New-York tribune., 1882-02-20
SHEPHERDS DELUSlON.
HIS EXPECTATIONS UNREALIzED.

III, GO+ of names contained in the Peruvian
aS,o,dopce was received in Washington
nth indifference A TRIBUNE correspondent
,hor,s that ot no time has the State Depart
.,ent given Shipherd the least encouragement,
Air Blaine having once even threatened to begin
criminal proceedings against him Tor attempting
to bribe General Hurlbut. The facts In
,be case of the Landreau claim, which are
shown to have no connection with the fcru-
vian Company, are set forth at length. In
ouirv in this city revealed the fact that In
nearly every instance Shepherds use OF the
names of prominent men was without authority.
No SUPPORT FROM THE STATE DEPART
MENT.
IBY TELEGRAPH TO THE TRIBUNE.l
WASHINGTON Feb. 19.--The publication OF Jacob
r ShIpherd's list of names has been received IN
Washington with more Indifference than amuse-
ment In spite Of the rattle and bang OF charges IN
the newspapers that the State Department had oeeh
used to further the ends of vast and corrupt spec
ulatiou the conviction has gradually grown that he
Peruvian Company was mystic corporation, exlst-
ing chiefly in the brain of sangunc person with
South American imagination, and that the whole
off,ir was. rs "Toots" would say, " OF no consF-
ouence.v This feeling became so well dehned ana
general that even the disclosure of the names OF
persons with whom Shpherd Sald he
was. or was "soon to be-" in conhdental
negotiation has been received with the most langud
interest No one seems to have supposed Tor mo
ment that the persons alluded TO would have any
connection with such scheme, and the matter was
passed by with hardly the honor of laugh
There is, however one point upon which lew
conclusive facts may as well be stated before the
Whole affair passes entirely out of the pubc mind
f@l,,
which began so large ard ended so small that
10 put it into a comic opera would do 1t no
more than Justice, the Stalwart newspapers
oil over the country were filed with charges
that Mr. Blaine's whole policy toward Peru
and Chill was nodded to fix the plans OF the
Peruvian Company and others having claims 1or
untold millions against Peru. The worst lhferehces
were drawn from these statements, wmch were
themselves the widest inferences III the beglnhng'
and il was freely charged among other things that
q lst of the stockholders of the Peruvian Company
would be found to contain Mr. Blalne's name Inc
Chili-Peruvian correspondence OF the state DcpaEt
ment has Just been made public In volume Oh
more than 700 pages, and all the facts, great ana
small can be studied at leisure In the entire cor
respondenco between Mr.. Blaine and Mr.. Huribut
there is NO reference whatever made to the PERU
Wan Company by either of them, except to con-
denim il and denounce il. There is no
mention made of the Cochet claim except to declare
that it has no ground whatever for asking the good
offices of the United States. Mr.. Blaine wrote
that il had no foundation, and MIR. Ilurlbut replies
that it is nothing but swindlc. From the begin
ming to the end of the correspondence there is not
one word even toIeraing the Cochet claim and yet
some daily papers in the great cities and their lm-
tators all over the country have charged in every
mood and tense that the Peruvian Company was
IL L. y. .,.,ft Otn4n
ment.
II was mixed up with it ir the same way that
Belmont and Evarts and Governor Morgan and
William f. Dodge and William w. Astor and Will
lam X Vanderbilt and Roscoe COnkling and John A.
Iopan and Henry L. Dawes and fifty other
prouinent men were mixed up with Shlpherd.
Shipherd wrote to Hurlbut that these gentlemen
were his associates and he wrote that the State De-
partment favored his prepOsterous claims. Both
statements rest on the same foundation 1t IS as
easy for the newspapers which are chronicaly hos
tile to Mr. Blame to how absurd Shipherd's
statements in the case, but not so easy 1t
seems, in the other. 1t is fact that the letters
which Shipherd wrote to Hurlbut were unknown
to Mr.. Blaine until late in November. Mr.. Hurlbut
very properly sent the whole batch TO
the State Department, including one in
which Shpherd had offered to bribe him
with $25OOOO of Peruvian stock. Thereupon
Mr. Blaine addressed letter to Shipherd,
advising him that his name was struck from the list
of attorneys allowed to practice before the State
Department and that his correspondence would be
submitted to the President, with the view OF deter
mining whether n criminal proceeding should be
brought against him by the Attorney General Sec
retary Blaine adds in the letter that Shipherd may
possibly be excused as man laboring under de-
lusion, and then makes the following reference to
the names of the alleged associates:
find another evidence of your delusOn in the list
of names you gave as being already associated or
about to be associated with you in the prose
cution of these claims. Your list embraces |
most eminent capitalists of New York, and |
among your alleged attorneys are some OF the |
most distinguished of the American Bar shall be |
surprised 10 find that any one of these gentlemen
ever authorized you TO use his name any more thar
authorized you to present your claim TO General |
Hurlbut.
Meanwhile Mr. Baine's friends asking |
"Why did the State Department withhold these
names when the correspondence was originally sent
TO the Senate 2" They were suppressed and it took
several weeks delay and special resolution of the
House TO get them. Meanwhile the air was full of |
rumors that Secretary Blaine would be found TO |
be stockholder, and his intimate friends
would be found behind and beneath |
the Peruvian Company. Instead of that |
the most distinguished person who seems to have
had any actual connection with Shiphcrd is Cen |
eral Grant, who gave him letter of introduction
TO the Presidents and nothing appears of Blaine in
the matter at all except the letters of the Secretary
exposing the swindle and advising Shpherd that if
the President were willing he should be handed
over TO the Attorney-Genera for criminal prosecu
ton The publication of the names proves that the
Shipherd correspondence could have done one
any injury if published in the first place, and that
fact which must have been patent to those who |
caused the suppression of the names makes it difficult
70 understand it. Whatever the was, through