St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-06-09
The Venerable Member From Pennsyl-
vania Poses as Champion of the
Late Edwin M. Stanton.
He Brings All His Vocabulary of Inveo-
tive to Bear on Congressman
Wheeler of Alabama,
And Demands That the Southern
Congressman's Recent Speech be
Swept From the ssRecord.o
An Interesting Letter From L1ncoln's
War Secretary--The Controversy
Sent to Committee,
Defending stanton.

attacking Edwin M. StanIOn, lldu Dceu ny
some mysterious mistake" misplaced in the
record. Mr.. Wheeler stated that the mis-
placement was entirely accidental, and he
had no objection to the correction being
made.
Mr.. Kelley Pennsylvania( called up as a
privileged question the motion submitted by
him yesterday to eYpunge from the record
the speech OF Mr.. Wheeler (Alabama) upon
Edwin NJ. Stanton. He based his question of
on a conscious, deliberate, persist
ent abuse of an order of the house by the
from the Eighth district of AL
ALBANIA. In lieu of the motion made yester-
day he submitted resolution reciting that
Mr.. Wheeler had been guilty OF an abuse of
the orders OF the house, inasmuch 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
the special order, said speech be expunged
from the record and prohibiting the public
printer from publishing it in pamphlet or
other form. Mr. Kelley then proceeded to
speak and his remarks were listened to with
great attention by the house. He was unwilI-
lug, he said, that future readers of the record
of the proceedings of this congress should by
any possibility be able to suspect him of hav-
ing sat through what must have involved
three hours, listening to the SANDERS which
had been refuted for twenty-five years, many
of which were now absolutely putrescent, OF
one OF the most unSelfish patriots the country
had ever produced, and one of the most
beloved friends he had ever known.
He was unwilling that he should
be suspected Of listening to paper which
fully regretted that in moment of heat its
author had denounced Abraham Lincoln and
Edwin NJ. Stanton as conspirators and STAN
ton as an arch conspirator against the char
-
and as combining to thwart the
success of the Union army. He
was unwilling that posterity should
be told through the Congressional
Record that the Republican party had
sat quietly to hear the ISLANDERS
on Lincoln and Stanton poured out hour by
hour, and that no 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
offensive to the olfactorieS of all honest, loyal
Union men, having feStered in heaps, breath
ing noXious odors, or beep consigned scores
of years ago to the cesspoolS Of goSsips.'
The country owed something to the illustrious
dead, and he did not believe that such scan
dalous matter as was embodied in the twenty
five columns OF this paper would be sent to
posterity with the sanction of the American
congress, which, if it indicated its own Or
der, must declare that there was no warrant
for uttering the speech and none for declar-
ing through the Congressional Record that
it had been made with the unanimous consent
of the house. Mr.. Kelley then read slowly
and with emphasis
O LETTER WRITTEN BY EDWIN NJ. STANTON
to Rev. Hammond Dyer. 1t is in part as fol-
lows:
Washington, D. c., May IS, 1s62-My Dear
Friend: l have been very well aware of the
calumnies that are circulated against me in
New York and elsewhere respecting my rela-
lions to Gen. Mcclellan, but am compelled,
from public consideration, to withhold the
proofs that would stamp the falsehood of the
accusations and the base motives OF the ac-
cusers, who belong to two classes:
First-Plunderers, who have been driven
from the department when they were gorging
millions.
notwithstanding politicians whose de-
signs are endangered by an earnest, resolute
and uncompromising prosecution of this war
as war against rebels and traitors. A
brief statement of facts on the official record,
which 1 can make to you confidentially, will
be sufficient to satisfy yourself that your
confidence in me has not been misplaced:
F1rst-When 1 entered the cabinet I was
and had been for months the sincere and de-
voted friend of Gen. Mcclellan, and to sup
port him, and, so far as l might, aid and assist
him in bringing the war to q close, was a
chief inducement for me to sacrifice my per-
sonal happiness to sense of public duty.
had studied him earnestly with an anxious
desire to discover the military and patriotic
feeling that might save the country, and if in
any degree disappointed 1 had hoped on and
waited for time to develope. went into the
cabinet about the Goth of January. On the
9th the president made his order No. 1, re.
quiring the Army of the Potomac to move
on. 1t is not necessary, or perhaps proper,
to state all the causes which led to that order,
but it is enough to know that the govern
ment was
ON THE VERGE OF BANKRUPTCY
and at the rate of expenditures the armies
must move or the government perish
The 22d of February was the day fixed for the
movement, and when it arrived there was no
more sign of movement on the Potomac than
there had been for three months before.
Many, very many, earnest conversations I
had had with Gen. Mcclellan, to impress him
with the absolute necessity of active opera
tons, or that the government would fail be-
cause of foreign intervention and the enor-
nous debt Between the 22d of February
and the Sth of March the president had again
interfered, and a movement on Winchester
and to clean the blockade of the Potomac
was promised, commenced and abandoned
until the circumstances could be removed.
On the Sth of March the president again in
terfered, ordered the Army Of the Potomac
to be organized into army corps and that op-
erations should commence. Two lines of op-
erations were opened, one moving directly on
the enemy at Manassas and forcing him back
on Richmond, beating and destroying him by
superior force, and all the time keeping the
capitol 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 on the lower
Chesapeake and thence advance to Richmond
This Was Gen. McClellan's plan. The presi-
n n xyin dnd o1fl,D H.
were supported by some of the best military
men in the country, and consented that the
general should pur sue his own plan, but by
a written order he imposed the condition that
the army should not be removed without
leaving u sufficient force in and around Wash
ington to make the capital perfectly secure
against all danger, and that the force re-
CURED should be determined by the Judgment
of all the commanders of the army CORPS n
order to enable Mcclellan to devote his whole
energy to the movement of his own army.
which was quite enough to tax the ability of
the ablest commander in the world, he was
relieved from the charge of the other mill
taly departments, it being supposed that the
respective commanders were competent to
direct the operations in their own depart
mentS. To enable Gen. Mcclellan to trans
port his force every means and power of the
government was placed at his disposal and
unsparingly used. When large part of his
roe and the whole of it was about to go in a
a few days, information was given to me by
various persons that there was great reason
to fear that no adequate force had been left
TO DEFEND THE CAPITAL
in case Of q sudden attack; that the enemy
might detach a large force and seize it at a
time when it wonld be impossible for Gen.
Mcclellan to render any assistance. Serious
alarm was expressed by many persons and
many warnings given me which could not
neglect. l ordered report of the force left
to defend Washington. 1t was reported by
the commander to be less than 10000 raw
recruits, with not a single organized brigade.
A dash like that made short time before at
Winchester would at any time take the CAPT.
tai of the nation. The report of the force left
to defend Washington and the order of the
president were referred to Maj. Gen. Hitch
cock and Adit. Gen. Thomas to report