Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1882-06-13

TUESDAY EVENING. JUNE 13. 1852.
Garfield and Resecrans.
It will be remembered that Gen. Gar
field Is position in the army was chief OF
staff to Gen. Rosecrans. A chief OF
staff is the confidential aid, counsellor,
daily associate, and, 80 far - it is possi.
ble to assure such q thing, the personal
friend of his commanding officer. 1t is
position in which perfect confidence on
the one side and absolute good faith on
the other are supremely necessary" !"
Some time after July, 1853, Gen. Rose
Grams was removed from bis command,
and in the Sun of November 26, 1879,
appeared the following, manifestly from
the pen of its editor, Mr.. Dana, who had
been assistant secretary Of war at the
time of Gen. Rosecrans' removal:
Neither is it true. as has sometimes
been stated, that Rosecrans wa1 removed
on account OF facts alleged in the reports
which tho assistant secretary Of war
[Dana1 constantly sent to Washington.
He carefully informed the administration
of all that happened at Chattanooga but
It was not until tho situation exhibited in
his repoots was emphatically illustrated by
a private communication which Gen. J. A.
Garfield, chief of staff to RoSecrans, ad-
dressed to Secretary Chase, that the ad-
ministration resolved to act decisively
upon the subject.
Very soon following this article in the
Sun and under date of January 10, 1880,
Gen. Garfield wrote to Gen. Rosecrans,
with direct reference to this statement
In the Sun, and declared that "any
charge whether it comes from Dana or
any other liar to the effect that l was in
any sense untrue to you or unfaithful to
our friendship has no particle of truth
in it :" and he" fearlessly challenged all
the rascals i'm the world - to publish any
letters written by him to Secretary Chase
while he was chief of Rosecrans' staff.
When Blaine, in his eulogy of Garfield,
reflected upon the army Of the Cumber-
land, Rosecrans very naturally publish
ed this letter from Garfield to himself
as his own best vindicatiOn. Thus chal-
lenged as a liar, the editor of the Sun
being placed in possession of the Car
field Chase letter, very naturally and
very properly printed it, because it
showed conclusively that Garfield as
Rosecrans' chief of staff had secretly
written confidential letter to a member
of the cabinet, expressing a lack Of con-
fidence in his commander, and SO i'm
pressing Secretary Chase and President
Lincoln, that it determined their pur-
pose to remove Rosecrans.
Whatever may be thought of Garfield 8
judgment in the matter, of Rosecrans'
military administration, there is no
room to doubt his breach of military pro-
prieties and of good faith in secretly dis.
patching such letter to Washington.
Moreover, it was entirely inconsistent
with eulogy on Eosecrans which he
afterwards delivered on the floor of the
House and it could not be reconciled
at all with the declarations in his letter
of January 10, 1880, to Rosecrans, when
he said he had never Sin any sense
been untrue to him or unfaithful to their
friendship.
When, therefore. this letter from Gar
fell to Chase was first made public, at
thr very time of superserviceable
eafolt to exalt Garfield's character high
above its merits, his friends readily saw
that it exhibited duplicity on his part
not only when it was first written, but
when he afterwards disavowed it and
fearlessly challenged its production.
In some quarters. therefore, its genuine
ness was denied {; in others the ostrich
like defense was made for it that Gar
fields criticism on Rosecrans was sound
which was not the point at issue at all
while from all along the line of Mr.
Garfeld's friends there arose q bittel
howl against the publication of the let
ter, every sort of choice invective being
fired at those who had published it.
To set all doubts at rest as to its gen.
uineness and as to the motives which
prompted its publication, Mr.. J. W.
Shuckers, who was private secretary te
Chase, and who, we believe, has the ma
terials for his biography, publishes in
the Sun letter which he has written te
a friend, celebrating the above plaiI
facts and showing most conclusively
that Gen. Rosecrans' removal was due
to the Garfield letter to Chase, and that
Lincoln was influenced by this letter te
terminate the military career of Rose
Grams and change the organization of his
army and, furthermore, that the publ.
cation of this letter was entirely justified
as vindication of Mr.. Dana, and in re.
sponse to Garfeld's challenge for the
publication of such an epistle.
Mr.. Shuckers also appends to this
letter some others from Garfield tt
Chase, which curiously enough. illus
trate the military capacity of the
former and his fitness to judge
if Rosecrans moved forward will
proper speed or not. This illustra.
tion is to be found in the Streight
expedition" which Garfield expressly
fitted out, and upon which he wrote tina,
he had " set his heart" The result o1
it was that Col. Streight surrendered
himself and ], ,48S officers and men tG
Gen. Forrest, and the whole force. com
prising about l 800 men, some of whom
Were killed-Was lost part of il before