The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1876-02-12
BABCOCK'S TRIAL.
Ex-COmmissiOner Douglass Ola the
Stand.

Reconnaissance Douglass Ola the
Stand.
Babc0ck and the Order for the Trans
fer Of Supervisors.
ST. LOUIS, Feb. 1.-THE first witness called
this morning in the trial of Gen. Babcock was
Maj; e: b. Grimes, Depot Quartermaster of
the United States Army at st. Louis. Grimes
was introduced by the prosecution to show that
Gen. Babcock carried on correspondence with
Mcdonald last fall while the latter was under
Indictment for completely in the whiskey frauds
Major Grimes said: have been in the army
since September, 1862. 1 know Gen. Babcock,
having met him in 1862 in Utah, where L was
District Quartermaster. saw Gen. Babcock
when he was here last fall, probably in Sep
TENDER just before fair time, with the Pres-
dental party He said to me that he would
| through me to other parties. He did not say
| to whom. After that he sent three letters to
me, as recollect-that is, 1 suppose he sent
| them. l got letter addressed to myself with
| another letter in it, That was short time
after saw Gen. Babcock here. The letter
| enclosed in mine was in white envelope
| sealed and marked Mcdonald" The note to
me in the first letter was simply. "Please de-
| liver the enclosed letter to Mcdonald" and it
was signed 20. E. Babcock.'' think at nv
office. week or ten days later, 1 received
| another letter through the post office directed
to me. There was no note in it, but an en-
velope addressed in a different hand from that
of the first to Mcdonald. There was no note
around the envelope. The third letter was
| just like the second 1 delivered all three of
these letters to Mcdonald. When one of them
came he was not here, and in trying to find
him met his brother-in-law,, Tom Walsh, and
| told him, but don't know what Walsh did.
On cross-examination Mr. Grimes said that
he had known Gen. Babcock personally and
intimately, and the latter had been a good
friend to him: On one occasion, when Nc
Donald and Mckee were reported to be using
their influence to have him removed because
he would not put man in the place they
wanted, Babcock promised his influence to pre-
vent his removal. Witness in the course of
his cross exa mination, said;-"Once when 1
him (McDonald) did Babcock have anything
to do with this whisKey ring, and he said, Il
don't know; don't believe he knows any more
about it than you do, and you know you don't
know anything about it,
On redirect examination Grimes was asked:
"Did Mcdonald in that conversation saw that
he (himself) didn't know anything about the
whiskey ring?'
Witness-Yes, he did. Naughter.)
II. q. Rogers, Deputy Commissioner of in
ternal revenue, said tdat in 1874 at the request
| of Commissioner Douglass he correspondent
| with Brooks with regard to making visit to
st. Louis and Chicago for the purpose of inves-
| tigation. About the 9TH of December after he
| (Rogers) had been in Washington with Brooks,
| Mcdonald came to his Office and staid few
| min utes. The next day he came and said to
him Brooks and Hoge are coming to st. Louis
on special business" and protested against
| their casting suspicion on revenue officers sta
toned there. Rogers then telegraphed to
| Brooks to delay the investigation. W. @.
| Avery was then chief clerk in the internal rev.
| nue. bureau. Witness proceeded: In the lat.
ter part of November received letter from
| Brooks 1t referred to contemplated investiga.
| tions West and said something about the de-
| lays being profitable to the government and
| satisfactory to ourselves Douglass, the COM
missioner, showed me copy of letter in
his own handwriting. think Mr..
| Douglass said his attention had been called to
| certain Objectionable expressions in the letter.
| and he was cautioned to beware of persons who
| used such expressions Shortly after this
| Douglass informed me that we would abandon
the investigation.
Witness was briefly cross-examined, but
| nothing new was brought out.
J. w. Douglass, ex-Commissloner of Inter-
| nal Revenue was next put upon the stand and
said: During 1873, IA and rs there were
| efforts constantly made to ferret out frauds
that were perpetrated. Several revenue agents
| were sent out to St. Louis in 1872, but
| received no definite Information from them.
