Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-01-04
Senate.

Without Action on the Bill.
Senate.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 3.-Tn the senate
number of petitions were accepted for
constitutional amendment prohibiting the
manufacture and sale of alcoholic liquors.
At the close of morning hour Mr.. Logan
continued his argument against the Fitz
John Porter bill.
Mr.. Logan finished his speech at 2:05.
Mr.. Logan said that about the hour that
Pope was issuing his order to Porter dated
$50 p. m, to attack Immediately, Porter
was writing dis patches announcing that he
had determined TO retire to Manassas, and
that when thirty minutes later he received
the order to attack, he did not communi-
cate it to his officers, bet suppressed it.
Mr.. Sewell said the evidence showed that
General Porter did not receive the order
to attack until $50, near sunset.
Mr.. Logan replied that Douglas Pope,
the officer who carried the order, testified
that he delivered It.
Mr.. Sewell-The character of Douglas
Pope for veracity is not very good.
Mr.. Logan-The character of Douglas
President, l knew Douglas Pope better
than the senator did. He was born in my
state. He is dead now, and you may as
sail him. bNt his record is as good as the
Senator's is.
Mr. Sewsll-If I had known he was
dead I would not have made the remark.
Mr.. Logan-WeA, sir, you ought
to know it. It was pub
HT0z
was a favorable men. 1t is easy to assail
him nov, for everybody knew that the
dead and absent are always wrong, and the
living and present always right" AS the
senator from New Jersey seemed to de-
sire that the food-gates should be opened
| and all the truth let out, the fact might as
we'll be stated that the gentlemen engaged
| in this plan of working out the restoration
of Fitz John Porter to the army sent a
man to Columbus, o., and paid
witness to come and see them,
and tried to persuade him he
was mistaken as to the time when the or
der of attack was delivered. Two excuses
| were offered for Porter's failure to obey
| this order: First, that he Yves confronted
by an overwhelming force under Long
street; and, second, that the order was not
received until too late an hour for the at
tack. If the opposing force was SO large,
Porter would have had a better chance of
success in flank attack at night than by
waiting \for daylight, but in fact the re-
ports of confederate officers showed that
10000 of Longstreet's troops were en-
gagged at Groveton, so that the
force left in front of Porter was
certainly not larger than his own. In con-
| clusion, Logan said: Why is it that when
ever this case came up the senate was d.
vided on political lines. 1t ought not to
| be so, because there was no politics in the
| case. 1t was merely question of revers-
| ing verdict of a court martial upon
| man convicted and sentenced at time
| when good many senators on the other
side of the chamber were holding their
own c.urts martial down South. Could
| it be possible those gentlemen and
| others of their politics would now vote,
without reference to facts or law, that the
action of the court should be reversed and
! this man put back into the army merely
because he belonged to their party and be-
cause they were prejudiced against the
court that convicted him, and the presi-
| dent who approved conviction? There
was no other ground on which they could
give such vote. He had hoped these old
prejudices had passed away. He did not
think it was either good taste or good
policy for the gentleman on the other side
to undertake to revise and reverse what
| had been done here during war according
to law and facts They had better let men
who had proved derelic5 on the Union side
| and who had been dealt with by the gov
eminent alone. They are of no service to
| you, said Mr.. Logan, and of none to us.
They are of no more service to the coun-
try. They may serve themselves but no
one else. He protested against the pas
sage of this bill, because it would intro
duce disorganlzing and disrupting inhu-
ence into the army which belonged to the
whole country, and in whose efficiency all
were interested. For himself, with
his knowledge of the character
of the court that convicted
this man, of the president who
| approved its action, and of the facts of
the case, if he felt any impulse to vote for
this bill to please anybody, he would 90
across the Potomac and kneel among the
graves of the boys who fell on the battle
field of Groyeton on that 29th of August,
and would there pray God to forgive him.
He would appeal to the spirits of Lincoln,
who had approved the verdict of the court,
and of Garfield, who took part in render
ing that verdict, and always believed it
just, to restrain him from perpetrating
such wrong upon the nation and upon its
bsave soldiers-liying and dead.
Mr.: Sewell replied briefly to Mr.
Logan. He said the verdict of the court
martial that convicted General Porter was
based upon the idea put forth by General
Pope that there was no force in Porter's
front; that Longstreet had not arrived at
the time the order was sent to Porter; and
that if that order had been obeyed Porter
would have encountered no obstacle, until
he struck Jackson's right flank, showed
clearly that General Pope did not under
stand the situation. His whole campaign
was directed against one corps of
the confederate fsrce, one COM
man6ed by Jackson, utterly
ignoring the fact that Longstreet had
passed through Thoroughfare gap and was
in front of Porter and Mcdowell with
$4,000 men. Mr.. Sewell read copiously
from the testimony and documents in the
case in support of his views, and said in
conclusion that the subject was not new
one. 1t was old as his term in the senate.
and was likely to outlive him. Twenty