Press and daily Dakotaian. (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1880-1889, 1888-02-22
Boutelle SCORES the seorotarv

Congressman Boutefle, when asked his
opinion of Secretary Endicott's reply to
his battle-fiag resolutions, said it was
lamentably weak, and the d~iscreditable
outcome of six. weeks tinkering and
twisting over a report tha5 ought easily
to have been made In two or three days.
He said:
Il can conceive of no possible cause
for the long delay, except that the line of
response has been repeatedly changed,
and a deliberate purpose to give as long
life as possible to the brood of sepsa-
tional reports sent out In the
guise of semi-oficial proclamations
of damaging discoveries made
In regard to the Republican edministrn-
tions. One Of the eafIiest and most
sedhlously circulated Of these reports
was to the effect that Secretary Stanton
had set tho example OF surrendering
rebel gatherings to the aoath. This stats
msnt was made iln the Newspapers, on
the streets Of Washington and in the
corridors Of the CRpitoE ana | was fire.
quently warned thdt differentiation would
come back at me like a boomerang. The
secretary in his reply uses language tibet
seems plainly intended to sustain that
impression, but the accompanying sched-
ules show that there was never q word of
truth In the ~insinuation, and that no cap
tuged flag or banner was ever surren-
.tl.Estii 3 sat.. ]. by BY IL. sSst@s..t se.., or asy
Of his Republican successors. The records
given show, and only. show that under
Mr.. Stanton and later secretaries a mum
Der OF flags of loyal troops captured
by the rebels and recaptured
by Union forces, were restored to the
loyal troops who bore them, and that a
number of Confederate battle flags were
given to the military, Of official repre-
sentatives of the loyal troops who cap
tured them, or were loaned for display at
some military or other patriotic occasion.
The reiterated reports chat Secretary
Stanton inaugurated the return OF bat
tie flags to the south are proved by the
documents sent to the house by
Mi. Endicott to have been des-
picable ISLANDERS upon the
OF President Lincoln's great war minister.
The secretary's plea that his predeces-
sors had construed tina law as net applying
to trophies captured from rebel forces, is
not sustained by any citation, but is
negatiyed by the fact that his predeces-
sors did collect the flags captured
from the rebels and cause them to be dis
played in one of the public halls OF the
war Department.. But the climax Of this
effort at special pleading is reached when
Secretary Endicott complacently sums up
the matter by saying that u large number
Of captured flags have been disposed OF
by Republican administrations, but that
not one has been given up
by the patriots now in power.
He does not remark that no Republican
administration ever suggested the idea OF
surrendering one OF these trophies to
hands that hid borne them against thu
union, but that President Cleveland and
Secretary Endicott deliberately proposed
to surrender more than 500 Of these. pre-
cious enblems of loyal yalor, to the Com
federate states. He recognized in the
presidents order that they were only pre-
vented by such an outburst of popular
Indignation, as has not been Witnessed in
the loyal north since the political asso-
ciates Of President Cleveland and his
secretary OF wa opened fire upon Fort
Sumter.