Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1885-07-15
THE DOLPHIN.
Letter From Ex.Secretary Chandler
COncering the easonable Opinion
of Mr.. Garland.


Ex-Secretarv Chandler has written letter
TO the Boston Journal in reference 10 Attor-
new General Garland's recent decision that
the contract with John Roach TO build the
Dolphin Is void that the payments made 10
Mr.. Roach are illegal and may be recovered,
and that the government should seize and
hold the Dolphin as security for their repay
ment. The ex-secretary says:
This may set m TO be an extraordinary
decision, but il was not difficult for an attor-
ney general who, when requested, wiped out
an amendment of the L. ) constitution with
the utmost promptne>s. LAWYERS, business
men and fair minded citizens must Judge OF
the soundness of his present position"
Mr.. Chandler quotes the act of Congress
providing for the construction of the despatch
boat, and inrimates that no sound Jurist or
unprej udiced person, having common sense,
would say the navy department was bound TO
insert in contract and insist on a guarantee
by the contractor that the despatch boat
should prove TO have sea speed OF 10 knots
and the contract would be absolutely null
and void without such guarantee. The idea
he says, is preposterous. The plans for the
engines were designed and adopted by the
navy department and the advisory board. and
the builders had nothing whatever to say
about them or do with them. The depart
Iieui ldu nu Tlgut ~ tHat tue Cou-
tractor should guarantee that the engines de-
signed by the navy department should pro-
duce 300 horse power and should move
ship 10 knots in gale OF wind at sea. If
the contractor had been required to guaran-
tee the results, he should have been allowed
to design the ship. Continuing, Mr.. Cham
dler says "Mr. Garland says the contractor,
II he had doubts whether vessel planned
like the Dolphin would make the required
speed, should have abstained from send
ing in proposals. Can this be a serious prop
osition OF an intelligent lawyer? 1t would
seem as if the newspaper report of Mr.. Gar
lands opinion must be incorrect"
But later he saws of the clause which pro-
vides that a contractor shall not be RESPONSE
bic for the failure to develope 2300 horse
power, II it is not due to defective workman
ship or materials. 1.-The obvious intention OF
this was to relieve the contractor of all the
duty and responsibility as to the speed and
power of the ship" and therefore, he says,
lit follows that no contract between Roach
and the U United States exists, and he must
pay back all the moneys received by him AMI
hand over the Dolphin as a security that he
will. This reasoning cannot be the work of
good lawyers.
If Mr.. Roach did guarantee the speed As
effectively as il he had agreed to do so in ex-
press words, the contract cannot be absolutely
void because there is no clause which relieves
him from guaranty of the horse power.
The law absolutely required guaranty OF
speed, says MIR. Garland. 1t is in the con-
tract as If in express words, he also says;
but he further SAYS there clause dispens
ing with a guaranty of horse power, which
the law says nothing about; therefore the
contract is absolutely void under the law re-
qulring speed Perhaps two lawyers wrote
opinions for the department OF justice on this
question, one holding that speed must be
guaranteed and that therefore the Dolphin
must be rejected, and the other holding that
speed was not guaranteed, and therefore the
contract was void and she must be rejected;
and the attorney general and Mr. Whitney
liked the conclusions of both opinions SO
much they determined to put them both
together and promulgated them to the Won
dering world
Those who chose to accept Garland,s Opin-
ion good law may find some excuse for
the treatment by Whitney of the advisory
board and Roach, but by all others it must
be considered an unjust and oppressive
decision. Let it be noted that this wicked
assault on Roach by two newly 1edged cabi-
net ministers revelling in misused power is
perpetuated solely for the assumed reason
that the Dolphin has not Is knots speed,
when in fact on every one of her several
trial trips she has reached 10 knots and the
last trip was made at sea in pursuance of the
orders of Mr.. Whitney. But Mr.. Whitney,
enraged at the result says that the sea was
not high enough and Is knots sea speed
means l73 knots when there is not a high
sea and upon this arbitrary assumption the
whole fabric of the outrage committed by
him is built. while even the packed board or
ganized by him to condemn the Dolphin re-
ported as follows:
with regard to the engines, boilers and
machinery of the vessel. the board is of the
opinion that their general construction and
character of material of which they are made
conform to the terms of the contract and
specifications and various changes made bv
authority of the naval advisory board from
time to time" Yet this ship is to be reject
ed because the contract to build her was
wholly void. Mr.. Roach is to be ordered to
pay back all the moneys he has received and
the rejected vessel to be seized by the gov
ernment as security for the repayment, and
all this to crafty Mr. Whitney's spirit of
resentment and on authority of such legal
opinion as that of Mr.. Garland.