The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1882-03-14

himself two generals higher by saying
there were seventeen of them. / told Gen
/ Garfield to take their opinions If he wanted
/ to- and set of questions were sent out
| and responses came in. He knew that
| had made up my mind as to the conduct
of the opening campaign, and that it did
/ not matter to me what the generals under
| me thought or said. He got the answers,
! and I told him to forward copies to Gen.
Halleck, which suppose he did. did
not read them nor know what opinions
were given. Gen. Garfield wrote to Gen
i Halleck embodying my views OF a yiger-
GUS pushing movement when the proper
time came. / never hal any idea of a
movement before the one that was made,
| and never before knew that | was
| being governed by my chief of staff,
| as this letter would make it ap
pear. We were busy all the time making
| preparations to have the army promptly
and properly provisioned when the advance
did begin We had to deceive the enemy
as to the place where our supplies were
stored, and also as to the point where the
advance would begin. We had also te
wait until corn was fit to furnish forage
/ for our horses and mules. Gen. Garfield
knew what preparations were making, and
| gave his entire assent to them and did not
at any time express to me any fears thai
1 we were wasting time
| ''All this, you will observe, is supposed
to have taken place prior to the campaign
| of Tullahoma, which was over by July 4,
| 1868, and yet this letter was written on
July 81, when we were working with vigol
to follow up our advantage. l had no idea
| II, 81 hat T 3.ar
capable of such talseness and double-deala
ing, or there would have been a court mar
| tial at once. did not look for such an
exhibition of Gen. Garfields character as
/ this, and am sorry that the letter ever saw
| the light. Butt should never have been
written, for, as | have said. it is a COM
pound of untruths and exaggerations.
| All these disclosures are the direct result
of the statement of Blaine in his eulogy
that when Garfield went to the army of the
| Cumberland and Rosecrans' prompt de-
| NAL of the truth of the statement. The
letter to Chase undoubtedly came into
Davis hands through Roscoe Conkling,
| who is personal friend of his, and Conk-
ling probably procured 1t from Governor
Chases daughter. Mrs. Kate Sprague.
The reason Of all this publication is an evil
dent desire to hurt Gartield's char
scter, and thus injure Blaine, who
is recognized to q certain extent as
Garfeld's political heir. The letter proba-
bly, came through Conkling, and the fol-
lowing letter, published in the Washington
Post of Friday, is written with the desire
to throw mud at Garield's memory. 1t is
ascribed, probably correctly, to Chauncy
j. Filley, leading stalwart, and is as fol
lows:
To THE EDITOR OF THE PosT': l read
with great interest the Garfield Chase letter
in your paper to-day. | will take an oath
it is genuine, for / saw the original in Mr..
Chase house in 1867, when he resided on
the corner of Sixth and E. streets What
became of it or how it turns up now / do
not know. To one who knew Garfield
well this letter is no surprise. He was a
treacherous, a cowardly, a hypecritical
man, selfish to the extreme, and not caring
what happened SO it did not happen to
himself Gen. Rosecrans was and is
worth to this country d thousand Garfelds.
When the fighting that Garfield was GRAY
ing for came on, he took good care to keep
ourof danger. 1t is true, as the New
York Tribune published some time ago,
that at Chickamuga he was behind tree,
but it is not true that white dove lit in
the tree above him, for there are no white
doves in that part of the world, and never
have been. There are few domestic
pigeons, but they are not In the habit of
lighting in trees or of coming near the
roar of battle.
1t is high time, for the sake of our ma
tienal common sense, the truth of history
and justice alike to the living and the dead
that all this gush over Garfield should end.
The writer of this article was a delegate to
the Chicago convention, and at no time
voted there for Garfield. sat within
few feet of him. and spoke 10 him
just after his nomination. He was whim-
pering like spanked baby, and water was
in his eyes. He was nothing but
professional office-seeker and a.
professional politician. A failure as a
preacher and a lawyer, he learned to string
wor, S. together as a child does beads and
that was his stock in trade. No one can
point to an original thought he ever utter
ed. He betrayed John Sherman at Chica-
go as treacherously as Brutus did Caesar or
Judas did Christ. While making his
speech nominating Sherman, twice clear,
cultivated voice from the gallery called out:
: N 0ln1uate GafH6lQ. l. nave 1t upon the
of one who became afterwards a |
member of Garfield's cabinet that this voice |
WAS that of hired claquer from McVicker's |
theatre, stationed there for the purpose TO |
carry out scheme the Garfield ring had |
concocted long before the convention met. |
No one wants to do injustice to dead men, |
but they are worth no more than living |
ones, and living or dead, the reputation of
q brave, patriotic, and useful soldier like |
General Rosecrans should not suffer in the
eyes or thoughts of our people by the words
of such man as Garfield, whe knew moth
ing of the science of war, and who was
such Jack at all trades" he knew little
Of anything anyone need covet.
Washington, March 8. JUSTICE.
As before, the whole affair is a stalwart
attempt to blacken Garfield's memory, and
hus injure Blaine and his faction, who
will undoubtedly prove troublesome in the
uture. 1t is dirty business and strictly
confined to republicans. Democrats can
wash their hands of it.
TRTTTH ATTESTED