Press and daily Dakotaian. (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1880-1889, 1883-01-05
THE PORTER CASE.

TIE PORTER CASE.
Debate in the United states
Senate over the Bill to Restore Him His
Forfeited Honol's.
Washington, Jan. 3-After the morning
hour Mr.. Logan continued the Fitz-John
Porter argument.
Mr.. Logan said that about the hour
Pope was issuing the order to Porter,
dated 4:30 p. M, to attack Immediately,
Porter WAS Writing dispatch announc-
ing that he had determined to retire to
Manassas, and that when thirty minutes
later he received the order to attack he
did not communicate it to his officers,
but suppressed it.
Mr.. Sewell said that the evidence
showed that Porter did not order the at
tack until $3.50, near sunset.
MIR. Logan replied that Douglas Pope,
the officer who carried the order, testi.
fed that he delivered it,
MIR. Sewell-The character of Douglas
Pope for veracity was not very good.
MIR. Logan-The character of Douglas
Pope was not very good for veracity
Mr.. President, lknew Douglas Pope bet.
ter than the senator did. He was born
and raised in my state. He is dead now;
you may assail him, but his record is as
good as the senator's.
Mr.. Sewell-If had known he was
dead would not have made the remark.
Mr.. Logan-Well, sir, you ought to
know it. 1t was published far and wide.
1t is easy to assail him now, for every
one knows the dead and absent are al
ways wrong and the living and present
always right. As the senator from New
jersey seemed to desire that the food
gates should be opened, and all the
truth let out, the fact might as we'll be
stated that tho gentlemen engaged in
this plan Of working out the restoration
of Fltz John Porter to the army sent q
man to Columbus, Ohio, and paid the
witness to come and see them and tried
to persuade him that he was mistaken
as to the time when the order for attack
was delivered. Two excuses were offered
for Polter's failure to obey his orders.
First, he was confronted by an over
whelming force under Longstreet; sec-
ond, the order was not received till too
late to attack. If the opposing force
was 80 large Porter would:have lad a
better chance of success in flank attack
by night than by waiting for daylight;
but in fact the reports of the confederate
officers showed that 10000 of Long
streets troops were engaged at Grove
ton, SO that the force left in front of
Porter was certainly not larger than his
own.
In conclusion Mr.. Logan said: Why
is it that whenever this case came up the
senate was divided on political lines? It
ought not to be so, because there was no
politics in the case. It was merely q
question of reversing the verdict of the
court-martial upon man convicted and
sentenced at time when good many
senators on the other side of the
chamber were holding their own court.
martials down south. Could it be
possible that those gentlemen and Others
of their politics would now vote without
reference to facts or law that the actor
Of the court should be reversed and this
man be put back into the army, merely
because he belonged to their party, ant
because they were preiudiced agains
the court that convicted him and til.
president who approved the conviction
There was no other ground on which
they could give such a vote. He hac
hoped that these old prejudices hai
passed away.
Mr.. Sewell replied briefly to Mr.
Logan. He said that the verdict of the
court-martial that convicted Gen. Porter
was based upon an idea put forth by
Pope that there was no force in Porter
front. That Longstreet had not arrived
at the time the order was sent to Porter
and that If the order had been obeyet
Porter would have encountered no oh
stacle until he struck Jackson's righ
flank, showed clearly that Pope did no
understand the situation. His Who'll
campaign was direct against one corp
OF the confederate force, the one com
manded by jackson, utterly ignoring
that Longstreet had passed throug
Throughfore Gap and was in front G
Porter and Mcdowell with $4,000 me1
Mr.. Sewell read copiously from the test
mony and documents in the case in SUP
. port of his views, and said in conclusio
that the subject was not new one.
was old rs his term in the senate an
was likely to outlive him. Twenty yea
, ago Porter, a distinguished, capable an
faithful soldier in the United States, WI
had fought many battles for his countr
and not one against her, was condemne
} as traitor. From that time to th
1 Porter had steadily asked, not for none
but for Justice.
: Mr.. Hawley said he intended to vol
in accordance with the views presente
by the senator from Illinois Nogan) ian
? had risen to deprecate any intimatio
made by Mr.. Logan in the first part
his speech that the Schofeld board migl
possibly have been influenced by imprt
per motives, and that the questions the
likely to arise concerning promotion i
the army might have had something t
do with their Judgment. If there be q
; honorable man IN the world, said NJ
+ Hawley, it is Gen. Terry.
I'll Mr.. Hale moved that the bill be ind,
: finitely postponed.
u MIR. Sewell called for the yeas and nay
. and the motion was lost by the followin
3 vote:
II Yeas-Aldrich, Blair, Cameron, Wis
! Chilcott, Conger, Davis, ILL.,, Dawes. Ec
munds, Frye, Hale, Hawley, Hill, Lal
: ham, Logan, Miller. CAL, Mitchell, Mo
3 rill, Platt, Rollins, Windom-2O.
Nays-Beck, Brown, Cameron, Pa
Coke, Davis, w. Va, Garland, Gorma1
Groome, Grover, Hampton, Harris, Jacl
son, Johnston, Jones, New, Jones, Fla
: Lamar, Mcpherson, Malone, Make,
r Morgan, Pendleton, Pugh, SALISBURY
Sewell, Slater, Vance, Voorhees,, Wake
I-2S.
Several pairs were announced.
The bill was then reported to the sci
!, ate.
Mr.. Hoar moved to postpone its fin