The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1882-04-08
THE PERUVIAN COMPANY.
Shlpherd and the Foreign Affairs
Committee.
BITTER FEELING MANIFESTED TO
WARD GEN. HURLBUT.

the Peruvian Company to Gen. Grant?"
Shipherd replied that it had been, but fear
ing from Grants letter to Senator Jones there
might not be perfect harmony between Gen.
Grant and President Garfield, it was not
deemed advisable to adhere to their original IN
tention.
SELF 4'-sena'0f o'nhi'ns was ono . your ''@
A.-Not at that time, but afterwards.
Q.-And your relations with Grant after
wards became more harmonious?
A.-Afterwards, we had conferences with
him.
dent did you send to any members Of Congress?
Any impression is that the copies sent to
members of Congress were chiefly sent to SEN
ators
Being further pressed on this point, and at
first declining to give names, he finally mem
toned Hewitt of New York. HeH lit sent him
very courteous, verbal response, by young
man who took the papers to him, and to the
best of his recollection that was the totality OF
all the negotiations he had with any member
of the House of Representatives.
Quoting part of witnesses testimony on
Wednesday, Mr.. Rice asked him whether he
had any other reasons than those then stated,
for believing in advance what he aflraed he
did balieFe Of Gen. Hurlbut?
Mltness-I have Gen. Hurlbut's letters, and
some correspondence that is closely affiliated
with them. Witness thereupon produced sew
eral letters from Mr.. Hurlbut, which were read.
Two of these, dated Belvidere, ILL.,, urge Ship
herd to obtain from the department official IN
structions for his (Hurlbut's) guidance, as
without these he cannot act. The others, dat
ed at Lima, urge that legal evidence in sup
port of the Peruvian company's claims, be for
warded to him, as otherwise he can take no
steps.
In the last letter. dated Lima, Nov %, 1881
Hurlbut notifies Shipherd he will hold no fur
Their correspondence with him. He says,
sYou have failed wholly to furnish me with
any proof, although requested, and have re-
peatedly written that instructions were sent or
to be sent, which have never received. me
tone of your letters is disagreeable, and do
not wish further communication. Five OF
witness own letters to Mr.. Hurlbut were
then produced by him and read. One, OF Oct.
10Th, mentions documents that are enclosed
and speaks of letters that were delivered
through tHon. Geo. s. Boutwell, the compa-
nys attorney at Washington" and says, II
have Just returned from Washington, whittier
went to show the Secretary your letter to
me of Sept 10Th, and take his advice upon it.
He agrees with me in the confident belief you
have somehow widely Inexperienced funda-
mentally material facts and issues, and will
join me in the endeavor to set you right. |
will endeavor to contribute something towards
the result for transmission by next steamer.
In the meantime beg toremind yourself what
you seem to have SO far totally forgotten, that
your first and most important official duty ca
Uirtate otici, is not to help Peru, but to look
out for American interests. do not, Tor
moment, hesitate to use this frankness in
speaking as I do for citizen to a citizen. The
extraordinary attitude you have thought tit to
take in Judgment of my associates, warrants
unqualified frankness and | rely upon your
good sense not to mistake frankness Tor rude
ness" The next letter is dated Nov. 7th and
says: 81 was in Washington several days last
week and improved the opportunity to get the
views of friends there including the Secretary
of State. All approved the precise position
taken. An American protectorate was direct
ly discussed and received with general favor.
If Calderon should directly apply for it 1 think
Congress would approve the application, but
only on the ground that the large private
American interests there need protection. 1t
could not be popularized on any other footing,
and Calderon should base his application
directly and chiefly on this ground if he makes
one.
