Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1876-08-09
IELL-TALE LETTERS.
All Old Story in a New Dress Sets All
the Washington GOssips AgOg.
EX.AttOrney-General Williams Before
the Subcommittee on Whis.
Ky Frauds.
lie Indignantly Denies that His Wife was
the Author OF Certain ScandaIOus
Anonymous Letters.

| New York WorId.l
WASHINGTON, August 4.-The sibilant
sound of a social scandal involving at
one time all OF the members of the cab
| met, and rivaliDg q similar one of
Jackson's time, has reached an investi-
eating committee, and promises to be
| glsripgly exposed. Some time ago it
was whispered In quiet quarters that At
tOrney. General Williams was requested
to leave the cabinet by the President,
| who was supported in the request by the
remsining members of the cabinet. The
story was that the wives Of the Presi.
dent and his cabinet had received sew.
eral scandslous anonymous notes in q
female handwriting. Nothing was said
| by those who received these notes to
| any outside parties for some time, until
by an accident it came out that they had
been sent not only to the President and
| cabinet, but to two other parties in this
| city, who would assist in the trouble
they promised to create. The hand writ
| ing wa compared, the stationery was
| found to be the same, and certain cir
| cumstantial incidents all pointed to one
| person, who was the wife OF a cab
met officer. At the suggestion
of General Belknap, then secretary of
war, the anonymous notes were deemed
important enough for an investigation,
and he esked Solicitor Bluford Wilson to
make one. That officer unofficially
traced the notes to one source, and 80 re-
ported. The cabinet, it appears, had an
informal meeting and came to the same
| conclusion, and some time thereafter
Mr.. Williams resigned as attOrney-gen-
| 10 cold no rnnncotoA IN
| sign, but it WIS not on the ground just
| indicated.
Mr.. Wilson having intimated before
the whisky frauds committee the other
| dsv that he made report on this scam
| dial, which report was not in the line of
his official duty, but was his private
| property, and YVES among the disputed
| pspers at the treasury, Ex-AttOrney.
General Williams went before the COM
| mittee this morning and emphatically
denied all knowledge of this story, de.
clared that his wife was high-minded,
honorable woman, and utterly incapa-
bic Of sending those anonymous notes.
He was about to go on and state what
the President had told him, but to t lis
hearsay evidence Mr.. Cochrane, the
chairman, objected, and told him that
he would summon any WitneF5 he might
would have testified, If permitted, that
the President It'd him this morn.
ing that he did not leave the cabinet on
account Of this scandal, and that, so far
as he (the President) knew, the whole
thing was q falsehood. The fact re.
mains, however, that the anonymous
notes were received by the wives Of the
members of the cabinet, and their
source wCs investigated at the sugges-
ton CT a member OF the cabinet; mat
the latter were at the time satiefi ed of
the source, and that soon after Williams
left the cabinet. 1t may be that after
all gross injustice has been done
Mrs. Williams, and that this scandal
doss not rest upon her, but the rest OF
the story can be explicitly proven before
Mr.. COchrane's committee, as above
narrated.
Mr.. Williams voluntarily appeared
before the committee, desiring to
make statement. Having been SWORD,
be said that, seeing by the published
testimony that the chairman, Mr.. Coch-
rane, had read an extract from Wash.
ington letter in the Cincinnati Gazette,
of the thirty-first OF July, he wished ID
say that he should not have noticed the
article, but treated it as a part of the po-
liticsl filth of the day, if it had not been
introduced to the committee. He, this
forenoon, had seen the President, who
authorized him to cay
Representative COchrane interrupted
the witness, saying they did not want
that.
Mr.. Williams replied that he should
insist on his right to make a statement
on the subject matter.
Representative Cochrane repeated that |
trn NhSa I'D 10
the President authorized him to say. II |
the President desired to make q state |
ment, the committee would put him |
under oath aid let him make it. The |
witness could state anything Of his own |
knowledge, but they did not want him |
to repeat what any body else said.
Mr.. Williams insisted that if it was |
competent to introduce newspaper ar |
ticls, it wss competent for him to make |
8 statement concerning it.
Representative Cochrane again per-
emptOrily commanded the witness not |
to enter into any further argument, es
he was witnCsI only.
Mr.. Williams said that 40 such idea
was ever breathed to him by the Presi-
dent, or to any member of the cabinet,
that anonymous letters had ever created
any prejudice against him. In refuta-
ton OF the charge that Colonel Whitley,
ex-chief Of the secret service division,
was employed by him after Whitley had
been removed, Mr.. Williams said he
never employed Whitley for any pur-
pose after ne had resigned as chief of
the secret service division, but he was
paid for services rendered previous to
his resignation. With regard to the inn
putation that his W fe was the author of
the anonymous letters, he said it was
"a damable outrage and lie," whoever
the author might be. When attorney
general he received anonymous letters
OF an Infamous character, and he pre-.
sumed they all emanated from the same
source-from some enemy of the adj
and some were ad-
dressed to the members of the FAM
lilies of cabinet officers. His wife
was grieved by these letters, but nothing
could be then said about them. He knew
it YVES impossible that she could have |
anything to do with such communica-
tons. She WIS as much above such
mean, low act as any woman in the
United States. There never was q mole
wantOn and wicked calumny than that
in the newspaper article. Mr..
Solicitor WilsOn informed him that he
WILSON, was in no way responsible for
the publication in the Cincinnati Ga.
;efte. 1t was assumed therein that he
WILSON, YVES removed from the cabinet
On account OF those anonymous letters.
The truth was he was not removed, but
He had never heard it
oreathed that anyone supposed that any
member Of his family had sught to DO
With the authorship of the anonymous
ct ers until lately in Dom Piatt's pa
Der; but the statement was not suf-
iciently definite to enable him to under
tsnd its meaning. The statement in
he Gazette, however, was In tangible
orm; and he was surprised that it was
Introduced in the committee, and thus
,iven consequence it would not other
wise have possessed. In reply to q
question from Mr.. COchrane, Mr.. VIII
Jams said the anonymous letters con-
aimed obscene statements about the
President and his family and the fam
81 Il - al. | VI