St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-03-25
The GRANT BADEAU ROW.
Col. Fred Grant Makes Reply to Gen.
Badeau.
A PERSONAL DENUNCIATION
The Colonel Puts Rather Different
Phase Upon the Whole
Matter.

Grant makes public tonight a very long
statement. in reply to Gen. Adam Ba-
deau'S address to the American people
upon the controversy which has arisen
between Gen. Badeau and the family
of the late U. S. Grant as to the services
rendered by Gen. Badeau in connection
with the writing of the personal Me-
molrs of U. S. Grant" Col. Grant says
that it is his last word in the matter prior
to the hearing of the case in court,
and that, for that reason he presents the
history of the case in eXtenSo. Under
the circumstances, therefore, he goes
over much ground which has already
been covered by publication i'll daily
papers, and gives much space to CORE
spondence participated i'll by himself
and the LAWYERS in the case, chiefly in the
negotiations with view to the settle
ment of the case without resort to the
courts: to personal denunciation Of
Gen. Badeau, and to arguments
going to show that Gen. Badeau'S
services were of a much less important
character than Badeau claims that they
were. In relation to the letter which
liz
ing compensation at the rate of 81 900
per month and 10 per cent of the profits
of the book, the answer to which was
his dismissal in a letter which Gen. Ba
deau attributes to Col. Grant, it being
in his handwriting with Gen. Grants
autograph at the end, Col. Grant says:
Gen. Badeau handed his cruel letter
of May 3 to Gen. Grant on the day
OF its date in Mrs. Grants presence,
but not III mine, and Immediately left
the house, returning on the 4th. Gen.
Grant read it, and when l came in was
agitated and trembling. He unlocked
the drawer of a bureau, where lie had
placed it, and taking the letter out
handed it to me, saying: Read this
and tell me what you think of it, L
did read it and said that | thought it
despicable. My father then, without
any suggestions from me, began to
write the answer with his own hand,
being so weak that he could not write
more than few lines without stopping.
He answered one point after another and
gave me the sheets of his manuscript,
and, when he had finished, L copied
them and read the copy to him, he di-
recting changes and corrections"
Col Grant adds that this demand of
Gen. Badeau was q source of grief and
annoyance to his father for the re-
mainder of his life. and adds:
''As to the letter left by Gen. Grant
to be sent to Gen. Badeau under certain
conditions to which reference is made in
paragraph seventeen of the address, it
has never been used with the authority
of my fathers family as threat. Its
prOvisO is not in the terms stated by
Gen. Badeau, nor is the paper such as
he has any right to demand. The letter
was written eleven days before my
fathers death at period of keen physi-
cal suffering. and when the memory of
Gen. Badeau's letter of May I'd made
his mental anguish greater than that Of
the body
Col Grant denies that his family pre-
vented Webster & Co. from publishing
Gen. Badeau'S book, and quotes letter
from himself to that firm saying that
they should not consider sany supposed
objections of Mrs Grant in the matter.
Further on. Col. Grant aays:
1.-THE statement of Gen. Badeau in the
twenty-frSt paragraph that | ever pro-
posed that he should finish my fathers
memoirs and let me sign my name to it
is an unqualified falseho0d."
Again he says: ''ltcannot be too often
repeated that had Gen. Badeau been
willing to accept the sum of $4,000 for
his services as an amanuenSlS upon the
first 421 pages, or about one-half of the
first volume of the Personal Memoirs,
as to which his services were rendered,
such as they were, he would have been
paid the full sum of 100000"
In another place he says: "ln the
twenty-seyenth paragraph of his 'Ad
dress to the American People, Gen.
Badeau states that Gen. Grant has con-
fessed to putting his name unwittingly
to an important document. 1t is true
that Gen. Grant did sign a letter placed
before him with false representations
as to its contents. More than half his
life had been spent in executive posi-
tons requiring him to entruSt
matters of detail to subordinates.
and moreover trust was instructive
to his loyal nature. He could not have
acted on broad lines during the strenu-
Gus times in which he played a con-
SpicuOus part had he assumed all cleri-
cal duties of detail and it became the
habit of his life to sign letters of routine
which were submitted to him in num-
berS upon a statement of their contents
by persons in whom he had confidence.
1t is true that James ID. Fish relied
largely upon this letter to escape con-
viction for his share of the frauds that
wrecked the Marine bank and the firm
of Grant & Ward. But Gen. Badeau
does not call attention to the fact that
his present counsel were the counsel for
Mr.. Fish, that they proposed to post
pone criminal trial of their
client on account of Gen. Grants
condition: that the newspapers
were filled with ambiguous giyings-Out
Il do not mean to say by those gentle
men-that letters were in existence
which would seriously compromise
Gen. Grant, but that my fathers answer
was to cause those letters to be pub
lished, to insist that the trial should not
be postponed on his account, and to go
forward to meet the implied imputatlon
OH his honor"
The remainder of the statement is de-
voted chiefly to correspondence in the
negotiation for settlement, and in one
of his letters to an attorney in the case,
he. said that three courses were open to
Gen. Badeau to get his money: First,
to sign paper disclaiming any of the
credit for Gen. Grants book; second,
to sue for his claims in the courts;
third, to arbitrate the matter.
An agreement to settle for $4,000 was
reached at one time, but failed of rati-
fication because of a disagreement as to
the form of disclaimer of authorship.
Col Grant declares that the only aim
of the family has been to preserve the
fair fame Of Gen. Grant as the author of
his own book, and that the matter of
compensation to Gen. Badeau cuts no