The Portland daily press., 1881-01-05
THE MoREY LETTER AGAIN.
The Truth Prints an Open Letter
to General Garfield.
PRONOUNCING THE CHINESE-LABOR
LETTER A FORGERY,
By Which it was Imposed Upon-Further
Revelations Promised,

| New YORK, Jan. 1.-The Morey Chinese
| letter is pronounced forgery by the Truth.
| the journal which originally published the
| letter. The following is published as an open
letter from Truth to James A. Garfield,
repudiating the Morey letter and declaring it
| forgery:
To James 4. Garfield, President-elect:
Sir:-After a searching investigation, in
| which we have spared neither time, energy
| nor expense, we have traced the Morey letter
to its origin and ascertained that it is forgery
| This acknowledgment is due you from the
| journal in which that letter first appeared. 1t
| is made voluntarily and as an act of simple
| justice; for while we believed, as we did un-
| til within week past, that you were the au-
| thor OF the letter, no bribe could tempt or
threat intimidate us into making contrary
statement; but having ascertained our error,
| 1t is qualification to us to give the same
| prominence to this acknowledgment that we
! gave to the forged letter itself and thereby
make all the amends in our power for the
| wrong of which Truth was an unconscious
| instrument. Upon the instant that our in
| vestigatiops convinced US that the letter was
spurious we privately informed you of our con-
clusion. AT that time we were advised that
the ends of justice might be impeded by public
avowal such as we now make, but, as will ap-
pear by the appended letter from B. G.. Jayne,
Esq, that consideration no longer exists, and
we do to-day what an observance of the princi-
pies upon which Truth was established, and by
which it has been conducted, would have i'm
PEELED us to do, Immediately upon the dis
covery that the letter was a forgery and
which nothing could then have prevented,
but the desire to fasten the guilt where it be-
longs. Truth published the letter in good
faith, believing that you were its author.
While we so believed neither temptation,
threat nor force could influence us to re-
pudiate it. Likewise, having now satisfied
ourselves of its spurious character, no false
pride nor selfish motive of any kind can
restrain us from announcing our conclusion
and thereby allaying the doubt that now ex-
lists respecting its authenticity.
Respectfully yours, TRUTH
The following letter is also published:
B. q. Jayne's Note to Mr.. Hart.
New YORK, Dec. 81, $780,
To Joseph Hart, ESQ.,:
Dear Sir-In answer to your note of yester-
day would say that 1 can see no good reason
for longer Withholding the statement you de-
sire to make in your paper, viz, that you are
now satisfied from evidences in your possession
that the letter published by you purporting to
have been written by Gen. J. A. Garfield to
II. L. Morey of Lynn, Mass, was a forgery.
Fully understanding the imposition practiced
upon you by certain members of the National
Democratic Committee, upon whose assurances
you relied with regard to the genuineness of
the letter, and knowing how earnestly you
have worked to ascertain the authorship of
the frand by following every clew that seemed
to lead to its solution, and fully appreciating
your oft-repeated declarations that your only
wish in the premises was to ascertain and pro-
claim the exact truth, L deem that in Justice
to all concerned the time has come when you
shoulo say the letter was forgery, for with
the proofs in your possession there can be no
doubt as to the real criminals.
Very respectfully,
B. G. JAYNE.
Truths Editorial Comments.
In connection with the retraction, Truth
says editorially, under the caption, "The
Morey Letter a Forgery "Today Truth VOL
UNFAIRLY pronounces the famous Morey letter a
forgery. Truth was established for the pur-
pose of publishing tie truth, the whole truth
and nothing but the truth, in all matters of
public concern, and from the first issue neith-
er effort nor expense has been spared to ac-
complish this high mission, regardless of whom
it might help or whom it might hurt. But it
is mission to high for human honor or skill
to wholly accomplish. Its attainment can only
be approximated, though in aiming at perfec-
ton higher standard may be reached than
that OF journals which will foully distort or
suppress facts injuriously affecting their inter
est and invent or magnify others whose eff
feet upon such interest would be beneficial 1t
is inevitable that erroneous statements will be
made IN a daily newspaper, however care
fully conducted. But while no newspaper can
be infallibly truthful, it is possible to remedy
the injury which its errors cause when the er-
rors are discovered. and it is the recognition of
Uhdu pOoolplllly WllCu ulSGlugulSQ6S truth from
its contemporaries. When the Morey letter
came to us we believed it to be genuine let
ter OF James A. Garfield. Our belief became
absolute conviction when Speaker Randall,
Senator Barnum, Orestes Cleveland, Abram
S. Hewitt and other prominent members of
the Democratic Nasional Committee, all bet
ter able to judge than we were, unhesitatingly
pronounced it genuine. Upon their assurance
we published it in form best calculated to
impress conviction of its genuineness upon
%1Dy 40 IxryI,.I 10 LN1s-
right we were impervious to bribery and firm
against thunders of intimidation and force.
There was no influence on earth seductive |
enough or powerful enough to induce us to re-
pudiate the letter. Believing it to be General |
Garfeld's, Truth would have been crushed ont |
of existence and its promoters would have sub. |
mitted to the most relentless persecution rath |
er than its columns should be detected by
false confession or hypocritical apology. But
when in court the envelope was cut at the |
ends, and light revealed for the first time the
fact that the original address upon the enyel- |
velope had been erased, and that of Morey |
substituted: when it appeared that the LYNN |
hotel register containing the signature of H. |
L. Morey had no such signature upon its
pages when given by the hotel proprietor to
the agent of the Democratic committee who |
brought it here; when it appeared that the
same agent procured the attendance of Samu-
Ell Morey, who falsely swore to the existence of
Henry L. Morey; when it appeared that the
oe'AAO esSCao was eSoi'O LII pTOClrl0g
the Lindsey affidavit in Maryland
which induced US to send for Lindsey, who
proveda constituencies periurer, and when
experiments with the Morey en-
velope proved that at least four addresses had
been on it, each erased in turn, except the last
two, with acids, and third with an instru-
Truth made efforts to solve the
mystery, and ascertain the origin and history
of the letter. In doing this we enlisted the
services of b. G. Jayne, who is known to the
country as a special treasury agent Our in
vestigations resulted in the discovery of posi-
tive proof that the letter is a forgery. Having
made that discovery we announce it as promi-
nently as we published the letter that there
may not remain a trace of the belief which
still exists that it is genuine.
We owe this not alone to Garfield as an act of
Justice, but owe it also to the principle upon
which Truth is founded. Truth cannot avoid
errors, but upon the discovery of them it ac-
them, and thereby sustains the in
egvity of its motto, and this we have never
refused to do and never shall refuse, whether
,he error affects the President of the United
States or the meanest man in the streets of
New York. In asserting, as we do TODAY. the
rue character of the letter as developed bv
Investigations, we make public all that Truth
Ind justice can require. The details of the
Investigation, facts discovered and parties i'm
,licated, will be made public in court of ius-
ice, where we now challenge meeting with
hose who have bent their energies to annihi-
ate Truth, some of whom were actually and