Delaware state journal. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1870-1883, 1880-12-30
THE BONE OF CONTENTION
The Nation" on the Division
of the Plunder.
NEWS FROM LOWER DELAWARE
Comments from Democratic and
Rep 'blican Sources on Judge
Houston's Course---A Blast
for General Blur
derbuss.
QUARRELSOME GIPSIES
THE PHELPS. DoDGs d 90. CASE.


A Definite Statement of the Division
OF the Piunder-Even the Distorted
Report of Nir. Bayard's Itcnharks
Not ia Truihicss Caiumny.o
The Nation. Dec. 33
The Philadelphia Press has fortified its
report of Mr.. Bayard's speech at Dover,
Delaware, of which we spoke last week,
by publishing the affidavit of steno.
grapher named Andem und ths letters of
IL reputable citizens Of Delaware, testify
ing to the correctness of the report, and
particularly that portion of it which makes
Mr.. Bayard charge Messrs. Oonkling,
Noah Davis, Arthur, Jayne, and Boutwell,
with having been present when $267 900
was extorted from Mr. Dodge, and with
''having divided it among themselves"
Andem's affidavit would probably not
produce much impression but the letters
do undoubtedly seem weighty, and W.
notice that the defence of EVERY EVENING,
Mr.. Bayard's Wilmington organ, sgaius,
1t ia very feeble. IL amounts to saying
that these witnesses, having seen Il .
report of the stenographer since the
meeting, fancy they heard what the report
contains. 1t seems as If MIR. BayAro
might very well have said In the heat of
oratory what the report makes him say /;
for, after all, in spite of the solemn card II
has drawn out from Messrs Davis,
Conkling, Boutwell,, and Arthur, in which
they pronounce 1t "a truthless caumny, :"
the charge was ut worst simply inaccurate.
and not baseless, as their language would
lead one to suppose
There was such consultation as the
report makes Mr.. Bayard describe In his
speech, but Mr. Dodgs was not present al
it, nor was Mr. Boutwell,. But the others
were. Judge Davis was there, and SO were
Messrs. Conkling, Jayne, and Arthur, and
also Cornell and Laflln, ell henehmen of
Mr.. Oonkling's; aud the business before
them WAS the amount they could by Il
strict construction of the law extort from
Mr. Dodge. 10 all this Judge Davis
testified before the Committee. He also
added that he told this little party that If
the case went into court mo jury would
believe that u real fraud existed" They
nevertheless went On with their game and
did extort $27l 600 from the Dodges.
This sum was not divided in the precise
manner MIR. Bayard is alleged to have de-
scribed, but his statement Gu this point il
not "a truthless calumuy." The District
Attorney, Mr.. Bliss (Judge Davis having
gone out OF Office, although he had offered
to go halves with Bliss, got nothing), got
sc 400; Mr.. Arthur, the Collector, got
$2l 9U6 OIL. The Surveyor, Cornell aud
thu Naval Offin-r L.An, got each similar
amount, or S65, ,7l8.03 in all. Jayne got as
as much as the whole of them, which we
omitted to mention last week, but had to
share with the informer 80 that out of the
s27l 900 extorted from Mr.. Dodge this little
band actually took $l3l, l,436, half of this
going to MIR. Conkling's henchmen That Mr..
Arthur should have signed the card OF indig-
nant denial after having pucketcd 521, ,yO6.0l
is an extraordinary piece of assurance.
Whether Mr.. Conkling got anything is still
uncertain he has not denied ii III the CORE
spondence with Mr. Bayard. 1t was freely
asserted before the committee of Congress
that he az well as Butler received heavy
counsel fee, but the custom house officials
declined an invitation to appear before the
committee to testify on this point, which OF
itself looks omiuous. They have made a
great mistake now in attacking Mr.. Bayard
because, even if they convict him of exaggera-
tion or carelessness, they all, except Mr..
Boutwell,, do so at the cost of directing public
attention once more TO one of the worst
scandals of their own career.