Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1880-07-30

| / fully believe he would have been arrested
for his disoyaty had he lived in larger
town or nearer the centres Of life and popula-
ton. l remember distinctly the speech re-
! ferred to in The PHOENIX, and the circumstan.
ces which called IL out. remember the ex.
pressions used and have willingly signed my
name to certificate of the correctness of the
published report of the speech This speech,
however, of ITSELF had and has no special sig
nifcanco. 1t is only sample Of the kind Of
sentiments which Mr.. Davenport was con
stantly uttering throughout the war, whenever
he could get half q dozen men to listen to
| him. He rejoced when the confederate
forces won a victory, and was downcast at
the news Of Union success. lie said every
thing that he dared to say against Lincoln's
hirelings' and Lincolns niger war lie
said, constantly and repeatedly that the gov
eminent bonds and currency wouldn't be
worth % cents a bushel-no, mol the paper
they were printed on The bonds won't be
paid, he said in this generation or the next
no, not in this century or the next, and
our informant here related, with much salts
faction, the remark Of a certain eccentric res
ident of Dover, who once, ON hearing Mr..
| Davenport make this statement, replied. "If
l can get MS long credit MS that, l won't wor-
| ry" "The only time, this gentleman said,
THAT ever knew Mr. Davenport not to OPP.
pose the raising Of money for war purposes,
was when the town voted to insure any man
against the draft who would pay $500 into
the town treasury and on that occasion Mr.
Davenport promptly paid over his money.
After the emancipation proclamation was is
sued, he freely predicted that when 1t went
into effect the Union troops would lay down
their arms-that they would never stay aud
fight a niger war
As We have already said, the above state
ment is fairly representative of how the lead
ing, responsible men of Wilmington talk about
Mr.. Dayoi ports record during the war. One
gentleman, of venerable yearssof excellent
legal attainments and whom the Republi-
cans of Windham county have delighted to
honor in years not long gone by, said to us ::
Nothing has yet been printed in The PHG-
NIX about Mr.. Davenports war record but
what is true, and the whole truth has not
been told. His record throughout the war
copperheads in the North, the worst one l
knew. l heard the speech which has been
alluded to. 1t was so violent and obnoxious
in its tone that l was afraid the younger men
in the crowd would do Mr.. Davenport vio-
lence, and As one of the older men present
used my influence to repress the angry feel
ings which were manifested" gentleman
whom we met at the same time with the one
here referred TO, said that he heard the be-
| ginning of the speech but il made him so
angry that he turned away. Other gentle
men told us the same thing, and it was re-
marked to US by still others that many more
names than those signed to the certificate
above printed might have been obtained had
not so many people turned away in disgust
from listening to it, By several people we
were told that it would only have required q
word to have raised mob on the occasion
At the mouth of many witnesses the fact is
fully established that the expressions quoted
from this speech of Mr.. Davenport were sim
| ply stereotyped ones with him. Those who
didn't hear that particular speech heard the
same thing at other times and places aud
many times over. 1t was a common declara-
ton with him that ''greenbacks wouldn't be
worth ninepence bushel, and one gentle
men said he had heard him say, times with
out number that the government bonds an d
currency, which he was pleased, for some un-
explained reason, to call Lincoln skins, &"
wouldn't be worth six cents a CARLOAD" with
in certain stated time He constantly
sought to discourage people about buying
| government bonds, and one of his favorte
croaling predictions was that within such or
| such time -four would cost 500 a barrel.
| To certificate to facts like these and to the
generally rank coppery tenor of his whole
war record, we were repeatedly assured that
| 10 responsible names could easily be secured
An old soldier of prominence and good re-
pute in the town, to whom We applied for in
formation about chat $500 or $500 which Cac-
cording to the DtJdmer) Mr. Davenport dis
tributed among the boys at the front could
tell us nothing about that little incident. He
added the interesting statement, however,
that being on detached service at that time,
he came on to Washington with the party of
which Mr. Davenport was member, and
that he heard that gentleman say in that city
that he wanted TO take one more look at
Republican Congress-, for it was the last one
he should ever see unless he looked down on
it from the battlements of hell" fitting re-
mark this, TO supplement an exclamation
which an eminently reliable gentleman told
us he heard Mr.. Davenport use when the
news of the New York riots was read from
tho daily papers glory, glory to
| God"
In exact justice to Mr. Davenport, so far as
the $500 OF. 500" are concerned, perhaps We
should say that We have since heard of an old
soldier who says that Mr.. Davenport did dis
tribute the money as stated by him, but that
it was distributed as loan to be repaid, and
not as gift
Some of the most valuable and reliable in
formation which we obtained at Wilmington
came from staunch Democrat of advancing
years, but of clear and exact memory. This
was Dea John G. Wilson, who was chairman
of the board of selectmen for some time dur
| ing the war. At certain time, Mr.. Wilson
said, it became suddenly necessary to raise
| S1700 to pay bounties TO volunteers. There
was no time to call town meeting, and ap-
plication was made to the Wilmington saw
ings bank for loan of this sum. The treas
urer stated that there were ample funds on
hand and that the bank would gladly make
the loan, When application was made to
the committee of finance, however, for APP
proyal of the loan, Chas. N. Davenport, one
of its members, with one other copperhead
member, refused to approve the loan on the
plea that there was no responsibility for the
note. To this it was replied that Dea Will
son and his brother selectman, Daniel Cush-
man, who together represented not less than
$4,000 in tangible property, would both
sign the note but Davenport aud his fellow
| ot;lI raF,eal tI,o;u o,,.,.a.-.l