New-York tribune., 1878-06-12
HtRD LUCK EOR VES7TGATORS.

several prominent persons who nave latal
facility with pen and ink, and who are now
finding occasion to repent their letier-wrlting
procliyities it has also brought into prominence
tbc fact that the one man whom the Potter
Committee want to find on record somewhere
in connection with this whole business does
not seem to be at all given to letter writing,
at least to the kind of letter writing that
makes men sorry afterwards that they ever
learned the Use of pen and ink. President
Hayes is, we presume, the real OBJECT
i've point of the investigators. a letter
from him, or any sort of document III which
he disclosed any knowledge OF conspiracy or
conspIfatOrs. or WOrmley conference, or any
thing else connected with the Electoral
count or Commission, would be q god
send to them. One letter with his Sig
nature would be worth bushels such as
have been spread before the country. Here
are letters from rogucs of various degrees and
fools who buzzcd about answering them. The
former confess their willingness TO commit
crime, and the latter compromise them
selves 10y giving them a hearing and enter
ing into correspondence with them, in
stead of kicking them out incontnently
worthiness and dcpravity. But the President
has not been implicated in anything dishonest
or foolish by so much as scrap Of paper or
a line of testimony. lis worst offence Is the
lack Of Judgment exhibited in his choice OF
advisers and friends.
Anderson himself, the chef witness de-
pended upon by the prosecution, uncon-
sciously paid the highest possible tribute to
the Presidents personal honesty and high
character, when he related how abruptly the
President dismissed him after he began TO
disclose his own dishonesty and vulgarity.
The last he saw of him, Anderson said, was
his coat-tail disappearing through the door; and
il is in evidence before the committee that so
soon as the President began to get an inkling
OF the fellows character he cancelled the APP
pointmcnt already offered him. Mr. Stanley
Matthews, with much more alacrty at writing
letters than hc seems disposed 10 exhibit in
explaining them, made himself AndersOn's
correspondent, and appears to have as
sumed to act for the President but there Il
nothing in the case to show that he
was anything more than self-appointed
spoke sman and uncOmmonly superserviceabe
friend His oficiousness in the matter is the
more easily accounted for in this way. for the
reason that it was similarly exhibited upon
another occasion, when he assumed to speak for
the President with reference 10 the passage OF
the Silver Bill, and the event proved that
he had not the slightest authority or even
pretext for so doing. He appears TO have
laborcd under the misapprehension that he
was running the President. He has been learn
ing something during the past six months.
ana il is not likely he would make the same
mistake again, though with his facility for
political blundering the chances are that he
will keep on making others perhaps equally
bad.
The hopes that had been dashed by the
failure TO connect President Hayes with An
derson or any Of his crowd were no doubt re-
vived little the other day when General
Butler, with such flourish of trumpets,
brought out the Bonds Baker dispatch The
Anderson business was brought so near to
the President rs to draw in his next
friend, a gentleman who was supposed to
have his confidence. The BOulds Baker
dispatch seems to have been aimed ut his
private secretary Mr.. Lee, and his political
associate, Lieutenant Governor Young, from
the latter OF whom it drew an answer merely
acknowledging its receipt. 1t may be Mr..
Buffers purpose to show that Boulds Baker,
who is a comparatively new man to fame, en-
tered into a conspiracy to get Judge Key into
the Cabinet and to prove that the
President was engaged in il by the two facts.
in the first place that after this dispatch was
sent. at an expense to Boulds Baker of $17 90,
Judge Key was appointed to the Cabinet and
a little later Boulds Baker himself received
some appointment, the nature of which
does not appear It's little queer
that this Mr.. Boulds Baker should bounce
into public notice in such an abrupt way
as a man who was rewarded with an Office for
sending list of available Cabinet officers TO
the President-elect. We don't remember that
there was any such lack of candidates
for these places that Boulds Bakers
interference should be counted worth m Office.
Bnt that seems to be what Mr.. Butler is try
ing TO prove. Nothing, however, yet appears
TO show that the President had any knowledge
of the existence of the enthusiastic Baker. If
there's conspiracy here it is one of the queerest
in the world. The tange thus far has not touched
the President in the remOtest fashion. 1t con-
tains some dishonest men like Anderson, one
rather unanimous ready writer, and now
the sudden BOuds Baker.
Isn't the pursuit at a point which they
describe in England as "rnnin' empty
"insn2 II this Boulds Baker matter is one
of Mr.. Buffers threatened performances with
his pile of bricks, for which the country has
been waiting with so much curiosity, it is a
disappointment. II is brick thrown at last
years birds nest.
MORE LIGHT WANTED.
Earnings of thirty eight railways, not count