanhoIn and other
similar contracts was as legal adviser: that
he was consulted with, both bv Messrs.
Boutwell,, Richardson and Sawyer, in ref
erencc thereto that he never saw Sanborn,
or heard of him or his contracts until
Richardson gave him the papers and in
slrucliOns 10 draw the contracts that there
was not, and could not be any such thing
as routine in his office; that he never
prepared contract or paper for tho sigma
turc ol the secretary without previous en-
press in~iructlons; aRd he repeated, with
emphasis, that every one Of the papers in
these contract cases whc! he prepared
were prepared in this way that is upon
express instructions from the secretary.
Wen may the correspondent of the Times
say 1.-THE contradiction between Mr.. Ban
leld ana the two secretaries is whollyirrc
concilablc and incapable of any explana-
ton except that on one side or the other
statements absolutely false have been
made" We hardly think that any one
familiar with the duties Of an attorney or
solicitor will hesitate long which to be-
lieNc. some other scape goat will have to
be found, but the attempt will sink some
of these honorable ~ gentlemen deeper in
the mire than ever