The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1879-02-01
THE CIPHER TELEGRAMS.
SESSION or TltE POT
TER COMMITTEE.


ffom The -Nco 1OfE Herald
This cipher despatch business
seems likely to prove a boomerang
to tho Republicans. Tho Potter
committee has, by curious chance,
almost completed to-day tho dis
covery which alone was worth
making-of who stole the despatch
es and how they wero stole and
given to the public.
The evidence to-day shows that .
the telegraph company carefully |
collected the political dispatches
from all part; of the country and
accumulated them in New York. |
On the persistent demand of Con-
gress they brought them to Wash.
ington, on tho 17th Of January,
1877, in q trunk. Mr.. Whitney,
superintendent at Washington
took out Of this trunk 800 DESPATCH
es for the Morrison committee and
anumber for tho Morton Senate
committee, the latter relating to
Oregon. Tho remaindcr, number
ing 1926, woro then sorted and
arranged according to locality, and
it appears that out Of tho whole
number 5000 were from Indianapo-
lis alone. On the 25th Of january
Mr.. Whitney, on the demand Of
Senator Sargent, Of the Morton
Committee, surrendered all these
dispatches to Mr.. Burbank, Senator
NIorton's brother~in law, aud the
clerk Of his committee, and there
ended tho responsibility of the
tolegraph.company, which, appears,
with ono exception, noted below, to
havo acted with entire fairness.
Tho testimony goes on to show
that the dispatches remained in the
Senate committee until the 14th of
March. Meantime the Field COM
mittee had como to an agreement
that noithcr the dospatches nor the
bank accounts should DO used or
investigated, and it occurs at onco
to everybody that the Republicans
would not have made such an agree :
ment lAI Ghey believed their own
hands clean. On the 14th Of Mlrch
the telegraph company got permis~
sion to recover their dispatches.
Burbank, Senator Morton's brother
in-law, surrendered to Mr.. Whitney
the trunk said to contain them all,
and he forwarded them to New
York, where they We're destroyed
last spring, having, it is said, been
forgotten meantime and remained
locked up in the trunk.
At this step Of the examination,
MIR. Evans, a Republican member
OF Congress from Indiana, was ex-
amined. lie admitted that he kaew
one George Bullock, formerly mes
senger to Senator Morton's commit
teo, but now consul ut Cologne. It
is curious that. Bullock was appoint
cd to his consulship And went
abroad about tho time the Potter
committee was formed. MI. Evans
admitted that the night before But.
lock left hero for Germany he hand
cd Evans u bundle Of papers which
Bullock said he got in tho Morton
committee room and which wero
important. Evans further admitted
receiving letter from Bullock,
dated November Is, 1878, in which
Bullock wrote that he saw by the
papers that great stir was created
by the publication of tho cipher
dispatches, and that thcro was to
be an investigation as to where they
were got. He suspected that they
were the papers he Eal h,ndod t)
Evans, 'and which you handed to
William E. Chandlor," ;" and ho urged
Evans to go to Chandler at onco
and prevent him from mentions
ing Bulloclz's name in connection
with them, because Of the trouble
and disgrace it would bring on him.
Evans said, however, that he did
not hand the papers to Chandler,
but to Brady, Second Assistant
Postmaster General IAN Indiana
man,) and Brady will tomorrow
havo to say what he did with them
Brady was protoge of Senator
Morton.
Thus tho dispatches aro at last
traced, and it is found that the
messenger Of the Morton committee
had as important share in their
theft, and that he is now consul ol
IN1nrnn a q CIV ,,oor,, o41,o, ,>o,o2,,e