Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1880-07-30
THAT "$lOO REWARD"
Was G. N. Davenport COpperhead (!
Did re Make "a COpPerhead speech
in September. Is04f
UHmingfOn People Sag eyes"
Reliable, Tangible Evidence"
AND PLENTY or TT.
A Loud Call for the Stamps

A Loud Call for the Stamps.
In It's issue of July 10th The PHOENIX pub
lished au extract from a copperhead speech
delivered by Chas. n Davenport from the
town-house steps in Wilmington on the first
Tuesday Of September, 1864, in which Mr.
Davenport denounced tho "boodthirsty Lin
coin and his hrelings," declared that the ma
tional debt could never be paid, that the gov
eminent itself must fail for lack of means
that greenbacks would not be worth the pa
per they were printed on, that the war was q
failure, that the rebellion could never be sub.
dued, that the only motive of the Republican
leaders was ito fill their bloated calf.skins n
little fuller before the final collapse OF tho gov
ernment," ETC., etc. In the face of this uh-
welcome and damning revelation against its
senior editor and proprietor the windbam
County DCtdmer of last week formerly
known asthe Reformer) published the follow
ing staggering challenge:
400 Reward.
"The Reformer, as a rule, does not propose
TO give its valuable space to refuting personal
hNthNhb bh ITO tAllAOE VI hu1 VI MS ItlhllNth
II has made vigorous war against IL certain
crowd of public plunderers, and is proud to
have won their undying hatred. As they, or
one Of them certainly, are among the most
INSCRIPTIONS men the Lord ever suffered to
breathe, We expect to be subject to their ma
licious lies. 1t is only therefore to show to
what base uses the Main Street Se,cer Cmis-
named Phqniz) is lending itself in the service
of this gang, that we deign to notice any
thing they say in its columns Last week
they devoted most of their space to an effort
to make somebody believe that Mr. c. N
Davenport was a copperheRd during the war
and they published a purpOrted extract from
one of his speeches. This extract was fab
rication out of whole cloth, concocted by two
men in Brattleboro. He HeUer pidde any
such speech, and we hereby offer 800 for any
reliable, tangible evidence that he did. Here
is a chance for two sneaks, who wrote il, to
show themselves if they have the courage"
With regard to the cowardly charge of the
DeJdmer that the speech in question was a
fabrication" ''concocted by two men in
Brattleboro," we have only to say, in the
most positive terms, that neither any two
men in Brattleboro," the editor of this paper,
nor any person in this town, had any knowl-
edge of this speech or its subject matter nor
had it even entered their heads, until it was
forwarded to this Office by mail by one of the
most responsible men in Wilmington, with
an unqualified assurance of its genuineness
and reliability. As to the proof that this
speech was ever made, we respectfully sub
NIT the following docu ment which was pre-
pared, signed, and furnished us on Monday
last, without our previous knowledge or sug-
gestion
CertI6cate Of Fifteen Leading and
ResPOasibIe Wilmington Mea.
The undersigned, citizens of the town of
Wilmington, hereby certify that we have
read in The VERMONT PHOENIX of July 10th,
1880 an extract from speech delivered by
Chas. n. Davenport from the steps of the
town hall in Wilmington the first Tuesday of
September, 1864 that we were present at the
time he made the speech from the steps of
said town house on the first Tuesday of Sep
TENDER, 1864, and that the extract rs printe
in The PHOENIX is substantially correct in ev-
cry respect, and according to our best recol-
lection is verbatim.
n. NJ HASKELL.
NATHAN ID. MANN,
JOHN S. RICE
j. II. STOWE
CHAUNcEY CUsHMAN,
L. NJ HARRIS,
REUEL SMITH,
ISRAEL HAYNES,
GEO. ROSE,
II. G. RIDDELL,
DAVID BILLS,
EPHRAIM HASKELL,
HIRAM HASKELL, I'd,
EPHRAIM F. HASKELL.
EMERSON HAYNES
Wilmington, July 2G, 1880.
Here, then, is the reliable, tangible evil
dence." Here is the responsible, carefully
considered statement of fifteen as good men
Us there are in Wilmington or in Windham
county, who deliberately testify that they
were present and heard the copporhead
speech in question, and that the version of it
as given in Tue PHOENIX two weeks ago was
truthful and correct. We here call, there
fore, for the payment of the 500 reward so
grandly and confidently offered by the De
fdmer. We have no disposition to monopo-
lie the whole of the sum, or to have it all
used in Brattleboro. We therefore direct
that one half the amount be paid to the Re-
publcans of Wilmington TO be used by them
in the purchase of Garfield and Arthur flag
E. c. Sergeant or N. NJ. Haskell are, either
of them, suitable persons to receive this
money for the Wilmington Republicans, and
to either of them it may be sent. The other
half the Brattleboro Republicans will not
care for, as they already have a flag and will
find no difficulty in raising money for all
necessary campaign expenses 1t may, there
fore, be paid over to be added to the ladies'
library fund of this village.
Was or Was Not Chas. n. DavenpOrs a
COPPerheadf
So much for the money. But this is not
by any means all that we have to say about
Chas. N. Davenport's copperheadsm. In
what we had already published on this point,
we had been governed entirely by information
which We deemed eminently reliable, as well
as by an impression gained during the first of
our residence here and confirmed by many
facts which subsequently came to our knowl-
edge. In the face, however, of the solemn
protestations of the Detdmer that Chas. n
Davenport not only was not copperhead, but
was good Union man, we thought best to
inquire into the matter in person and on the
ground where he lived from 1861 to 1865
With this purpose in view We visited Whining
ton the first of the present week. and there
saw and freely talked with many of the lead
ing men of the town. Candor and simple
truth compel us to say that all the testimony
which we could obtain points unequivocally
to the fact that throughout the war Mr.. Dav-
export was as dislOyal and as bitterly hostile
to the Union cause as he dared to be. One
of the first salutations which we received was