In reply to questions Shipherd said Scott
Lord and ex-senator Eaton were the only two
of at least half dozen equally intelligent gen.
tlementwho expressed to him their indepen-
dent Judgment or correspondence which coin
cided with his own. Shipherd continued:
During the summer we found opportunity to
communicate directly with Calderon, Presi-
dent of Peru. 1t was by correspondence ad-
dressed to Arizola who stood very near to
CalderoD. I enclosed the correspondence to
Gen. Hurlbut with a request to have it de-
livered presuming on his courtesy. The letter
was written by a gentleman who was here as
an official representative of Peru, and as
matter of fact he was addressing his own
chief in the interest of Peru exclusively and
suggesting how Peru might avail herself OF
this promise OF an opportunity to get out from
under the power OF Chilli. That was the
nature of the correspondence entrusted to
the minister, and / placed before him in
separate communication substantially the
whole letter SO that he might see what the
business was. Mr.. Hurlbut replied saying, 81
have received sealed letter and documents
and the letter has been delivered" shall
produce before the committee letter from
AriZoa to his correspondent deploring the
fact that the documents were not delivered
with the letter because the letter without docu-
ments was unintelligibe. That was the first
fact which attracted my attention but 1t SEEM
ed to me infinitely significant
I stated the facts to Mr. Lord, who was IA
miliar with the correspondence that had been
sent, and gave him Hurlbut's letter to read
without comments. He read it, handed it
back to me and with voice trembling with
emotion said, "Hurbut is a double damned,
deeply dyed villain. That is my opinion IN
the premises He went on to say, There is
no conceivable reason why Gen. Hurlbut
should have separated these documents from
this letter unless he intends to get in between
you and Calderon and to prevent your dealing
with him. Ex-senator Eaton was consulted
and the facts laid before him and he gave sub
stantially the same opinion and in very strong
terms At least four other gentlemen equally
intelligent and capable of forming independ-
ent opinions expressed the same opinion chat
Hurlbut was certainly inserting himself be-
tween me and Calderon with an intention of
defeating negotiations and preventing our
dealings with him.)
Mr.. Rice-Have you stated what those docu-
ments were?
Witness-Mv recollection is they were our
prospectus copy of "Truth demonstrated" and
probably copies of our proposed agreement
with Peru and of plan for sinking fund
and other features of correspondence which ran
through all Hurlbut's letters that there was an
utter inability of Hurlbut to find anything in
this case. He examined our case here but sug-
gested no difficulty or objection whatever until
after he got down on the ground. His very
first letter from there indicates he could see
nothing in the case at all. He repeatedly sug-
gested we should send somebody down there
This was what amazed and confunded my
clients and my counsel. Hurlbut is the only
lawyer who has seen any difficulty in finding
case, and at the same time he was ready on GER
tain conditions to help push it forward One
condition wass that an order smust come from
Washington, and the other was that he must
have somebody there to cooperate with him.
Each of these suggestions by itself is one OF
the most proper and innocent things but taken
in connection with two facts-frsr, that he in
serts himself absolutely between US and Pres
ident Calderon in order to attempt to defeat
our trade with the Peruvian government; and
second, that he was not able to find anything
in the case after he got there, while in May
he had found it perfect and ip June found no
fault with it-tbese facts 1 say made pro-
found impression on my mind and on that Of
every gentleman associated with me and with
whom 1 consulted In the matter. There is
another point. When Secretary Blaine sent
me his letter of December Sd and / then for
the first time was made aware that somebody
in our about the State Department professed
to be shocked by a letter of June I'd
which 1 sent to Hurlburt, the question
arose if Hurlbut understood that let
ter to be a suggestion of improper overture
to him. 1t is incredible he not only should
have retained it in silence through all these
months but that he should have continued the
correspondence with me in which no allusion
or suggestion is made that anything improper
has been done by me. That was the third
point that impressed itself deeply on our minds
and the impression in my mind was this-eith-
or Mr.. Hurlbut is net acting in good faith in
protesting now to think this is a corrupt over
ture OF hoped when we sent man to Lima he
might be sent there with instructions enabling
him to give the effect of corruptly to that pro-
position. We seemed shut up to those two al
ternatives.
Shipherd submitted letter which he wrote
to Walker Blaine last August, asking him to
interest himself in the affairs of the Peruvian
company. To this letter he never received
direct reply, but Senator Blair told him few
days after the letter was sent that the Secreta-
~ had expressed wish that no further cores
- hN r11 sod 20, &c