The Portland daily press., 1877-03-28
The Washington Situation.

The Washington correspondent of the Boston
Advertiser telegraphs as follows to that paper
under date Of Monday: 1t having been under
stood here that Stanley Matthews would pub
llsh tomorrow morning in o Cincinnati paper
some OF the letters and an account of the inter-
views abont the pledges, etc., your correspond.
ent has now to give from the most unques toned
authority these further important facts. On
the evening of the 2Gth of February last, there
assembled at a room at Wormey's the Hons.
John Sherman, Garfield, Foster, Ex-Governor
Dennison OF Ohio, the Hor. Stanley Matthews,
Congressman Ellis OF louisiana Senator La
mar, John Young Brown of Kentucky, and
Major Burke of Louisiana. This was the CON-
mittee of conference between the Republicans
and Southern Democrats. Levy and Gibson
were sick, and consequently not present. This
conference lasted several hours. There was no
pledge given in writing there, but the verbal
understandings were that the troops would be
removed, and the states of South Carolina and
Louisiana would be allowed to conduct their
governments in their own way. Several of the
gentlemen named above have complete men,
orandum of the conference, with notes of the
conversation, understandings, ETC. On the
morning of the 9th February Stanley Mat
thews had an interview with Levy, Ellis and
Burke, all of Louisiana, in one of she ante
rooms of the United States Supreme Court
Here Mr.. Matthews gave the most unqualified
assurances that General Grant wonld remove
the troops fIom further surveillance over the
authorities, and that the people in both of the
states would be allowed to make their own
choice of government and that there would be
no more interference from Washington, save to
prevent riot and bloodshed. While these par
NiAarp tV,n &.
record) Judge David Davis, the new sena-
tor from Illinois, passed through the
room and placed his overcoat in the adjoin.
ing room, excusing himself for the intru.
sioo. Levy, Ellis and Burke were not satisfied
with the verbal assurances, and Matthews
wrote his declarations down and signed them,
but addressed them TO no one. This paper is
still in existence. On the same day as stated in
the North American of this morning. Matthews
wrote letter to Gordon and Brown. This let
ter is also signed by Foster, and on the same
day Foster wrote his very strong letter in
which he spoke by authority, and which is
signed only by him and directed to Gordon and
Brown, which is still in existence. On the
same day Levy made his speech appealing to
his Southern friends to stop filibustsring and
allow the court to proceed, assuring them that
he had the most unqualified assurances in writ
ing from gentlemen in the Republican party
and near to the President, and in his conf
deuce, that the South would be allowed to con-
duct its State governments in its own way,
without interference or bsyonet rule, etc. At
| the conclusion of his speech he was surrounded
| by number of Republicans, among whom
were Garfield and Foster all OF whom compli-
mented and congratulated him. There is also
liberty to state that there are several notes and
memorandums of facts and conversations in
| existence, that will if any controversy on this
subject arises be made public All parties
agree that President Grant, as far as he was
concerned, kept the pledges made by Matthews
with regard to Louisiana, and they were to-
night loud in their praise of his prompt action
in the premises. 1t is understood here that
Matthews will publish letter in the Cincinnati
Gazette tomorrow morning denying that Mr..
Hayes ever gave him any authority to say that
| he would remove the troops, or indeed any
| authority to make any pledges promises,
| and it is also understood that he will publish
the text of the letter to Messrs. Gordon and
| Lamar. The parties here say that il he does
| this they will then be at liberty to make a more
full and complete statement of the entire pre-
| ceedings. 1t is well to state right here that
both the Republicans and Democrats who have
personal knowledge of these matters are al
most agreed In their statements to their corres-
pondent, and also that no one of them has ever
vet stated that any of these letters pledge any
thing directly from Mr.. Hayes, and that no
1t is recorded fact here that on the Sd of
March President Grant did issue an order di
recting that the troops should be removed from
| New Orleans 1t was sent through the War
Department and was a whole day reaching its
| destination, and was in such equivocal Ian
| guage when it got there that Gen. Augur did
| not understand 1t and telegraphed to General
| Sherman inquiring how it should be construed
| and what it meant. But by this time Grant
| was out of office. In the meantime Nichols,
| who had been advised of the order, telegraphed
back here that it was not forthcoming, and on
| inquiry of Grant at The Capitol on the night OF
| the Sd of March, by Colonel Burke to know
| what was the cause of the delay, he answered
that be could not imagine; that his instruc-
| tions were so clear to have the troops removed
| that General Augur could not mistake them,
| even if he desired to do so. Thus the matter
rests for the present.