The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1878-02-16
TELEGRAPHIC.
FOSTER ON THE STAND.
swHAT HE KNOWS ABOUT THE CELE-
BRATED wORMLEY CONFERENCE.
He Denies the Existence of Amy RarSain,
and Declares that His Efforts Were
solely Directed to the Preservation of
Peace,

CINCINNATI Feb. 15.-The Gazette publishes
Ghaa Fosea eSne IKE wh h
led to the understanding between Southern
men both In and out Of Congress. and friends
electoral count bill.
Mr. Foster ter say says about the twentieth Of Feb
ought to make . public declaration lar o1,o Of what what
believed Gov. Hayes proposed to do / con-
suited with number of Ohio. gentlemen
friends Of the President and perhaps one or
two Southern gentlemen although recall but
one at this moment and he is not member of
These gentlemen all agreed that I ought to
make the little speech which has been com-
mented upon so much The speech was but lit
acceptance
In response 70 this speech ] received a letter
from the President thanking me for it, and sub:
in it, This letter was marked private. but the
gravity Of the situation at the time was such
mat telt justified In showing 1t to Il number of
On February 2ee, Hon, John Young Brown and
senator Hord9n n ipvlted me to conference with
particularly. Some of the minor details of his
statements are not in exact accord with my re.
terview was promise to give him letters signed
by myself and Senator Matthews. which was
done the next day and which has been widely
My understanding at the time was that Mr.
I Brown desired these letters for use in possise
thought of influencing his action by furnishing
these letters ever occurred to me- On the same
evening the meeting at Wormley's was held
There were present Mr.. Matthews, Senator.
Sherman. Gov. Denison Gen. Garfield and my
self, Of Mr. Hayes friends, and Mr.. Watterson
Mr.. Ellis and Mr. Burke are all | can rcall OF
the other side at this moment. Doubtless
others were present.
It was distinctly, stated by Mr.; Matthews; and
other friends Of Gov. Hayes, that we did not
pretend to be authorized to speak for him: that
we would not ask him for an expression of his
views. but that. knowing him as we did. we be-
1eved that he.would give to the States OF South
Carolina and Louisiana what they desired viz:
Local self-government. Mr.. Burke had wi h
MIN paper which he read to Gen. Garfield in
my nearing. the general purporh being state
ment of what we might expect IL the Nichols
government was sustained. There was no bar.
gain of any sort
The paper Burke had was simply a memo
randum without signature stating In substance
what the Nichols government would do in case
it should be sustained. The meeting was an
tirely informal. suppose Burke kept the
memorandum
Gov. Hayes letter said: Accept my thanks
for your speech Of February. l will not make
n statement to influence the result. but if the
result Is favorable, your understanding of nv
policy will be found to be correct
My only purpose. in any statement that I
made, was to impress upon the opposition my
convictions as to the probable policy of Mr..
Hayes.
II the opposition could be convinced that |
correctly represented Gov. Hayes views /
thought could see q reasonable chance for
beaeeable execution of the electoral count bill
/ asked for no promises in return. No sugges-
tion was ever made by me to anybody that GER
tain things were to be given BY the other side in