The Portland daily press., 1885-03-17
GEN. HAzEN'S TRIAL.
Exciting Scenes in the Court Room
Yesterday.
Serious Charges Made Against Employees
of the War Office.
WASHINGTON, March 10.

WASHINGTON, March IT..
In the HaZen court martial today, counsel
for defence called Gen. Hazen to the stand.
lie was asked "by what authority and by
whom was the Lady Franklin Bay expedition
organized ana set in motton?"
The Judge Advocate objected to the ques-
tion.
Judge Mackey, Of counsel for the accused,
said: 1T is eminently material who set this
expedition in motion. Our purpose is to show
that the President set it in motion by an exec
utive order signed by his own hand and not
transmitted through the Secretary of War:
that one President directed the organization
of the expedition and another appointed its
commanding officer; and that upon this field
the Secretary of War was an intruder, except
70 TO dlsb9rse the funds upon requistion OF the
The court refused to allow the question to be
asked.
Witness testified that prior to September IS,
1883, he had several occasions by communica-
tlons addressed to the Secretary OF War to
question theWisdom of the latter's descisions in
relation to matters pertaining to the signal SER
vice and protested against such decisions and
that on several occasions such decisions had
been revoked in consequence OF his protests.
He said that in none of these instances had he
first asked permission of the secretary to ad-
dress communications to him and he said he
knew OF no law or custom requiring him to do
so. Gen. Hazen testified farther that he had
never knowingly been disrespectful in Ian
guage or action to the Secretary Of War or
any of his superior officers.
In the arguments on the objections the coun-
sci for accused several times violently assailed
the late secretary of war, Mr. Lincoln. On
one occasion he asserted that "the accused has
thrown against him the great weight Of the
war office, and the great weight of the name
once honored by an illustrious citizen"
In the course of the examination Gen. Ha-
zen admitted having written to the Secretary
OF War as charged in the first specification,
that after the return of the Proteus party in
1888, there was still time to send Srl expedition
to the relief of Lieut. Greely, and he also ad-
mitted having stated in communication to
the Secretary of War that the tragic tsrmina-
tion of the SGreely expedition was finally due
the decision of the Secretary not to send the
expedition North in the fall of 1888. He gave
as reason for making these statements that
ne had been held to most serious RESPONSE
bility fer not effectively rescuing the Greedy
party, and that in his own defence he simply
wished to state as fact that Greely could
have been rescued and that he (HazeD) did all
in his power to have him rescued. He also ad-
mitted having written the letter of Feb. 18th,
1885, to the Secretary of War, and he said that
at the time he wrote it he possessed the proof
OF each and every statement made in the let
ter.
Judge Mackey called the attention of the
witness to the fact that his letter to the Secre-
tary, dated Feb. 17th last, was endorsed by the
Secretary as having been received at the War
Department Feb 26th, and also to the fact
that the statement concerning the contents of
this letter was published in the Chicago Tri-
bune of Feb. 25th, and asked where the letter
was kept prior to Feb. 10Th.
Gen. Hazen replied it was kept in his desk.
Judge Mackey asked whether within a re-
cent period official letters have not been pur-
loined from desks in the signal office and
taken to the Secretary of War.
The judge advocate objected to this.
Judge Mackey said the purpose of the de-
Tense is to negative the presumption that the
accused circulated the contents of the letter.
He said he proposed to show that letters had
been purloiDed from desks in the signal Office
and taken to the Secretary of War by the per-
son purloining them, and that that person re-
ceived special employment after the purloining
of letters He said they wanted to show the
general course of the administration with
reference to the chief signal officer from the
hand of the Secretary of War by day or night,
but pending further examination of Gen.
Hazen the court adjourned until tomorrow.