New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-07-06
LETTERS FROM THE PEOPLE,
SPEECH sUREWDLY FALsIFIED.

| A HGEECn OnhfsW III GAboiT
| rs GENERAL GRANT THE VICTIM f-AND. IL So
WHOSE VICTIM is IA LETTER FROM PRO
FEssoR l.. =. PARKER. OF THE STATE UNIVERSITY
or IOWA.
| TO the Edftor Of The Tribune.
SIR: DR.. Liebcr wrote in his volume on
Hermeneutlcs, Frauds OF surprising character
| have been practised in altering and falsIfyng texts
and quoted only Transatlantic illustrations His most
| recent editor Chancellor william g. Hammond has
added to these tho well-knOwn American ROOeback"
and the less known. but more remarkable, common
school paragraph Grants DesMoines speech In 1873.
Circumstances facilitated tie creation and the popular
credence OF tho frauds pertaining TO the Isdorlan Deere
tails and the wills of Caesar and Peter the Great. and
made the myths OF Tell and Pocahontas easily credible
yet it Is much harder to believe that President OF the
United States could deliver speech before thousands,
thar that speech could be promptly printed where de-
yered and telegraphed by different persons to all the
larger cities OF the Nation, and in the words
that It could be repubished in pamphlets and books
and that FIVE afterward not in ten OF the
Nations readers has ever thing but shrewdly
nterpoated and grossly fasihcd copy. Tho marvel is
increased by tho fact that the speech originally pub
lshed, widely reproduced in this country and IN
England, when the Corkonians gave its author that
gentle hint that he need not call them in bis tour
round the world aud because he was III author
The following paragraph. without the bracketed por
uon is what Grant wrote read; with them 1t is what
first published and telegfaphed:
Resolve, that mi either the state Nation, III or
both combined snail support Institutions OF Learning
10 hrr than those sufficient to afford TO every child
growing up in the land the opportunity OF good com
mOn-schOO education, unmlXed with re tarlan, pagan,
or athelsttca tenets.
The change in meaning s obvious and suggests an in
tentIOn and motive but, no one has confessed or
explained, it VIII be enough to state how the inter
poaed speech gained publicity and how It's error was
detected and demonstrated.
The ostensibo copy Of tie speech was furnished to
The DeS MOines Register by person, slips were
struck off, and Mr.. Walker Given. late of The Iowa Cfty
Republican, gave of these 10 the telegraph operator
for The NeC YORK. Herald, and other person took
another for the Associated Press. Attention was called
the by the merest chance. college president
embarrassed by tie growing OF high schools and
State universities, seized upon this report and an
nounccd that such statement from such man
showed Of the tide" against those public insti-
tutions A university professor questioned the aceu-
racy Of the denied the inference drawn from
it. Grants assumed words either curiOusly ont
OF place certainly nelcitOus. hence an inquiry.
and the positive proof of Interpolation was found as
follows:
First-General Grant wrote in November, 1875, that
he intended to express such opinion against public
support of anything above common schools and held no
view Of that Sort but could not give his words. for
General secretary Of the Society Of the Army
the Tennessee before which he spOke had bis man
uscript He also wrote: My idea OF what said Is
this Resolve. that the State or Nation or both com
bned, shall furnish child growing up IN the
land the means Of acquiring good common school
educ1tIOn,'" etc.
SccOnd-Gcnera DaytOn's report, the first and prob
ably only ever printed from Grants own manu-
scrpt contained none OF The bracket letters or words
and the General himself assured the writer by personal
Letter of February %, 1876 that The report was
"xerbatim." IAN exact duplicate OF the manuscript
Third-General Dayton sent the original manuscript
General Grant at General Babcock'5 request, when
Autograph photograph of 1t seemed to have been
taken aud circulated, and The Autograph agreed with
General Grants meaning. With his memory and with
General DtytOn's repOro.
FOurth-Mr Weston Flint further confirmed the above
by examining the original manuscript Ill pencil In the
While House. March d, IS, and the Hon. \. j. Norton
then in CONGRESS from Ncw-YOrB, adds his testimony
that while other parts had an occasional nerlneatl0n
rasure, this paragraph remains untouched"
The paragraph referred 10 to the surface IN he late
antiP campaign also and the ORIGINAL error was
by the TRUTH and even The DeS MONIES
Register seemed think IL had set it, report from
Grants own manuscript and NOT from some reporters
copy though IT. Itself SAID In February, 76. That it
would the witness stInd" to afii m the latter.
Some future editor of Leber have occasion to
this paragraph an indie ltiOn also that false
hood has seven-league boots and "a tenacious life.
IOlCa Ctty, June "a, 1880. L. +. PARKER