The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-06-09
A DEFENSE OF PATRIOTISM.
Hon. VIM. D. Kelley Defends the Men,
DRY of the Late Edwin M. Stanton,
And Scores Mr.. Wheeler for His Slanderous
Statements Letter Showing Stanton's
Relations with General Mcclellan.

ZION or privilege, stated That remarh udoe ny
him in a colloquy with Mr.. Wheeler. OF Ala
bama, when that gentleman was delivering the
speech attacking Edwin M. Stanton, had been.
'by some mysterious misake," misplaced in the
Record.
Mr. Wheeler stated that the displacement
was entirely accidental, and he had no objection
70 the correction being made.
Mr. Kelley of Pennsylvania, called up as
privileged question the motion submitted by
him yesterday to expunge from the Record the
speech of Mr.. Wheeler, of Alabama, upon Edwin
II. Stanton. He based his question of privilege
On a constant, deliberate, persistent abuse of an
order of the House by the representative of the
Eighth district of Alabama In lieu of the
motion made yesterday he submitted resou-
zion reciting that Mr.. Wheeler had been guilty
of an abuse of the order of the House, mas
much as his speech had not been made upon any
pension BILL and declaring that, as the delivery
Of the speech was without the sanction OF the
House and in contravention of special order, said
speech be expunged from the Record, and pro-
hibiting the Public Printer from publishing 1t in
pamphlet or other form.
Mr.. Reagan, of Texas, raised a point of order
against the resolution. The speech had been
made by unanimous consent of the House, and,
therefore, could not be an offenss against the
House.
The Speaker replied that it was not in the
province of the chair to decide whether it was
IN abuse or not. 1t was alleged to be an abuse
by the gentleman from Pennsylvania, and the
question was to be decided by the House.
Mr.. Kelley then proceeded to speak. and his
remarks were listened to with great attention by
the House. He was unwilling, ne SAID, that flu
ture readers of the records of the proceedings of
this Congress should, by any possibility, be able
20 suspect him Of having sat through what must
have involved three hours, listening to the
ISLANDERS which had been refuted for twenty five
years, and many of which were now absolutely
putrescent, on one of the most unselfish patriots
the country ever produced, and one Of the most
beloved frien is he had ever known. He was I'M
willing that he should be suspected of listening
70 paper which feebly regretted that,
In q moment Of heat, its author had
denounced Abraham Lincoln and Edwin
ID. Stanton as conspirators, and Stanton as
an archcons plrator, against the character OF
particular American citizens. and as mbning
TO thwart the success OF the Union army. he
was unwilling that posterity should be told
through the Congressional Record, that the Re-
publican party had sat quietly to hear ISLANDERS
on Lincoln and Stanton poured out hour by
hour, and that man, either Republican or
Democrat, who had periled his life under the
administration of the war power by Lincoln and
Stanton for the support OF the Union, should
have failed to say: ''These ISLANDERS are Of
fensive to the olfactories of all honest, loyal
noxious odors, or been consigned, scores of
years ago to the cesspools of gossip
The country owed something to the IL
lustrious dead. and he did not believe
that such scandaious matter was
embodied in twenty-five columns of this paper
should be sent to posterity with the sanction of
the American Congress, which. if it indicated
Sts own order, must declare that there no
warrant for uttering the speech and none for de-
elaring through the Congressional Record that
SC had been made with the unanimous consent
Of the House. The speech had been made at a
night session, when the House was acting under
o special order. Was this noxious matter ut
tered in daylight, and in the hearing of the
House9 He asked the gentleman tbut he must
keep within parliamentary language) to listen,
and he should hear voice coming from the other
side Of the silent rivera voice of q patriot
wearing away his life day by day and hour by
hour in the service of his country, for whose de-
struction the member from Alabama had
been arrayed and busy on the battlefield.
The gentleman would learn that, early as
May, 1862, Edwin NJ Stanton knew that he was
assailed and knew that whether his life should
be longer or shorter, he would be survived by
jackas and ghouls who, seeking objects of Sian
der in the grave, would rehash the scandalous
stories that must bring pain to his family and
his friends. Mr.. Kelley then made his protest
against this secret midnight assault, which was
to be published as having been made in the halls
Of Congress. and by unanimous consent. If the
gentleman found himself anywhere described in
this letter, he must remember that he MIR KEEL
ly) made no accusation. He only asked that the
elandered dead be heard in his own defense.
Mr.. Kelley then read, slowly, and with en-
phasis, a letter written by Edwin M. Stanton to
Rev. Hammond Dyer. 1t is in part as follows
WASHINGTON d. c., May 18, 1862.
Ny Dear Friend have been very well aware of
the calumnies busily circulated against me- in New
York and elsewhere, respecting my relations to Gen.
Mcclellan, but am compelled, from public considera
lions, to withhold the proofs that would stamp the
falsity of the accusations which are brought by
scherning politicians whose designs endangered by
earnest resolute and uncompromising persecution
of the as a against rebels and traitors. A
brief statement of facts official record which
make to you confdentally will be sufficient to satisfy
yourself that your confidence in has not been mis-
placed. First, when entered the Cabinet was and
had been for months the sincere and devoted friend
of General Mcclellan and to support him. and so far
might aid and assist him in bringing the to
close, chief inducement for to sacrifice my
personal happiness to . sense of public duty
had studied him earnestly with anxious desire to
discover the military and patriotic virtues that might
save the country and If in any degree disappointed,
had hoped on. and waited for time to develop. /
went into the Cabinet about the Goth of January On
the 9th the President made his order No. i requir
ing the army of the Potomac to 1t is not
essay perhaps proper to state all the causes which
led to that order but it is enough to know that the
government was on the verge of bankruptcy, and at
the rate of expenditures the armies must move or
the government perish. The 22d day of February
was the day fixed for the movement and when it ar
rived there more sign of movement on the Po-
komac than there had been for three months before
Many very many earnest conversations I had held
with General McClelen to impress him with the alb
eolute necessity OF active operations that the gov
eminent would fail because of foreign intervention
and enormous de,t Between the Odd of February
and the 9Th of March the President had again in
terfered and movement on Winchester to clear the
blockade of the Potomac, was promised commenced
and abandoned. The circumstances cannot yet be
vealed.
On the 9Th of March the President again nterfered
ordered the Army of the Potomac to be organized
into army corps, and that operations should COM
Two lines of operations opened-one
moving directly the enemy at Manassas and fore
ing him back Richmond, beating and destroying
him by superior force and all the time keeping the
capital secure by lying between it and the enemy.
This was the plan favored by the President. The
other plan was to transfer the troops by water to
some point the lover Chesapeake and then to adj
vance on Richmond This General Mcclellan s
plan The President yielded his views. although
they were supported by some of the best military
men in the country and consented that the General
should pursue his own plan. But. by written
order he imposed the special condition that the army