The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1882-03-31

the Chinese question, and that the
Morey letter was entirely inc0nsiS-
tent with them that while / assisted
General Garfield with his CORE
spondence, and had occasion to an
swer many letters affecting the Chi
nese question, / told him that l par
ticularly remembered that of all
that class of letters that came to
General Garfield after his nomina-
nation making suggestions as to
what subjects ought to be treated,
and how they ought to be treated in
his letter Of acceptance, none OF
them were on the Chinese question
more than on any other subject.
"Do you say that people wrote
Garfield making suggestions about
his letter of acceptance ," said Gen
eral Grant. in surprised sort of
manner. [ said, ''Why, yes, dozens
of them ; more than d hundred. [
should think"
That's mighty curious, he said,
| was nominated for president
twice and nobody ever made sug-
gestion to me about my letter Of
acceptance, and he continued. in q
reflective way, / don't remember
anything about my first letter Of
acceptance. 1 don't remember when
/ wrote it or what was in it. The
second / remember by this: I was
up at the capitol when the COM
mittee handed me the formal noti-
fication of my nomination, and l
went into, or was in q am not GER
tain which was the exact express
sion) one Of the committee rooms,
and got piece Of paper and wrote
my acceptance and gave it to them.
This ended the conversation and
[ took my leave. The latter part
Of the talk particularly interested
me very much, as l marked the con-
trast between the two men, Grant
and Garfield. Dozens of people
wrote freely to Garfield, making sug-
gestions and offering advice about
his letter of acceptance, but not one
took the same liberty with, or
felt the same interest in Grant. I
know how much thought Garfield
had bestowed on his letter of &C.
ceptance, and how much the cOun-
try expected of it, while Grant sim
ply went into a committee room,
got piece of paper" and wrote his
letter accepting the presidential
nomination, with apparently as lit
tie concern as he would have an
swered an invitation to dinner. OF
course this, as well as the remarks
about the Chinese bill and about
Hewitt and Rosecrans grew natur-
ally out of what was then the uni
versal subject of conversation, the
Morey letter. There was nothing
strange in the fact that we should
talk on that subject, and nothing
remarkable or unnatural in the
turn the conversation took. In
deed it would have been far more
remarkable if that subject had not
been spoken of under the circum-
stances, than that it was, and 1t is
not 1T all likely that I or
anybody would think of fab
ricating such story as this
months afterwards, without any
foundation, and it is not at all pos
sible that l would do so. I have
not done so. The conversation took
place just as l have stated and is
given with substantial accuracy and
with absolutely no misrepresenta-
ton. As to the propfiety of my
originally telling it for publication,
there may be differences of opinion ;
as to the prOpriety OF "sticking to
it, fter l have told it. even against
General Grants contradiction, there
will be no difference of opinion
among men who value their own
word and reputation.