Later Brooks and Hoge were sent out especial
ly to look into Bevis & Frazer's affairs. and
that firm paid the government $4,000 as
compromise. When sent Joyce to California
it was to get him out of the way Of the agents,
! whom sent here, and who complained of an
excessive attention on his part, winning and
dining them so that they could not do any
| work. Mcdonald and Joyce never came to
| see me much when they were in Washington.
had conversation with Rogers in regard to
/ the Investigations in the West. I remember
| showing him copy of letter received between
the 10th and 18th of December, written by
n1yn f1xN1 ALL
| profitable to the government, or gratifying to
ourselves, or something of that kind. The
| copies of the letterslwere shown to me at the
White House by Gen. Babcock. He said
| gentleman had shown it to him, and he was
| afraid was being deceived by those men. He
| said he would hold me responsible for their
| conduct. 1 told him had great confidence in
| the men. He said, "What might sensitive
man like Logan say if he saw that letter?'
Babcock told me the letter had been given him
contdentially, and requested me not to say
where received it from. After the visit of
Mcdonald to Washington remember of COM
| ing out Of my house one day when met Bah
COCK. and we talked about st. Louis matters.
| can't say exactly what was said. We talked
about revenue agents coming here. Once in
| 1874 Babcock came to my Office and we talked
| about the supposed charges against Ford, who
| was dead at that time. told him there were no
| charges against Ford; that the charges was
| getting up were against the living He asked
| what examination had been made, and said
| something about blackening the memory of
| Ford said the only way mans memory could
| be blackened, who was dead, was by an exami-
nation. Afterwards Babcock came to see me
| about sending bird-a thrush, 1 think-out
West. He only came to my Office once or
twice altogether that remember.
Witness identified many kilograms bearing
on the subject of the transfers and of the wis
| key frauds, as having been sent and received
by him. Col Dyer wished to read despatch
| signed by Gen. Babcock but the defence OBJ.
| jected and it went over. Several other dis
| patches either to or signed by Gen. Babcock,
| three months before Richardson went out of
office had d talk with the President and told
him things were crooked in St. Louis, and
thought if the proper investigation was made
it would result largely to the benefit of the
treasury. He concurred with me and asked
when proposed to begin. On the Goth of JAN
uary, 1876, addressed a letter to the Secretary
of the Treasury in regard to change of SUI
pervisors. The rumors of frauds beginning in
1872 caused me to write this letter. After
wards Secretary BristOw came into Office, and
we talked the matter over, concluding to wait
till the fall elections were over
We waited and then there were nupb Der of
senatorial elections, ard we had to wait until
they were over. Then we found that we were
in the midst of a presidential election and that
was another obstacle. After that we arranged
to make the transfers Qetters produced and
ready in regard to the change of officers of in-
ternal revenue including zen. Mcdonald to
Philadelphia and Mr.. Fulton to ST. Louis.
The witness proceeded: Afterwards L ad-
dress letter to the Secretary and the transfers
OF the supervisors were made. had CONVEX
sation with the defendant. The conversation
was commenced by his calling nay attention to
the subject. He told me that it was an unwise
measure and would result in bringing such a
strong pressure upon the President that the Or
der would have to be recalled, which would be
unpleasant for me. The conversation was held
in Babcock's room at the White House. The
President was not present. don't remember
to have had any other conversation with de-
PENDANT about the matter. The transfer was
to take place on the 18th of February. I no.
titled the parties by telegraph on the 4th that
the order would be reversed.
Col. Dyer then read the Presidents revocation
of the order as follows:
EXECUTIVE MANTIoN, Feb 4, 1875.
Sir-The President directs me to say that he
desires that the circular order transferring the
supervisors of internal revenue be suspended
by telegraph until further orders.
(Signed,) LEVI P. LUcKEY
Witness in reply to question said: saw