The Windham County reformer. (Battleboro, Vt.) 1876-1897, 1885-10-30
pepe,y,A Grant.Jehnson Story.

!. DepeW'A Grant.JohnsOn story.
Tho REroRMER last week showed that all
the historical probabilities were against the
| truth of the story which Chaunccy M Depew
had told, as having been re ceived from Gen
Grant, of revolutionary plots on the part OF
President Andrew Johnson which were foed
in the days OF reconstruction by Grant Fun
ther investigation shows that Grant himself has
denied under cath every one Of the mater ial
allegations which the Depew story represents
as having been made"after dinner" years ago.
The chief and the worst statement of the De-
pew story was that johnson contemplated over
throwing the lawful congress, and establish
ing in its stead body made up OF southern
representatives elected in accordance with
presidential proclamation and reinforced by
enough northern Democrats to make quo
rum, and that he unsuccessfully tried to induce
Grant to agree to sustain this body with the
troops. This is one of the yarns
on which the passions of m p Q h
lneut days were fed and one OF the
things of which the radical members tried to
get evidence to present in the impeachment.
Gen Grant appeared before the committee aav-
ing this task in charge July II, 1867, fully Six
months after the date of the Mexican mission
at which time this reasonable proposition
ia alleged to have been made. He
was directly asked by Mr. Boutwell,
! if he had ever heard the president
suggest the scheme. He replied that he didn't
think be had ever heard him say any thing
more about it than he had said repeatedly IN
his public speeches. When Swinging around
the circle, President johnson did suppose
case. and then asked which would be the
legal congress, but Grant denies that even this
had been SAID in private. Asked again
If Johnson h a d ever proposed
the military should be used to sustain such
project be replied unequivocaly ono" Not
only that, but Grant testified that generally
Johnson's reconstruction policy was the same
AZ Lincoln's. He said before this same congress
sional committee:
"Mr Lincoln prior to his assassination, had
inaugurated a policy intended to restore those
| governments. 1 toas present tDace before ms
murder ,ohen a plan acas read. The plan adept
| cd 6y Mr. johnson was substantially the plan
sohich had been inaugurated by Mr. Lincoln as
the basis for his future action. don't k''ow
that it acas rerbatim the same. think the
very paper aohih heard read t,cice ,chsle Mr.
Lincoln ,cas president ,cas the one achich 'oas
carried right through"
Sworn evidence like this from Grant about
the noble beginning and patriotic purposes OF
Johnson's policy, is more than an offset to the
stuff which he is represented second hand as
having retaied latter dinner" once.
Depew also pretends to quote Grant as hav-
ing represented that just after the
war Johnson was anxious to indict.
punish and hang all the rebel leaders
and that Grant had big row with him to Sc
cu,e the protection Of the paroles he had grant
ell Lee and bis army. The witness in answer
to this is again Ulysses Grant himself. In
letter dated June l6, 1865 TO Gen Lee he said
that in his view the paroles OF prisoners of war
protected them from arrest and prosecution
for having waged the war; and be added, "Ths
cpinipH, I'm iaioisYd, rs SUBSTANTIALLY the
same as that entertained BY the government.
The truth is that johnson always believed that
the plotters OF treason. like Davis and Tombs,
should be punished, by indictment and
under the regular process of law, but it was
for having been guilty OF treason, and violated
their oaths Of allegiance, rather than having
fought in the rebel army. The soldier he want.
ed treated with soldierly generosity, but the CIV
il officers of the Confederacy, according to the
first view, ought to be punished, and when he
changed this view. the reason was, not the ri
diculous one of social fattery stated by Depew, |
but the fact that he had obtained the written |
opinion OF the most eminent lawyers in the |
country men like Charles O'Conor, Judge r
Curtis of Boston, Jere Black and others, that
the prosecutions for treason could not be NAM
tanned.
Depew still persists in his story. He says:
"Wben the contradictions are all in shall
come ont with all my proofs. l knew what
was writing about and at the proper time will
reply in manner which will set the whole con-
troversy at rest. For the present do not de-
sire to say anything.
Col Fred Grant also reterates that he knows
the story is true, because bis father repeatedly
told it to him. Other coufrmations offered
are the facts that Judge S Swing published
the same story last March, in an Ohio paper
claiming tha. Grant had told it to him,snd that
Senator Thayer of Nebraska says that Grant
told IL 10 llm IN LLe dutuuu Vi lOOf, ~ III tudl
be repeated it often in campa ign speeches
in Ohio at the time. But the only significance
Of all this is that it may raise ghoulish con-
trovcrsy over Grants veracity 1t is certain that
Grant has once publicly and under oath before
a congressional committee, pronounced the
story false and thessmen who now for the sake
Of personal notoriety say that Grant told the
story to them in private simply accuse him OF
falsaheOd.
The case shows the danger OF his
toricai injustice. In the halo Of admiration
with which Grants life closed, the public was
generally inclined to believe anything and every
hing that was good of him. And but for this
record against it, undoubtedly the Depew story
purporting to have come from Grant would
nave received general credence, in spite of all
arguments Of probability, and the result would
,ave been the wicked blackening of the fame of
,ne of the grandest of the southern Unionists.
NJ Dae toll. tba ~ |