The daily gazette., 1879-01-28
SECOND EDITION
From Washington.

From Washington.
Tee Cipher Telegrams-Importdnt .Ses-
sion ofMe Potter Committe-Whdt ia
Int ended by the Investigation.
WARRINGTON, Jan. N.-This cipher
dispatch business at last seems likely to
prove boomerang to the republicans
The Potter committee has, by curious
chance, almost completed to-day the dis
covery which alone was worth making
of the stolen dispatches and how they
were stolen and given to the public.
The evidence to-day shows that the
telegraph company carefully collected the
political dispatches from all parts of the
country and accumulated them in New
York. On the persistent demand of Con-
gress they brought them to Washington,
on the 18th of January, 1877, in trunk
Mr.. Whitney, telegraph superintendent
here, took out of this trunk 800 dis
patches for the Morrison committee and
member OF the Morton Senate commit
tee, the latter relating to Oregon. The
remainder numbering 29,275, were then
sorted and arranged according to locality
nd 1t app sars that out of the whole num-
Der 1900 were from Indianapolis 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 Msr-
tons brother-in-law, and the clerk of hia
committee and there ended the RESPONSE
bility OF the telegraph company, which
/ N fnd hn
low, to have acted with entire fairness.
The testimony goes on to show that
the dispatches remained In the Senate
committee until the 14th of March.
Meantime the Field committee, of the
House, and the Morton Senate commit
tee, had come to an agreement that nei-
ther the dispatches nor the bank ac-
counts should be used or Investigated,
and it occurs at once to everybody that
the republicans would not have made
such an agreement had they believed
their own hands clean. Or the 14th of
March the telegraph company got per-
mission to recover their dispatches. Bur-
bank, Senator Morton's brother-in-law,
surrendered to Mr.. Whitney the trunk
said to contain them all, and he forward
ed them to New York, where they were
destroyed last spring, having, 1t Is said.
been forgotten meantime aud remained
locked up in the trunk.
At this step of the examination, Mr.
Evans, republican member of Congress
from Indiana, was sexamined. He admit
ted that he knew one George Bullock,
formerly messenger to Senator Morton 4
committee. but now consul at Cologne.
1t is curious that Bullock was appointed
to his consulship and went abroad about
the time the Potter com nittee was form
cd. Mr.. Evans admitted that the night
| hafnra Rnllnnk laff hnra for
handed Evans a bundle OF papers which
Bullock said he got in the Morton COM
mlttse room and which were important.
Evans furth sr admitted receiving a letter
from Bullock, dated November 18, 1873,
in which Bullock wrote that he saw by
the papers that great stir was created
by the publication of the cipher de-
spatches, and that there was to be an in
vestigation As to where they were got.
He suspected that they were the papers
he had handed to Evans, "and which
you handed to William e. Chandler"
and he urged Evans to go to Chandler at
once and prevent him from mentioning
Bullock's name in connection with them,
because of the trouble and disgrace it
would bring en- HIM.
Evans said, however, that he did not
hand the papers to Chandler, but to
Brady, Second Assistant Postmaster
tomorrow have to say what he did with
them. Brady was protege of Senator
Morton.
Thus the dispatches are at least traced
and 1t is found that the messenger of the
Morton committee had an important
share in their theft, and that he is now
consul at Cologne, as so many other per-
sons, disreputably connected with the re-
publican manipulation of the Presiden-
/ no laAia .i.,l
public office.
But this is not all. The officers of the
telegraph company, being asked, admit
ted that certain Dispatches were with
drawn by orders of Mr.. Orton, president
of the company, and that they were be-
tween Mr.. Tynrr, A ssistant Postmaster
General, Mr.. John W. Foster, of the
indianapolis, and Secretary Chandler
They numbered six or eight ON each side
Two persistent searches were made 10
get them all, and they were collected and
withdrawn by orders of Mr.. Orton, sent
| in letter which was burned by his di-
rection. According to the memory of
| the witnesses these dispatches related
to what one of them called dirty politi-
| cal transactlon-the sale of two positions
in the Interior Department for $4,000, TO
be transferred to Indiana, to be used in
the October campaign. Aside from these
OLA VSh OtnCi dOoDdbCAtB were
. from the Washington office by Mr.. Or
toms order, but OF these no particulars
are as yet public.
1t is not necessary to ask after this why
no republican dispatches have appeared,
but to-day's testimony leaves a numbe,
of prominent republicans in very Awk-
ward position.
PENSION ARREARS.
The commissioner of pensions to-day
issued a circular letter with reference to
the bill granting arrears of pensions, ap.
proved by the President ON Saturday
last. The circular notifies all pensi nefs
entitled to tire benefits of the bi that
| they will not require the asslstanc. of a
claim agent IN obtaining the amount due
thsm, AMI that no claim agent will be
recognized in the matter. This is the
proper course for the commissioner to
take, although it will not be relished by
the claim agents, 10 whose efforts in STIR
| ring up pensioners the passage OF the bill
may be mali ly attributed. The claim
agents expected to get at least half of tho
amount 10 be drawn from the treasury.
Under this b. "a private soldier who may
have lost two limns will be entitled, it is
said, to arrears o pensions amounting to
sum of over $ll 900.
The case Of Cornelius j. Vanderbilt
,no;pet VIM II Vanderhilt in which