New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1878-07-03
, pIDTCILOUS WITNESS.

mistake in Speaker Randalps Philadeipna
lpeech is noticed.
RIDICULOUS WITNESS.
II. wrBBER SETS UP NEW THEORY ABOUT hi'
BRoTnER'5 MURDER-HIs HALTING TEsT'NoNl-
TIL BUSINESS OF WHITING LEI iE'0 fON
ITICAL EFFECT"
lbY TELEGRAPH TO THE TIIBuNEl
w,errvGTo~. Jelly 2.-The testimony before the
pot,c, Committee to-day dscloses a condition OF
mora sentiment, if such it can be Called III tne
oortic,4, States which the Northern mind VIII liu
II airica,s 70 comprehend. Z. L. Webber unuertooA'
nm oath 70 say that all the stories with when the
No3 familiar as to the causes OF the death OF INC
,,n arq3 Dave Weber are ialsehOods, to when the
snr, y.ac&r1thcr is party; and that these lalso
stories verc circulated while he was fresh from inc
grave cf ile dead BROTHER to help to bolster up d
pohtical GAUGE which ne swelrs was born IN lIduu,
Tho ovidcf,ce i'm the general press dispatches VIII
show how this came about. NeODer was INC
great witness by whom the Democrats nave eN-
nected 10 prove the existence OF the onglhh SloI-
man letter Ia long written statement coucnc"
:; 1o,,,oce which the witness in his ordinary con-
versation was not able to employ, Weber traced
The history of Louisiana politics, and declared that
he found and destroyed the original sherman
letter. That it was the original he Kne"
because his brother had shown it to him,
and he himself knew Sherman's handwriting, ana
bod seen him write One little circumstance OF IT
self Is sufficient to show to unpreudlced MINDS
how extremely credulous one must be to accept ts
testimony Webbers knowledge that the Sherman
latter was authentic and his acquaintance with his
handwriting consisted in this: He had seen, some
two OF three years ago, SheTmans name IN aregular
Congressional autograph album, with TWO OF
three hundred other signatures of congressman
and he also saw him writing In room III the Gus
tom House in New-0rleans. The length OF web
hers interview with him then was two minutes,
during all of which one or the other was engaged
IN conversation, and when Weber was fully SIX
feet from Sherman. Yet from this momentary III
teryiew, when no writing was Delhg
done. Webber ventures to swear that he
became familiar with Shermans handwriting,
30 that he could identify it after this lapse
of time Webbers statement was as carefully pre-
pared as if it had been arranged by Governor III
denis lawyer, and was the very brief which has
been privately said to exist 1t was cOuched in Ian
guage quite unlike that of Webbers ordinary con-
versation, and it was with difficulty sometimes that
he could himself read the statement. He treated it
as the chart by which his testimony was to be
Ihaped throughout the investigation.
When the cross examination came, he declined to
DIV. and held the written statement in his hand,
and insisted on the right to refer to it as memo
randum. Yet be himself prOfessea that he had
drawn up this statement in five days. Nevertheless
he could remember nothing Of consequence without
it, and when he did leave the written text he became
involved in most conspicuous and embarrassing con-
tTadctions.
There was not point which the Democrats
wished to make in their case which was not com
pletely covered afirmatively by Webbers state
ment; exactly in the chronological order in which
the Democrats wished to have it appear Yet there
was so much craft in the statement that, as if to
avert suspicion, it concluded with the as
sertion that it bad not been seen
beforehand by any person connected with the Dem
Ocratic side of the ease, and that the witness had
spoken to no concerning it, One statement
aptly characterized by General Cox as an
ingenious COntrivance, intended to reach desired
end bv the assertion of hearSay stories and he very
sharply intmated that the Democrats guilty
of seeking to mislead public opinion by prepar-
ing to have this statement 90 out in q
connected form as evidence, when in justice il was
not evidence at ALL Webbers direct statement was
of absorbing interest up to the close, when he
described the finding of the original sherman letter
in old shoe box, and its destruction by himself in
order to remove what he said the family considered
an unjust imputatiOn upon its honor.
The crOss-eXaminatOnha had hardly begun, however
when Weber began to destroy his creditabty
as witness. General Cox produced letter writ
a
dately after the murder of his brother in which be
told with much feeling, that story of Webber's
death, with which the Northern public is familiar.
That letter, az every step, cOntradicted Webbefs
prepared statement. Accordingly he swOre that his
letter was based upon incorrect information and
that to all intents and purposes 1t was a lie. He
made desperate effort TO have this St. Louis letter
suppressed, for he said 1T would place him in bad
position in his county, the statements i'm the
letter were not in accordance with the facts. There
might lie, too, he added, dozen more such letters
in existence.
The letter speaks for itself. 1t showed the
terrorism which prevailed in the Felicana Parishes
and how the Weber family, after the murder of
the brother were compelled TO abandon their prom
erty and to flee from the bands of political assassns
TO the place where they now live The letter he said
written for political effect" Yet 1t was
written almost from his brothers grave.
Webbers theory OF the cause of his brothers
death is almost too ridiculous to be told. He
claimed to-day that the announcement, few DAYS
before his death, iii newspaper which he pub
lished, that a certain list of delinquent tax
payers would be published had excited so
much hostility that he fell by the hands
OF his individual opponents, That list, Of
hclally certified to- was produced and
proved TO be nothing more than an ordinary county
delinquent tax list, such as is required by law TO be
published IN every county in the North. II was not
a list OF delinquent defauters. 1t was simply
the regular delinquent tax list. To have threat
ened to publish this list. Webber claimed was
Sul1clent cause IN that community for the murder
OF his brother Ii is not TO be wondered that at Gen
eral Cox said, when Mr.. Springer suggested that
delicacy should prevent certain questions from
being asked, that the condition of things TO which
Weber testified did not ADMIT of dehcacy.