New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1878-07-02
WASHINGTON.
= rpAIrD MOVEMENT BLUNDER.

THE FRAUD MOVEMENT BLUNDER
DEMOCRATIC MISTAKES ADMIrTED-Ihh Snn,',1 T,r
CASE VIRTUALLY ENDED-JUsIlCE MILE" wa
OF DANGER.
Ieodipo Democrats now acknowledge hay-
;Do Numbered in arraigning Secretary
sherman and General NOyes by name
a. ,Le Potter resolutions. The failure
~ the case against Mr.. Sherman Is
,y;rtuollv admitted. At yesterdays session the
committee was placed at disadvantage Dy
Mr.. Foster and Boulds Baker. Professor bard
10 about to resume explorations IN the VIZ
cipia sandstone qusrries. General Ord has
been instructed to exercise great caution III
nursuing Mexican thieves. Justice Miller Is
out of danger.
THE POTTER COMMITTEES FAILURE.
VIRTUAL ABANDONMENT OF THE CASE AGAINST
MR.. sHERMAN-THE ARRANGEMENT OF THE SEC
RErARY AND GENERAL MOVES ADMITTED TO BE
cpFAr Nus1AKE-TnE COMMITTEE AT DIS
ADVANTAGE YESTERDAY.
IBY TELEGRAPH TO THE TRIBUNEl
WASHINGTON July lin q Washington dispatch
+o Tar tribune published last Saturday, 1t was
shown that the arraignment of Secretary SHERMAN
and Governor Moves by name in the resolution APP
pointing the Potter Investigating Committee was
made in order to satisfy the scruples OF speaker
Randall who held that it would he grave mistake
a. commence sweeping investigation of the electo-
raj frauds without specifying some definite emu 10
ne aimed at such as the impeachment of the persons
implicated in the frauds. Prominent Democratic
members OF that committee now admit that the ar
,oignmept of the two gentlemen named IN the
resolution has proved to be great mistake
NJ the Democratic party leaders. II these
two facts be coupled together 1t amounts
70 an admission by high Democratic authority
that the whole proceeding is great blunder This
feeling seems TO have been the motive which in
snred the Morrison letter to Secretary Sherman,
the principal points of which were published In
THE TRIBUNE this morning. The friends OF Secre-
tary Sherman consider that letter to be virtual
abandonment of the case against him. The commit
tee. they saw set out to prove that the Secretary
had been guilty of offences which render him liable
not only to impeachment but to imprisonment.
Dnrinp several weeks they have eXerted themselves
10 their utmost to prove their accusations but have
failed in every point. Now they virtually admit
that the only point against Mr.. Sherman is involved
in the authenticity of the alleged Sherman letter,
and having exhausted all their resources, without
sueces to bring it home to the Secretary, the case
falls.
The meeting of the Potter Committee to-day was
a failure The committee found one witness who
dehed its authority and it was thereafter unable to
recover from this assault upon its dignity Boulds
Baker, who sent long telegram to Governor
Hayess secretary at Columbus, pending the Electo-
raj Count came in some unknown way into posses
SION of General Butler, who has faculty for obtain
inc possession of the private kilograms of other
people had been summoned. What General Butler
could possibly expect to prove by this witness can
not be surmised. The Baker story has already been
told and retold and served only to put it's inven-
tors in ridiculous attitude. Bakers refusal to tes
tify to-day only made the farce appear the broader
BY declining TO testify Baker, the late Mr.. Sum
ner used to say of his antagonists, has magniied
himself There was nothing in HISTORY that was not
known. There was nothing in his telegram that an
ambitious oce-seeker could not have sent to an in
coming President. Besides Baker had long been hold
ing under Grant the very Office into which General
Butler originally started out to prove that President
Hayes had placed him. General Butler alone of the
committee mut.ered something about committing
the witness for contempt next December, an an
nouneement which Baker received with uncOncern.
Next Winter is a long way of, and Baker seemed
content to wait until the powerless committee can
obtain more power from an unwilling House.
The unannounoed and unsolicited appearance of
Representative Charles Foster in the committeeman
to-day was greater brick than any General Butler
has yet thrown and was evidently not relished by
the latter When Mr.. Foster entered Chairman
Potter blandly stated that he was not aware that
he MIR FOSTER had been summoned. Mr. Foster
quickly replied that he had not been, but that
he had seen it stated that General Butler pro-
posed to prove that his (FOsters) speech,
pending the electoral count-ln which 1T was
promised that the flag should thereafter float
"Oyer States and not over provinces over free
men, and not over subjects" had been written by
Southern Democrat. With some spirit he insisted
that if the committee wanted 10 know anything
about his speeches. ne himself knew more about
them than General Butler did, and was the proper
man from whom 10 seek information. General Butler
could only say that he did not mean that anybody
had written Mr.. Fosters whole speech, but that
the sentence just quoted had found in a speech
by Ben Hill, and that A. j. Keller, of The Memphis
AralaRche, bad placed that sentence upon Mr.. FOs-
ters desk. Mr.. Keller was referred TO by Mr. But
Ter as the editor of some kind of q machine III
Memphis. Mr. Foster said the sentence was more
than two hundred years old, older than
any Southern Democrat. Before leaving, MIR.
Foster succeeded in placing the committee III a
very embarrassing position. Referring to the fact
that the committee evidently sought TO investigate
the WOnnley Hotel Conference, he said that he
wanted to testify now and thus avoid the necessity
of returning from Ohio for the purpose. General
Butler immediately replied that he did not propose
20 call Mr. Foster as a witness, and that he could
learn what lac wished about the conference from
Others. The committee thus refused the opportunity
20 obtain information about that matter from the
best of witnesses, who there, evidently
preiering to rely upon hearsay testimony
-