The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1876-03-17

| THE FRIGHTENED WITNESS.
Whether OF not there II enough testimon!
to convict Gen. Belknap before the Court o
Impeachment, or whether there is any testi
mony At al, the public are mot at present in
formed But what does seem to be plain il
that for some reason or other the prosecution
is delayed, and the delay is naturally attri
buted to the absence Of evidence, now that
Marsh has taken fight It is hardly credit.
able to the committee to suppose thst they
made mistake in 80 important matter q
this, and yet there appears to be little doubt
that they presumed, for some time at least,
that the testimony given by Marsh before
them could be used as evidence in the trial
before the Court Of Impeachment. The dis
covery of this error, combined with the disap-
pearance of the evidence, has, probably,
brought the prosecution to stand.
But, after all, this was . mere error of
Judgment on the part Of the committee, and
il was an error which would have had
no material consequence but for the fight Of
the witness. When that person had given
his testimony Re was discharged from further
attendance before the committee, simply be-
cause he had done all that in that stage of
the affair was required from him. The COM
mittee had no reason to presume that, after
resisting the powerful influences brought to
bear on him to induce him to leave the coun-
try, in order to shield the Secretary Of War,
he would take to fight in order to avoid testi-
flying before the Court Of impeachment
The real injury to the culprit, the dis
grace, the exposure, the compulsory resig-
nation, were due to his evidence as given
before the committee. It could not, there
fore, have been from any tenderness for Ger.
Belknap, or any disposition to protect that
official, that Marsh betook himself to Canada
Other influences must have acted upon him.
He must have been concerned, not for the
Secretary Of War, but for himself Any other
explanation of his conduct would be absurd
in view of the course which he had already
pursued. The Republican journals and Re-
publican members of Congress try to make it
appear that he fed because the Democrats,
for some inscrutable reason, impelled him to
fight; that the Democrats for some reason
still more inscrutable, had suddenly con-
Erived plot to save Belknap from final ruin,
and that the agents selected to carry the plot
into effect were the Democratic members of
The committee who had discovered the crimi-
aality Of the Secretary and the witness who
had given evidence against him.
The facts, on the contrary, show that Marsh
vas frightened away by the threats of the
President to prosecute and punish him for
his share in the fraudulent transactions. After
ais discharge by the the committee, Marsh
vent to New York, and stayed in that city till
o'clock on the following day. On that day
Cabinet meeting was he'd, at which the
President announced that che had deter
mined not to shrink from the responsibility
hat rested upon him, and he therefore asked
he Attorney General to take immediate
teps to proceed with the criminal charges
against Gen. Belknap and Messrs. Marsh and
Comlinsop, and al others shown by any evi.
lence to have had part in the fraudulent
which were the subject of atten-
ion."
The proceedings of this Cabinet meeting
we're Immediately reported in Washington.
They were public property even before the
Meeting came to an end, and it came to an
md an hour before the train which bore
Marsh away left the station in New York.
That is to say there was ample time for Marsh
o be informed by friends in Washington that
he whole power Of the Federal Government
vas to be directed against him for having tes-
fled to Belknap's frauds. Mr.. Blaine, with
lis usual disingenuousness, argued in the
House that Marsh could not have been
Harmed by proceedings which had taken
lace. But it was precisely in order to avoid
hose proceedings that Marsh fed. 1t is true
hat he had not yet been arrested; but AZ
est was what he wanted to avoid.
It is true that he had not yet been brought
p for trial, but trial was what he wanted to
scape. Mr.. Blaine may mean that the pro.
ceilings Of the Cabinet meeting, a. reported,
ad never taken place, but it was stated, and
enerally believed, that sushh proceedings had
.ken place, and the report was transmitted
) the press by Mr.. Gabright, the agent Of
be Associated Press North, and by Mr.. Barr,
be agent of the Associated Press West and
outh. and was published throughout the
ouuiry on the morning Of March Alb. As
else believed it, Marsh believed it,
nd Is it directly threatened his personal
afety, he acted on it-he stood not on the
RIDER of his going, but went ct once.
It may be that the report was false; but We
ave Is yet no authority for this belief other