The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1876-03-10
NEW ORLEANS BULLETIN
NEW ORLEANS, MARCH 10. 1876.
A BLACK SPOT.

A great deal has been said about the iette'
from Attorney General Pierrepont, announc
ing, in effect, just before the commencement
Of the Babcock trial, that no guilty witness
would be permitted to escape Grant had this
letter written. This thing of rasca's turning
States evidence and escaping, hurt his piece
of mind. The letter was meant for District
Attorneys only. How it got into print has
been a mystery. The Chicago Tribune the
other day, said:
GA comparison of the true copy, given in
our columns this morning, with the copy
published in the Cincinnati Commercial OF
February 5, as dispatch from st. Louis, un.
doubleday shows discrepancies, which would
suggest that the substance of the letter had
been given from memory; but o comparison
Of the genuine copy with the letter published
in the Chicago 1lns1s Of February shows the
latter to be literal and exact transcript, ex.
cepting the natural and trivial errors incident
TO transmission by telegraph, and shows be-
yond question that the person who gave the
letter to the Washington correspondent of the
Times, had seen and copied Mr.. Pierreponts
letter.
IF Mr. Storrs was the person who supplied
the letter to the Times man, then Mr.. Storrs
obtained it direct from the Attorney Generals
Office. The discrepancies above referred TO
are easily accounted for. They arose from
the fact that the letter in the Times Of Febru-
airy was translated into German and retrans-
lated into English before it appeared in the
Cincinnati Commercial the discrepan-
cies In the light Of the denial by Attorney
General Pierrepont and Mr.. Storrs that Gen.
eral Babcock or his counsel were accorded ex-
traordinary favors by the Department OF JUS
tice, IL becomes peculiarly interesting and I'M
pmtant TO know ho,o Mr.. Storrs obtained posses
sion of the famous letter..
Precisely; and it turns out that the Presi-
dent had q copy Of the letter, and that Babcock
secretly copied the Presidents copy, and gave
it tohis lawyer, Mr.. Storrs, just as everything
else in the possession of the President and
the Attorney General was turned over to the
lawyers Of sthe indicted Private Secretary.
The following is from yesterdays Washington
special to the Cincinnati Times:
1.-THE President was furnished copy of
this letter, but he said he had not given it to
any person, and was as anxious as the Attor-
ney General to learn by what means it was
obtained. Upon further investigation it was
ascertained that Gen. Babcock had obtained
access to the document unknown to the Presi-
dent, and made, or caused TO be made, copy,
which he placed in the hands of Mr.. Storrs,
us cOunsoi. OPon OoiAS SUN AOnOu OcaoAo
the President and Attorney General, Gen.
Babcock admitted this to b. true"
So much for having man indicted for de-
frauding the government, in possession of the
Presidents private papers We suppose the
explanation that Babcock may offer the Presi-
dent will b perfectly satisfactory, though the
President will make haste to forget what the
explanation is. Nothing has happened or can
happen to shake the faith OF the President in
Babcock, and truly loyal papers will answer
all criticism of the President by the beautiful
remark, which is brilliantly satisfactory to
themselves, that Mr.. Grant is very obstinate
mau. Then all is lovely.-Cin CONNER
c;aL