The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1882-08-14
THE STAR ROUTE TRIALS.

Letter From Ex-senator Dorsey to the
Late President Garfield, and It's Re-
ported Connection Herewith.
WASHINGTON, Aug. 1.-THE Sunday Ga
zette in article attacking the prosecution
in playing with the Star Route cases, and
more particularly ez-Attolney General Mac
Veagh and ex-Postmester General James, will
publish letter over the signature of ex-Sena-
tor s. W. Dorsey to President Garfield, in
which it professes to find the animus of the
Star Route prosecutions.
The editor of the Gazette, Richard j. Hin
ton, in charge of the compiling of docu-
ments for distribution by Republican national
campaign committee of $780, under the super
vision of Senator Dorsey. In his article he
says he has in his possession large numb
of letters from various sources, one of which
he selects for publication. Following is the
letter:
241 FIFTH AVENUE,
New YORK, Feb. q, 1882.
Jfg Dear General-Colonel George Bliss call
ed on me recently and intro 1uced Mr.. Knox,
who said he was class-mate of yours at VIII
liams College, and further stated that he was
about leaving for Mentor to visit you at your
request, to discuss the question of the proper
person to place in your cabinet from New
York. 1t cannot be possible that you would
call upon George Bliss, much less upon Mr..
Knox, to give advice respecting so important
a question to you and to the people OF this
State. Both these gentlemen may be honest
and res tectable; so far as l know they are,
but Messrs. Bliss and Knox do not reprecon
tie people of New York no more than l repre-
sent the King of Siam. All such talk as this is
pretentious idiocy and If you are occupying
your time in listening to men like these, I
wish to express in the most emphatic way that
you and your administration will prove la
mentable failure. You should take the bits in
your teeth and decide for yourself who you
want in your cabinet What do you
want the advice of men for, every
one of whom has an axe to grind or
scheme to push? If you want advice in New
York why don't you send for Conkling or Ar
thur, the two men who elected you with the
aid of Grant? Why don't you consult with
somebody who has a stains, name. and fol-
lowing in New York? Now t1ll you, and 1
tall you without a grain of selfishness, that you
cannot afford to have any friction from or
arise between yourself and Mr.. Conkling and
Gen. Arthur, and whenever you determine to
assail those men you drive the last nail in your
political coffin. You can't ignore them to
make peace with Mr.. Curtis, Wayne Mac
Veagh and others of that class. You can't
disband an army to get recruits. We now have
a great, we'll orsaniZed, active and aggressive
army; if you want to muster out that army in
order to pick up the Sneaks, b1mmers and de-
serters in the rear, go ahead and L pre-
dict you will land in surrendered camp.
/ am tired of this blathering talk about
MacVeagh to go into the Cabinet from Penn
sylvania, and James from Nsw York. Such
detestable rot should be smoked out at once,
and YOU ought to doit in some public way. AS
1 have repeatedly urged upon you, there is but
one appointment you ought to make from New
York, and that is Chief Judge Folger to be
Secretary of the Treasury, and you do not
need any Bliss or Knox to ascertain or to
prove his character, capacity and standing in
New York; running for chief judge on the
same ticket with you he received more than
double the majority you did, Now, take my
advice about this, and 1 ask you to do that be-
cause you know have no earthly interest ex-
cept to see successful and honorable admins
tration, and my advice is this: When you get
ready to select citizen of New York for your
Cabinet, send for Senator Conkling, Gen. Ar
thur, Gov. Cornell, j. ID. Warren ofhButfalo,
ex-Gov. Morgan, Thomas G. Platt e d men OF
that class, and get their best Judgment Bliss
and Knoxl What nonsense! l beg you will
not permit Mr.. Knox to run around this State
enduring about men fittest for the Cabinet,
and pretending to repreSent you. by acts OF
this kind you injure yourself ana cast an un-
pardonable reflection upon the men who can
and ought to be the best judges, and who rep
resent the Republicans of this State. don't
wish to be put in position of being obliged to
lecture the President. electant, especially in
regard to the formation OF his Cabinet, but
you have repeatedly urged me to tell you
whenever / should think you were going
wrong. / write you when l think you are
about to make a mistake, and have not, and
shall not mince words in pointing out your err
rors. You drop thinking OF all this stuff about
Conkling. He don't want to fight you or any
one else. He is not prowling around with
chip on his shoulder, challenging all mankind
to battle. All Mr.. Conkling wants, and all
that Gen. Arthur desires is a fair show and an
honest deal. These two men and their
friends represent the intelligence, the progress
sive and aggressive elements of New York
Republicanism They possess that wisdom,
force and courage that the people of this
country and all countries always admire. You
know my interest and purposes are solely to see
a successful consummation of our great work
/ have presented to you some frozen facts, and
sincerely hope you will give them your can
did and careful attention.
Your FRIEND
S. W. DORSEY.
To Gen. Jas. A. Garfield.