Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1883-10-16
Gen. HOit-s Last Fling at Mr. Thompson.
President Buchanan's Loyalty At

Gen: Ho!t's Last Fling at Mr., THOMPSON
tested.
Mr.. Thompson speaks bitterly of me as
his enemy" and possibly has been led to
believe that |, in common with the loyal
people of the North, have been led into
unfriendliness toward him because of his
distinguished military service during the
rebellion. This is delusion on his part
which hasten to correct. The only his
tory of those services which has reached
the North is that given by Gen. Grant in
his testimony before the Military Commis
sion which tried the assassins of the Presi-
dent. | copy it from the record of the trial
as follows:
met Jacob Thompson, formerly Secretary of
the Interior under President Buchanan's S admin
istration, when the army was lying opposite Nicks
| burg, at what is called Milliken's Bend and
fOung's Point. A little boat was discovered COM
ing up near the, opposite shore. apparently sur,
reptitiously and trying to avoid detection.
little tug sent out from the navy to pick it up.
When they got to it they found little white flag
Jacob Thompson in it. They brought him to Ad
miral Porter's flagship, and was sent for to meet
him. do not recollect the ostensbe business
he had. There seemed to be nothing at all impor
tant in the visit, but he pretended to be under a
to go back again That was in January or Feb
ruary, of 1868, and it the first flag of truce
had through. lie professed to be in the military
service of the rebels, and said that he had been
offered a commission-anyfhing that he ,oantei
but, knowing that he was not a military man, he
preferred having something more like a civil ap
pointment, and he had, therefore, taken the
place of inspector general with the rank of lieu
tenant-colonel, IN the rebel service.
The heart of the country has been
found large enough and magnanimous
enough to forgive these services against
its flag, but of course, they were too bril-
liant to be forgotten. / cannot close this
communication without bearing emphatic
testimony to the loyalty of President
Buchanan throughout the troubled and
trying scenes which marked the last
months of his administration. With
measureless responsibilities expressing
him; badgered by traitors and by the de-
him sympathy and loyal support; and,
standing, as he did, on the brink of a
great national calamity, the imminence of
which was awing all hearts, he was often
cast down, but never unfaithful to his
duties. Amid the binding rancor of party
strife he was constantly misunderstood and
constantly misrepresented. He was not
an aggressive man, nor at all given to vio-
lent forms OF speech or OF action. He shrunk
from the contemplation OF civil war
and the bloodshed it would involve, and
| sought to postpone it to the last possible
moment. But in all this there was no
taint of disloyalty. While, however, uni
formly gentle and suave in his modes, he
was not the less firm in view of the ends
to be finally attained. And vet it was this
very gentleness and suavity-the result, in
| part, perhaps, of his peculiar tempera-
| ment, but yet more, it may be, of the
| training inseparable from his diplomatic
career-which often misled men who
paused not to reflect that iron hands are
sometimes found in silken gloves.
H. TT