New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-07-20
BRIsTOw,s SECRET PLOTTING.
A Plan to Undermine the Administration

A Plan to Undermine the Administration.
The following letter was sent to the
Graphic by one of our Washington CORE
spondents, under the date at the head, and
the publication has been deferred until the
present time, when it can not affect Mr..
Bristow's official relations, and may throw
some light on President Grants recent dis
miesals:
WAsHNGToN, February 22.-The time
has come when the whole truth touching
the relations of Secretary BristOw to the
government should be given to the public.
He ie likely to figure very largely in the
politics of the immediate future, and az he
will be the subject of unmixed eulogy as
well as some criticism, l propose to give
you for the first time definite statement
of his history, character and conduct.
Bristov was. after the close of the war,
an attorney of moderate professional ability
and mesgre income in Northern Kentucky.
He was afterward employed by large
whisky dealers in their suits against Gus
toners and resisting the prosecution of the
government for uncollected revenue. In
this service he obtained an inside knowl
edge of the methods which distillers had
pursued in robbing the government Of its
just dues. After q time, exhibiting con-
siderable vigor, Mr. Bristow was appointed
assistant district attorney at Louisville.
While discharging the duties of that Office
he showed exceptional energy in prosecut-
ing offenders, and, going to Washington
and making the Presidents acquaintance,
and commencing himself by intelligence
and assiduity, was by him made Solicitor
Genersl, and at last, so successfully had he
ingratiated himself into the favor of the
President, he was, largely through the in
fuence of General Babcock, but to the sur
prise of most Republicans, elevated to the
important post OF Secretary of the Treas
Iry:
When this last promotion had taken
place, however, some facts came to the
knowledge of the Presidents friends which
caused them to doubt the wisdom of his
appointment. No sooner was he installed
in this high position than he was found pay
ing special court to thenewspsper reporters
and Bohemiaus in Washington. He was
undisguised in his efforts to cajole and en-
list as his champions the men in newspaper
about the President IN the New York Sun.
Tribune and Rerold, Cincinnati Commercial
and Enquirer, Chicago Times. St. Louis
Republican, and in fact all the socalled in.
dependent opposition press. Names, fig
ures and dates could be given of many in
terviews between these people and Secre-
tsry Brist0w; and so persuasive and pecu-
liar were his arguments that he has the
correspondents almost in body pledged to
sound his praises in everything he does and
to any extent.
Postmaster General Jewell has been
equally industrious in conciliating CORE
spondents SO as to create favorable seuti-
ment in his own behalf. His trumpeters
are always lauding his works and words,
But in the art Of manipulating the press
and making use of Bohemians, Secretary
Bristow has shown more sagacity and
knowledge of human nature than any other
politician of this century. A careful analy-
sis of the reports of correspondents will
show that they have from the beginning of
his official career warmly eulogized all of
his official acts, whether reporting from
Washington or St. Louis. No journal of
any influence can pass wi hin the reach Of
the Secretary of the Treasury without re-
ceiving attentions that are oppressive be-
cause suggestive. In St. Louis the govern
ment detectives are distinctly authorized
by him to "take care of all reporters and
correspondents" the result of which polite
ness is seen on every hand.
When the wnisky war began the matter
was laid before the President, who warmly
seconded the proposition of Secretary Bris-
tow to reform the revenue collection and
punish fraud. Then he uttered his senten-
tious command, Let no guilty man es.
CAPE" In the Cabinet councils there was
substantial unanimity. No objection was
uttered by any body. 1t was regarded as a
most creditable and necessary thing to put
q stop to the frauds practiced upon the
treasury and bring offenders to justice.
Secretary Bristow, therefore, entered
upon his campaign not only with the ef-
fective good will of the President and
Cabinet, but he was strengthened BY his
own familiarity with the method pursued
by the whisky thieves when he was their
counsel in Kentucky and studying in their
behalf the n,oaus operandi of the stills.
So the war began. But the first real dis
satisfaction was felt by the President and
his friends when it was found that q great
majority Of the notorious thieves were par
doned on condition that they would turn
States evidence. The whole energy OF the
prosecution was turned, not against the
but against their political cOnfederates,
and especially against those in any way as
sociated with the administration. More
specifically, out of thirty or forty large con.
Germs implicated in defrauding the revenue,
only five or six men were selected for pun.
ishment, and these were not the men who
perpetrated the frauds, but politicians who
are said to have cOnnived at it.
Another fact was developed which was
naturally embarrassing to the administra-
ton. Pending the last Presidential can.
West undertook to raise the campaign
fund, and among the men applied to were
those largely in the whisky trade.
1t was, OF course, not known in Washing
ton how large q sum was contributed by
this class of men, nor that there was, in
some cases, an Illegal consideration for the
money subscribed, viz: an agreement that
the revenue due from their establishments
should not be fully collected. The party at
Washington was glad to get the money,
and probably never thought of inquiring
Chicago, Cincinnati and Milwaukee, the
whisky distlllers were lavish contributors
to the fund for carrying the election.
But now it seems that, after securing
money in this illegitimate way for cam
paign purposes, it occurred to Macdonald,
Joyce, and perhaps Mckee, that they might
now safely levy blackmail for private pur-
poses. They played their cards with
shrewdness and dexterity. The whisky
dealers were compelled to submit, and all
the more promptly because the chief con.
spiratOrs made them believe that they were
bribing men high in Office in Washington,
and even had the approval of the Presi-
dents own official staff. The intimacy
which existed between the chief conspira-
tors and the officials in Washington was
natural en0ugh-they had official relations,
they were trusted public servants, and
therefore the Washington officials became
friendly and confidential in their communi-
cations.
It is easily to see how great q card it
would be for the St. Louis roXues in office
to place themselves ON their relationship to
General Babcock, and to hint at their
ability to control the Administration. In
deed, upon this the success of their black
mailing scheme in q great measure de.
pended: 1t gave them greater power, and
pose them. They thought they were all