The Daily clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1866-1888, 1877-01-05
AN OPEN LETTER.
Gov. Armes' Kmp-aclime a-a. sa is-
statements of she Adm I IN istra-
ton Agent Before the Sena-
forial Investigating
Com iffee.
JACKSON, January Sd, 1877.
Hon, James A. Boyard, Member of the
Senatorial Investigating Committee:

DEAR SIR:-Since reading the test
mony before the Committee appointed
by the Senate to investigate the Missis-
sippi election of 1875, l regret that [ did
not have opportunity 10 again appear
before it to testify in rebuttal of numerous
misstatements of Mr.. G. K Chase, the
agent of the Administration Some of
them relate to me personally, and are
embraced in the following extract from
his testimony:
O. Had you any conversation with George
or Barksdale after the election? A. had.
O. You may state what occurred. SO far
as this public business is concerned, be-
tween YOU after that? A. Before the cleo
ton and the day after the election Governor
Ames wanted to resign: he was determined
to resign. told them that Ames was go
ing to resign sure.
@. Told whom? A. Told Barksdale and
George, and they insisted that I should per-
suade Ames not to resign, that he would
have a future there, that he was an honest
man, and they had no objection to him per-
sonally; only objected to some of the men
about him. When the election went the
way it did Gov. Ames insisted on resigning
and | went and saw them the next day and
told them that Ames was going to resign,
and Barksdale made a point of it that he
should not resign; that he would be all
right; that they would be satisfied With
the result of the election; that they had
nothing against him personally; they
wanted to get the ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS out {;
and if he resigned the ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
would be governor, and that would not suit
them.
NVbon th nv 40 M a tO raal;za n four fovc a ftor
ward that they had the whole organization.
then they did not talk so freely as before.
They had made ne number of promises
in relation to Governor Ames. When
went back there the second time--in De-
cember think it was--I asked them how it
was that they did not keep their pledge.
They said that Ames had directly after the
election come up here to Washington and
got Morton to hoist the Hbloody shirt" and
TO investigate them down there so they
felt justified in breaking any pledges that
they had made. BarkSdale in particular
said this; that now they were going to i'm
peach him and get him out that they had
no idea when they had that talk with IN e
that they would have the whole Legislature
did not think it was possible that they
could have got the Senate,
q. Did anything further occur at that
time? A. l told Major Barksdale that
Governor Ames had not seen Senator Nor
ton JildG ne ulu HOG start any luVoSIl9aLlOn.
Barksdale replied, IF that is true. Ames is
the worst injured man in the wOrld;" that
they intended to DO as they had promised
but it was now too late; that they had
thought him at the bottom of Senator Nor
toms attempt to investigate the Mississippi
elections.
The foregoing, so far as I am concern
ed, is tissue of false statements and [
have no doubt Gen. George, the able
and efficient Chairman of the State
Democratic Executive Committee, can
say as much in his own behalf.
1t is not true that Mr.. Chase stated to
me, at any time-either before or after
the election-that "Gov. Ames wanted to
resign" Consequently, I could not have
"inssted" that he should persuade him
not to do So" If such information had
been impaired to me, for numerous rea-
sons [ would have 'insisted" in the be-
ginning, as | did in the closing act of his
career in Mississippi, that he ought to
resign at once, and not stand upon the
order Of his doing it. [ certainly could
not have given, as reason, why [ pre-
ferred that Gov. Ames should ''not
resign" that the then 1t. Governor, A.
K. Davis, "would not suit" me. True
enough, he did not; but it was no
secret that between evils, I greatly pre-
ferred Davis, whose malfeasance in office
had not then been established, and I well
knew that the people of Mississippi had
less to fear from his incompete1c than
from Ames' cool malignity. The
subject of the impeachment of the latter
was never thought of, much less men
toned, before the election, because it
was not believed that the Democrats
would obtain majority of the Legisla-
ture sufficient to encourage such an
undertaking; but without convicting
myself of wilful Justification, | could not
have said that he did not deserve i'm.
parchment. | had demonstrated the
reverse a thousand Zines over in discus,
sing his conduct as Governor.
Mr.. Chase, on his return from Wash
lngton after the election, to appear as a
witness against Maj. Allyn, for Ioaning
the cannon to the Democrats,di complain
of the course Of the CLARION in urging
the impeachment of Cos. Ames. To
this complaint, the ranly was made that
his conduct in office justified such pro-
ceeding, and that moreover he had for
feited any claim to indulgence from the
Legislature when he fastened to Wash
ington after the election, to publish the
calumny that it had been carried by
fraud and violence, and to instigate the
Boutwell, investigation. His testimony