Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1878-07-10

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the INVESTIGATION.
A Letter from Weber Which Bellies
His Statement Before the
Committee.
CONTINUATIoN OF wEBER's TESTIMONY
. WASHINGTON, July about tn,
, 9th of November it was discovered
that only six of the Hayes electorl
could be saved, and Kellogg ON tha
day remarked to me, eve are aftel
all beaten" In regard to the agree
mcnt between James Z. Anderson
and ID. "A. Weber, here state that
personally know such agreement wa
entered into, and was substantially
the same as has been presented. MY
brother was murdered March 7tt
and in the issue of the paper of which
he was editor previous to his death he
Threatened to publish certain letters
and statement emanating from the
State Auditors office, and that is sup
posed to have supplied the immedi-
ate cause of his death, and to that ex.
tent might suggest its authors.
While l consider this threat the i'm
mediate cause of his assassination,
do not believe it would have occur
red had he not signed the protest that
deprived the people of their votes,
and thus placed himself in such q po-
sitiOn that his personal enemies were
encouraged to make this murderous
assault. In the Sherman report ap-
pears a purported affidavit frcm me
as United States Supervisor, contain
ing somewhat sweeping allegation
of intimidation in the parish Of West
Feliciana. declined, when request
ed to make affidavit on this subject,
to do SO. This paper was subsequent
ly prepared by l.. B. jerks, and with
out reading or examining 1 signed.
performed no duties as United it,
States Supervisor, and should not
have signed the paper if l had pre-
viously read it. did not swear to it
but the jurat was attached by the
commissioner asa matter of form,
and have no defence to make for my
action except to say that it was done
without deliberation. Mrs. jerks
visited my sister-in-law in the sum-
mer of 1877 and urged her to hunt for
the Sherman letter. Mrs. Weber de-
clined. About the 9th of May
she brought letter from General
Sheldon offering TO pay Mrs. Weber's
Expenses to New Orleans and Wash
ington in connection with the Sher-
man letter and threatening in case
| she did not come to have her arrested
and forced to go. Mrs. jerks and her
husband have always called the pa
per the Sherman letter. Tom. jerks
in fact claimed that his association
and cooperation with Anderson was
such as to give him an equitable right
to some of the benefits that were sup
posed to be embraced in it. l have
never heard it intimated until she
gave her testimony that Mrs. jerks
was in any way connected with the
authorship of the lettar. have not
nor has any member Of my family
sought to use this letter as means
of obtaining Office. l saw members
of the McVeagh Commission in New
Orleans, and was informed money
had been used to secure the abandon
ment of the Packard Legislature by
certain members thereof. I could
tell something of the amounts paid
in certain cases, but could not say who
disbursed the money or who supplied
1t. L had two conversations with
General Hawley relative to the Pack
President could not and would not
recognize il. He conveyed the i'm
preston to my mind distinctly that
the recognition of Nichols and aban-
donment of Packard was foregone
conclusion, and that this question had
been determined by the administra-
tion before the Commission left
Washington.
A letter was here shown Weber
which he identified as having been
written by himself. He objected to
the consideration of this letter, or its
publication as any part of the record
as it would place him in a very false
position with the people down there,
and was untrue. AT the time he
wrote the letter what he wrote was
given as facts, but since then he had
|ascertained it was misunderstand-
ting and therefore he misstated the
case at that time.
The members of the committee de-
cided it was proper it should be read.
II is as follows:
STATE SENATE,
New ORLEANS, March "A, T7.{
j. FL. Weber, Esq:
DEAR CoUsIN.-Your favor of the
l7th inst. was received only to-day.
In answer thereto | am sorry to say
though l had heard my brother, D.
A. Weber, casually speak of cousin
living in St. Louis, he never gave mo
a definite understanding concerning
him. This is the only reason ] can
give for not writing sooner. The
time you refer to has not yet been
reached. should certainly be pleas
ed to have the opportunity to reply to
any erroneous statement made con-
cerning the unprovoked and bastard
ly murder of ID. A. l have mailed to
your address to-day, a copy of the
New Orleans Republican containing
a correct and uncontradicted state
ment of the brutal outrage, and also
forward to your address in writing
and in separate envelope the same
statement, which you can use for
publication in any paper. l vouch
for the correctness of the same. in
tended before this to have written an
other statement. giving more partic-
ulars concerning affairs, but have not
really had time. The assassins of ID.
A. are at large as yet and officiating
in the capacity of Nichols officers ia
the parish. lie lived in West Felici-
ana and republicans with terror i'm
printed on their faces whisper to each
other, "who will be nextw We de-
sire no new election in louisiana
We desire and demand the rccogni-
tion of the legal and lawful Packard
government. from which Mr.. Hayes
derived his title to the chief fmagistracy
of the nation. We demand it not
only as iust right to which we are
entitled, but we desire and demand
it that we may have government
founded upon law and order, where-
in all men, without regard to nation
ality or color may enjoy the same
rights of civilization without fear or
favor. Under a government at this
time In this state, administered by
Nichols and his bands of assassins,
and founded on blood, there
is not and never will be
any security for life AMI property.
d. A. leaves a wife and three little
babies. This alone would have been
enough 10 have spared his life had
not tho brutes been thirsty for the
blood of innocent and defenccless re-
publicans. l had advised him to stay
away from the parish until our diff
culties were finally adjusted, but he
refused to remain at home in the
bosom of his family, whom he cher
ished and adored. Our situation the
North cannot understand, or l am
sure the people would not tolerate
the state of affairs which actually ex-
lists here. One by one our white and
colored republicans are murdered