Knoxville Whig and chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1875-1882, 1875-12-22
GENERAL BABCOOK.
letter From supervisor Tat,op


has written the following letter, which
shows that charge untrue. Supervi-
sor Tuition is "A gentleman, who enjoys
the confidence, and respect of all :"
To His ErceLLency IT, S. Grant PreSi-
dent Of The United States
SIR: l observe that Senator Hender-
son, in the trial of the case of the
United States VS.. Avery (if his speech
be correctly reported), charges Gen.
Babcock, your private Secretary, with
having some connection with the st.
| Louis Whisky Rings, and, in their in
terest, having improperly influenced
| you to revoke the order of the Secre-
tary of the Treasury, transferring Su-
| pervisors, dated January 27, 1870. AS
4 have claimed the credit of having
! influenced you TO revoke that order, l
| feel it Is my duty now to assume the
| responsibility and receive whatever
Odlum, If any, attaches thereto: and,
with this in view, beg leave to re-
mind you of the facts as they recur to
me.
On or about the last day of January,
| 1874, | received letter from Commits
sioner Douglass, enclosing the Secre-
tary's order of the 9th of January
transferring me to the st. Louis Dis
trict, and directing me to report there
for duty on the 18th of February. l
went to Washington on the night of
| tue Sd of February ; saw Commissioner
| Douglass on the morning of the 4th,
and asked him how long was expect
ed to remain at St Louis, to which he
replied: Perhaps n year; six months
at least" | said, If so, | would have to
| I I
for six months. Mr.. Douglass stated
that these transfers originated and were
ordered by the Secretary, and that
had better see him, | then went di>
rectly to Secretary Bristow, and had
quite a lengthy interview. l made
substantially the same statement to
him-that, if it was proposed to keep
me at st. Louis six months or year,
would be compelled to tender my re-
| signatiOn, as / could not take my fam
lily with me, and / would not leave
| them six months FOR the sake of the
Office, besides which | had some prop
ertY and other personal interests that
could not be neglected for that length
of time. The honorable Secretary
finally agreed that | should 90 wit
the understanding that was at liberty
to return on the LIST day OF April, thus
making my absence about six weeks.
To this | assented, but at the same
time stated that | should not be able TO
accomplish any gOOd-that, if there
were any extensive frauds, which he
feared were being perpetrated there
and at other points by dstillers, with
the knowledge and aid of the local OIL
GERS, they would cover it 80 deep that
| should not be able to discover it
that the fact of these transfers of Su-
pervisor5 and Revenue Agents having
been published, giving the parties full
notice for two or three weeks that
there We're to be such changes, would
give ample time TO persons interested
TO SO completely cover their
fraudulent transactions as to rem
der it almost impossible to trace them.
| respectfully suggested that, in my
opinion, it would be much better "a
send some competent, discreet person
who would not be known, aud whose
movements would be entirely secret
TO see what was going on, and in this
way the parties could be caught in tine
act of delrauding, and sufficient evi
dence obtained on which to make
seizures aud thereby get other proofs o.
, fraud and urged that this plan should
he adopted, only at st. Louis, but
al Chicago and other suspected points
and suggested 20 the Secretary tha
p Special~Agent Brooks, who had beer
on duty with me for about five years
would be the very best man for thai
Z purpose of whom ] had knowledge
, Finally, the Secretary suggested that
had better see the President, as he haC
] taken a great interest in this matter
, /, therefore, went directly to the White
House, saw Gen. Babcock, with whom
r at that time ] had scarcely a speaking
acquaintance, and told him | wanted
to see you, that | had been ordered Il
report for duty at ST. Louis on the l5tl
inst, and / desired to see you befor
i going. He replied that you were en-
h gagged with Senators and members, bu
that, If l would call in an hour, ! cOulC
u have an interview with you.
e / called at the time named, and Gen
Babcock took in my card, and | wa
admitted at once, when l made tn
@ same statement to you that / had t
Il the Secretary, and made the same sug
. gestion that | had made TO him abOu
:, sending a suitable person or persons
u without the knowledge of eithe
officers or distillers, so that they migh
p he detected in the very act Of fraud
, associations and their combination
3 fully discovered; and that then, if tn
Department had not confidence in tn
local officers, temporary transfer G
Supervisors could be made for tn
purpose of making seizures and prop
C erly working up the cases You lis
l. tened to me attentively, and final.
said the more you thought about tn
IL subject the more you were convince
l.. that the transfer Of Supervisors as OF
dered would result in little or no goUd
Ie and said you would suspend the orde
that day. Thus you fully decided
suspend the order, and so stated to m
before l left you, aud before Gen. Bat
cock had an opportunity to speak
n you on the subject, az he was nc
u present at the time, and / am quit
II certain you arrived at thus cOnclusio
r. during our interview. | am cOuiidel
As that Gen. BabcOck could not have in
al huenced you in revOking the order 7,
Of ferred TO, and that what | said to go
10 on the subject was, in my judgmen
a. for the best interests Of the Revenu
A. 4