The Portland daily press., 1880-11-01

attorney of the "Truth" newspaper since its
establishment, publishes today in the New
York newspapers letter in which he states
that on two occasions the proprietors of that
paper have admitted to him that the Morey
letter was forgery, and sought his advice as
to the wisdom of the Truth coming out square,
ly and admitting that it had been imposed up
on and making such reparation as they could.
Judge Dittenhoefer advised them to do so and
the owner Mr.. Hart, promised to publish edi-
torially on Monday the following:
''s,ince the publication OF Gen. Garfeld's
explicit denial we are in doubt as to the au-
thenticity of the Morey letter."
This was to be followed up by full and
complete retraction of the libel.
MARSHALL JEWELL, Chairman.
Especial to the Boston Herald
NEW YORK, Oct 30.-A fac simile of the
following letter, in the handwriting of Mar
shall Jewell, was published this morning:
[coNFIDENTIAL.l
NEW YORK, Oct 26. 1880,
My Dear Gen. Garfield: l think Truth was de-
eiv.d about the Mor,y letter, lhough.they thought
it was gsunine. Finding it is not, they have con
suited their lawyer and friend, and thorough him
offer to come out and SAY SO plainly. the only
sideration for it being consideration tor Judge Dit
tenhoefer, their friend and counsel. By consdera-
lion, mean taat yuu and myself should Know and
recognize it as Judge DPS act and the oblg .tion,
if any, should be from you to him for it. So far as
/ could, l have assured them that you would SO
consider it, It's a. great service to-day, General,
1T is their proposition, and have accepted it.
Yours very truly,
(Signed0 MARSHALL JEWELL
In explaining how this letter came to be
published, Judge Dittenhoefer said to re-
porter this afternoon: l have beer counsel for
The newspaper since its establishment, and am
now counsel of record in the prosecution
against il for publishing lottery advertisements.
My relations have been only professional, ex-
cepting that for years. through my connection
with Mr.. Louis +. Post as associate counsel
when he was practicing law i'll this city, a
warm friendship sprang up between him and
me. Mr. Post has been assistant district attOr-
ney under Mr.. George Bliss AS soon as
read the Chinese letter tried to the best OF
my ability to persuade MIR. Post the maj aging
editor OF the newspaper, that it was a forgery
such was my conviction, and recollect telling
Postmaster James that had been shown the
original of the letter, and that concluded it
was not genuine.
Last Wednesday, the 25th of October, about
II a. M, l was sent Ior by Mr.. Hart. The
publisher then voluntarily said to me that he
was beginning to doubt that the Chinese letter
was genusne, aud requested me to see Gov.
Jewell Concluding that my argument had
some effect, and, fearing the prosecution might
come, they wanted me to act as mediator, and
believing honestly that would be rendering a
great service, not only to the party but to the
country, ii the newspaper would voluntarily
publicly acknowledge lis error undertook to
see the Governor, which l did at s O'Clock that
night. The Governor was pleased that the
newspaper was willing TO admit its error. and
requested me to see the editors again. That
night at II o'clock returned to the newspaper
uttee, and before l could scarcely say word,
Hart said drop that matter. Davenport
hnc hna horo ci 16ft o,,d
unfair way to recover the letter, and now we
won't do anything in the matter" then
went home, thinking the matter was ended.
