The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1877-07-12
SENATOR HOWE.
Letter to the Evening Wisconsin.

/ have heard your interrogatOries pro.
pounded through the Evening Wiscon-
sin of the 22d inst. After much refiee-
| ton have concluded to respond.
| 1t was my earnest desire to avoid all
| participation in the personal chickering's
| which in these last years have disgraced
| the Republican party III Wisconsin. /
| have borne very much without remon-
| STRANGE.
It pleased certain newspapers to adj
| vertise me as having opposed the con-
| firmation of Mr.. Schurz to be Secretary
| of the Interior; which was not true, and
which they could not have known if ii
had been true.
Ex-Governor Washburn saw fit to
draw upon my private correspondence
to enliven his public discussions.
Another newspaper is conslderate
enough to taunt me with having been
'fscooped" by my colleague in the mat
ter of an appointment to the Surveyor
Generalship for Dakota. Others ex-
| claimed against my temerity III voting
for the Electoral Commission.
| Others with beastly satisfaction rumi-
mated upon the calumny that was pro-
| curing public employment for friends
that my son might share in the profits.
| Others, descending still lower, soiled
| their columns by displaying in loaded
| lines the vulgar and skulking hint that
I was involved in some unnamed difficult
| ty with treasury female. L was silent
under all this.
Descending still lower, Mr.. Carpenter,
with that aff1uence of dash, and that
poverty of Judgment, for which he is
so conspicuous, waltzed clear up to the
| footlights to announce that he had only
| obeyed the Constitution in voting for an
increase of salary, but that L had out
ragged law and decency by taking the
salary after it was voted. Even to this
arrangement [ have made no reply.
But you summon me by name before
your Judgment seat. You read me a
homily upon my duties as Senator. You
convict me of certain offences which you
invent, and without asking me if I have
anything to say in my defence. you pro
coed to pass Judgment upon me.
L do not reply to you because you are
more offensive than others you are in
fact less SO. But you are more direct
and more imperative. You address me
by name and you demand to know,
among other things, who sent me to
Washington
will not tell you it is none of your
business, for that would not be polite,
although quite true. 1t is enough for
-FOUR purpose to know that I went to
| Washington. It would neither aggra-
vate or lessen my offence whether 1 was
sent by one portion of the people or an
other. But to be quite candid with you,
as [ ought to be with my friend, | was
was not sent at all. L went, not without
request, indeed, and not without reluc-
| lance, but without command from any
| one of my own volition, alone, and at
my own cost.
[ tried to avoid going. The very
| smallest concession on the part of Mi
waukee claims would have relieved me
| from the thankless Journey. But all
! concession was refused.
| You venture to ask if I was not ''hur-
ried" off to Washington by ''the post
master at Madison ?' If you were ven
cradle for years and renowned for wis
dom, you might possibly engender q
suspicion in some credulous brain by
even so stupid question as that. But
| you are neither, and you can't afford to
| draw down upon yourself the derision of
million of people who reside In this
state and who have known me for a long
time, and have known that [ am not a
satellite to any of our political lumlnaries,
but am as apt as most men to move in
my own light and act upon my own con-
| victions. Your memory, 1 see, goes
back to time when ] was younger than
am now, and when you confess I was
not in the satellite business, but chose
to be covered by a cloud rather than
/ shine by borrowed and bad light.
But even if [ was reduced to vassa-
lage as you suggest, don't you think it
1,to 70 nj ln ti,a
is Mr.. Reyes whose livery / wear
You do not inquire what considerations
| moved me to go to Washington, and so
yourself that [ do not know what they
were and could not state them to the
satisfaction of unbiased minds.
But you assume that the purpose fol
which / went was to bully the President
out of 9 decision he had already made
7 know nothing unlawful liz asking the
President to reconsider decision he ha!
already made. The right of petition il
not yet abrogated. But in point of fact
the President had not decided the ques
ton on which [ went to Washington
OF that [ took pains to be assured upon
inquiries made both in Milwaukee anG
Washington. And [ repeat to you if an,
one had decided those questions, it wa:
not the President. AS for bull-dozine
the President, only two men know wheth
Ell l attempted that or not. One Is The
President and one is myself. These full
limitations I shall send to the President
He will know whether you are honestl,
spplauding Kim, or dishonesty calumni
ating me. If you and your allies cal
abide his Judgment on that point, can
But you remind me that am Sena
, tor, and therefore, ought not to have in
terfered. Well, sir, allow me to remint
you, you are an editor. [ am hired ant
so are you. May not Senator as prop
erly express an opinion or state an argu
ment in favor of the location of pension
agent as an editor Is there anything
IN the decalogue, in the constitution o
the United States, or even in the ordi
nances of Milwaukee which forbids
/; Senator to express an opinion as to til,
| location of an agency to pay pensions
But you remind me 7 was chosen st,
represent the whole state Well, if 50
you chose the wrong man. I am no
| sufficiently multifariOus for tIat. Per
haps the Evening Wisconsin could do it
but / can not.
On some questions the whole State i
not agreed. Do you mean that Sena
tor may speak when ''the whole State,
is agreed, but must be still when she il
not I? On what questions, then should
speak Do You want an efligy for Sen
ator or man?
You urge me to initiate the example O
the great Senator Silas Wright, and have
nothing to do with appointments. You
do not know Silas Wright, I fancy, mol
did you ever know any Senator who il
sixteen years service had so little to dc
with appointments as have.
/ must heartily wish I could have