The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1885-11-03
A FERTILE CONTROVERSY.

letter on Grants connection with
the proposed plans of President
Johnson, recalls a conversation he
had with Grant just before his death.
After reading book called
Downfall of the Republic, " says
Arkell, "Grant said: Il have been
called as commander of the army to
the suppression of one re-
bellion and have been personally
the means of preventing subse-
guent civil war, menacing and
dangerous, yet Of which little is
known A venerable financier who
used to be we'll known on Wall
street, and was thoroughly informed
in political matters, in abiding to
this expression of General Grants,
which his physician, who reported
it, attributed to possible mental
wanderings from physical weakness,
said: i remember the time well.
The rumor struck the street that
some portentous disturbance was
brewing in Washington. Govern
ment securities dropped terribly
from some unknown cause. The
cause of the depression was found
to have originated in Baltimore.
Subsequently when the immediate
trouble was over, it was ascertained
to have been based on information
procured by Bob Johnson, the Presi-
dents private Secretary, who sur
reptitiously copied and sold por-
tions of the draft of an intended
proclamation, in which President
johnson proposed to declare Con-
gress'adjourned and demand full
representation from the seeded
States as the only constitutional
body he would recognize" This
corroborates, or perhaps rather SIM
plifies, Mr.. Depew's recent state
ment. 1t shows how much larger
than we know is the debt we owe
the silent hero who stood between
the wild and infatuated ambition of
weak but stubborn man and a
great national calamity"
WHAT BEN BUTLER SAYS.
New YORK, October 23.-The
Commercial advertiser publishes
an interview with General Butler,
by it's Boston correspondent, on the
Grant-J ohnson controversy. Gen
eral Butler says there are many
reasons why the charge that John
son desired to revolutionize the Gov
eminent was not brought up in the
impeachment trial. The chief reason,
and the conclusive one, was that the
offense was not charged in the arti-
cles of Impeachment and he (But-
ler), as counsel in that case, did
not care to offer incompetent testi-
mony. The charge was not en-
bodied in the articles of impeach-
ment because it could not be
proved. The talk between General
Grant and johnson, his Commander
in-Chief, was in the nature of q
privileged communication and that
General Grant so held was shown
by the fact that he did not disclose
it till long after Johnson's death.
"There was another project of
President Johnson's as to revolu-
tionizing the Government, some Of
the details of which were partly
known at the time, but which could
not be proved and which were not
brought into the impeachment pro-
ceedings. l myself had some very
strong moral evidence upon two
questions which 1 did not care to
make known to the public in the i'm
parchment proceedings, but one of
which l investigated secretly, rs
Chairman of the committee for that
purpose, and while there was dis
closed to me some very damaging
facts, under the circumstances they
were not so conclusive that l deemed
it proper to exhibit an article of i'm
parchment against the President on
that behalf. / still retain some of
the instruments of evidence, which
strongly tend to support my belief
that there were other propositions of
johnson to control the Government,
differing from that made to General
Grant on the measures to be taken
but not in the end to be reached.
1t now seems to me, for the first
time, that it must have been made
after General Grant had refused to
accede to Johnson's proposition, and
knowing now what had been said to
Grant it would seem to show that
the proposition was entertained be-
cause of Grants refusal, and while
what was known to me in regard to
il gave me strong belief that it was
not in shape to be brought before
the public"
General Butler declined to say
what these proofs were, and init
mated that they would probably moi
be made public until after his death
ADMIRAL AMMEN's STATEMENT.