Next morning at IL O'Clock was again sent
for. Mr. Hart told me that he
hal come to the conclusion it was
what justice required, and acknowledged thai
he had been imposed upon. The propriety of
this was forced upon hlm by the fact that
Gen. Garfeld's denial was explicit ana
the leading Democrats who had under
taken to verify the letter were
beginning to go back Oh it, He requested
me to see MIR. Jewell at once and inform him
Uf this. l asked what for. He said: sit will
be more to our credit If they are informed be-
iorehand that we are going to do it voluntarily
but" said he, I'VE want il understood that we
want no money or any other consideration,
but want it known that you, as our counsel
and friend, should receive the credit. 1t is a
great service, and. if any body gets any benefit
from it, it ought to come to you" became
more convinced than ever that they were get
ting frightened, and wanted it understood that
they were doing it for me, hoping thus to drop
the thing quietly. l went up at once to Gov,
jewell and reported substantially what was
said. told him that they were doing it with
out any hope OF any consideration, but it
would please them if they knew that L would
receive credit for having brought about publi-
cation of the retraction. Want here 10 say
that no office or hope of any office was sug
gested to me by Hart or by me to Gov. Jewell
The Governor said: THAT is fair and decent,
aud l will be glad to assure them that you
will be regarded as the person who was instru-
mental in having them publicly acknowledge
that they were convinced of the falsity of the
letter" He then wrote the letter which has
been published, and said: You may show
them the letter" got down about O'Clock
that afternoon. Post was present,
aud, when l asked him for Hart, said that he
was busy and l could not see him. Post said,
Did you see Jewell?" l said, EYES," and
showed the letter 10 him. Mr.. Post, after
reading it, said, Are you satisfied" said
Yes, completely He said, but it specifies
completely satisfied" ''If you are satisfied, l
am," he said, and was on the point of leav-
ing, when he said, Cant you leave the letter
and let me show it to Hart?' 1 said, was
only instructed to show it, and not leave it,
He said: Cant you trust us? Have we ever
done anything hurt you ,and what harm can
come OF lt?' l consented, and acknowledge
That this was an error, but considered the
warm personal relations between Post and N.Y.
$ If, and the thought did not cross my mind
that he was capable OF acting treacherousy.
After having left the letter l began to feel "A
intle uneasy. without being able to say why,
and was anxious that Gov. Jewell should hear
from Mr.. Hart himself that he was willing to
make the retlaction. l therefore requested
Mr.. Hart to meet the Governor at my office at
III
MED. The Governor and his secretary were
there. The Governor asked, Have you any
objection to my secretary being here? Hart
said, No" After 1 had introduced them,
and stated what I had done, Mr.. Hart
said, Yes, that is all right, but I am
not satisfied with that letter of yours.
want to be satisfied that the judge after cleo
tion will be recognized, and want a letter or
telegram from Gen Garfield The thought
then for the first time fitted across my mind
that he might have some sinister motive. and
at once, i'll loud voice, so that all could
hear, L said: Governor, 1 am satisfied, and
want no other promise. Mr.. Hart then re-
piled: well, if you are satisfied, can't help
It," l then left the room, the Governor his
secretary and Mr.. Hart were alone for nearly
an hour. just as they were going out 1 re-en-
tered, and Mr.. Hart, In the presence of Mr..
Jewell, made the direct promise that, while he
could not the next morning make a complete
somersault, he would see that an article APP
peared substantially as follows:
"Since the publication of Gen. Garfield's ex-
plicit denial, we have been lead to investigate
the matter further and are still pursuing the
investigation, with some doubt as to the au-
thenticity of the letter. If we find we have
been deceived, we will boldly declare it, as we
have heretofore maintained it was a genuine
document"
On Wednesday morningI visited MIR. Hart,
who said: II think we are going to hurt our
selves very much by doing that, but never
mind, as we have made the promise, we will
do it." Imagine my surprise when saw in
Wednesdays newspaper a. reiteration of
the libellous letter. [ now have come to
the conclusion that Mr.. Hart was all the time
playing deep game, knowing that had no
reason TO suspect him or Mr.. Post, and, recog-
nizing my position in the party. was scheming
to procure, through me, something that would
look like bribe as a consideration for making
a retraction, and would then publish it as evi-
dence of the genuineness of the Chinese letter.
During Wednesday rumors came to me that
they we're going to publish fac-similes of Gov.
JEWELS letter. I hunted for Mr.. Post and
found him about Z o'clock, dining with Mr.
Hart. After upbraiding them for what they
had done, I said, Are you really going to
publish that Jewell letter? 1t certainly will
not hurt Gen. Garfield Gov. Jewell or his party,
but its tendency will be to place me in false
position Mr.. Hart said IF you will have
the prosecution against Philip stopped will
not publish the letter." 1 answered that /
! l. Al l.ol.