Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1878-02-21
A STORMY SCENE.
The Democracy of the National
House by the Ears.
Did Hewitt Sell Ont tIIe Presi.
dency and Betray I1lden?
A Day Of Excitement and Demo.
cratic Discontinue.

Special TO the Cincinnati Gazette.
WARRINGTON, Feb. 13.
The Electoral count battle was fought ovel
again in the House to-day. 1t seemed at ont
time that the startling disclosures which the
Democrats have promised were about to bt
made, but the results show that, aside frou
heated words, strong outbursts of passion, anc
indignation, there was nothing said or re-
vealed that cannot be read by every body il
the public testimony taken by the Investigat-
ing Committee of the last Congress, and the
fair inference is that with such results, aftel
such demonstration, and such a pompoui
declaration from the late Chairman of the
Democratic National Committee, the Demo
Gratis. in any investigation they make, have
nothing to offer, and can roduce nothing
more than was exhibited by the. idle words
and heated folly Of to-day.
THE STORM HAD TO COME SOME TINE.
1t came to-day incidental to the discussion
of the Military Academy appropriation bill
Mr.. Conger, of Michigan, with the sardonit
wit, grim humor, and Aerce sarcasm of which
he is master, had charged upon the Democrats
the desire to destroy the army by lnsidious
attacks upon every appropriation for its main
tensnce. Mr. Chalmers, of Mississippi, in
one of the impassioned speeches to which
Congress is becoming accustomed from the
South, denied that such purpose is cherished
by Southern mea,- and spoke of the public
welfare and of national unity in a manner
that was truly patriotic. This was prelude
to the exciting scenes which followed.
Mr.. HEWITT, OF NEW YORK,
returned in personal explanatian to his
speech of the other day, in. which he arraign
ed South Carolina for hostility to West Point,
and had read n passage from the speech of Mr..
Aiken, of South Carolina, proposing that
West Point should be put upon the auction
block. This was defiance which no Repre-
sentative from South Carolina was likely to
disregard.
AIKEN WAS QUICK TO REToRT
to Hewitt; charged him with being what the
gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. House, had
represented that he was, "namely, liar" and
be (Aiken) proceeded to eulogize West Point
for the Southern heroes which it had produc-
ed, who had led on battles where Hewitt
could not be found. MIR. Aiken closed by
charging Mr.. Hewitt plainly with having
SOLD OUT THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION AND BE-
TRAYRD MR.. TILDEN.
By this time the excitement in the House
had become intense. The managers of the
appropriation bill seeing whittier things were
tending, were urgent in pressing their meas
ure; but the calls of order were silenced in the
turbulent outcries from all portions of the
chamber, of Hewitt" !" "Hewitt," "Hewitt.
The House waived all ceremony, violated
its rules, and gave Hewitt unrestricted free
dom to proceed. Hewitt is in feeble health,
and unable to support himself in long speech.
He sent for something that looked very much
like brandy and water, loosened his collar,
placed himself in the center of the House, and
in the midst of silence as remarkable as the
turbulence which had just preceded it, COM
meneed:
THUS Mr.. HEWITT.
81 have known brave mCn from many bat
tlefelds, but l have never known one to come
back from any battlefield and boast of his own
valor," silencing Aiken on that point with
this ccntemptuous sentence. Mr.. Hewitt,
with increasing impressiveness, and turning
with defiant air to Aiken, said: "If the Presi-
dency was sold, nobody in the North sold it
out. A proposition to sell the Presidency
was made to me, and 1 contemptuously re-
fused it."
From all sides of the hall there arose a
deafening cry of "Name," "Name." Mr..
Hewitt then, in a silence which became even
more profound, said: '.lf the House and the
American Congress wishes to hear an nnwrit-
ten chapter of American history, that chapter
can give" On all hands it was
THOUGHT THAT THE LONG EXPECTED DISCLOSURE
WAS TO COME.
The silence was almost painful, and Hewitt
continued in dramatic way to say: son
one Sunday afternoon"-in the manner of
three solitary horsemen in a cheap novel he
proceeded to narrate in detail that he was
called upon by pretended messenger from ].
Madison Wells, offering to count the Elector-
al vote of Louisiana for T'ilden for $500, 900.
The excitement was increasing when voice
from the Democratic side of the chamber was
heard to say, "You have promised us unwrit-
ten history. We can read that story in a
book" True enough, the interrupting mem
Der produced a volume of Congressional evi-
dence which contains the stale, exploded and
unsuccessful Pickett Maddox story. 1t was
the account of the mysterious visit of Pickett
to Hewitt, and of the offer through Maddox
to count the State for Tildcn for $500, 200,
and the presentation of the letters from Wells
to Senator West, which obtained such wide
pending the Electoral excitement,
and which we're then so successfully refuted
and explained by Madison Wells himself.
HRwTTT's SPEECH HAD AN AMT. .oLIMAx.
He fell from the sublime heights of his mys-
terry 10 be confronted by the very prosaic
prose contained in an unbound public docu-