Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1888-03-26
COL. GRANTS REJOINDER.
y SHARP THRUST AT AN EDITOR OF
THE SUN OF YORK.

rine Bank business brought Up-The
| End from This ON.
! New York, March 26-Another chapter
of the Grant Badeau controversy over the
| book of the late Gen. Grant is added by Col.
| Fred Grant in letter sent TO the press Sat
urday night 1t is an answer to the state
ment of Gen. Badeau of n claim for compen-
sation for his aid III preparing Gen, Grants
memoirs, published in The Sun Of the 2lst
inst, Col. Grant says it is his purpose TO an
swer as far as far as practicable such parts of
| Gen. Badeaus statement as may appear to
call for reply He states that the editor OF
| The Sun once wrote, in collaboration with
| another a life Of Gen. Grant which contained
| praise that amounted 10 adulation of the gen
| eral, and at time when person suspecting
him Of susceptibility to fattery might have
reasonably supposed that well-timed syco-
| phancy would yield "A reward in high office
that editor of The Sun, however, received no
office; that for years past there had been
| nothing too false or too malignant for him to
publish concerning the family; that he has
spared neither the children nor the widow,
| and that his journal seems to be the only one
that cordially and thoroughly approves of
Gen. Badenu's course.
II
wrote to Gen. Grant, asking 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 Il letter which Gen.
Badeau attributes 10 Col Grant, it being in
his handwriting, with Gen. Grants autograph
ut the end, Col Grant says:
"Gen. Badcau handed his cruel letter of
May to Gen. Grant on the day of its date in
Mrs Grants presence, but not in mine, and
Immediately left the house, returning ON the
it'll. Gen. Grant read il, and when came III
was agitated and trembling. He unlocked the
drawer of bureau where he had placed it,
and taking the letter out handed it to me,
saying: Read this and tell me what you
think of it, did read it, and said that I
thought it despicablc. My father then. with
out 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 copied
them and read the copy TO him, he directing
changes and corrections"
Col Grant adds that this demand of Gen.
Badeau was a source of grief and annoyance
to his father for the remainder of his life.
Further on Col, Grant says: "The statement
of Gen. Badeau that | ever proposed that he
sign my name 10 it is an unqualified false
hood"
Again he says: at can not be too often re-
peated that had Gen. Badeau been willing to
accept the sum of $1,000 for his services as
an amanuenss upon the first Al pages, OF
about one-half the first volume of the Per
sonal Memoirs us 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 "In the twenty
seventh paragraph of his Address to the
American People, Gen. Badeau states chat
Gen Grant has confessed to putting his name
unwittingly to an important document. 1t is
true that Gen. Grant did sign letter placed
before him with false representations as to its
contents. More than half his life had been
spent in executive positions requiring him
to intrust matters of detail to subor-
climates, and, moreover, trust was in
stinctive to his loyal nature. He could
not have acted on broad lines during
the strenuous times in which he played con-
spcuous part had he assumed all clerical du-
ties of detail and it became the habit of his
life to sign letters of routine which were
submitted to him in numbers upon a state
ment of their contents by persons in whom
he had confidence 1t is true that James d.
Fish relied largely upon this letter to escape
conviction for his share of the frauds that
wrecked the Marine Eank and the firm of
Grant & Ward. But Gen. Badeau does not
call attention to the fact that his present
counsel were the counsel Of Mr.. Fish; that
they proposed to postpone criminal trial of
their client on account of Gen. Grants condi- |
ton; that the newspapers We're filled with
ambiguous givings-out-I do not mean to say
by those gentlenen-that letters were in ex
istence which would seriously compromise
I,,Nt
to cause those letters to be published to insist
that the trial should not be postponed on his
account, and to go forward to meet the i'm
piled imputation on his honor"
The colonel also says that Gen. Badeau has |
never made an offer of any sum not contin- |
gent upon his disclaimer of a joint authorship |
in the Grant memoirs. Mrs. Gen, Grant |
was willing to pay him any sum he asked, |
provided that her act in so doing would not |
be construed as admitting Badeau's claim to |
joint authorship. Col. Grant declares he |
himself never favored this, nor does he now,
as he wishes to settle once for all in a court |
of law the authorship of the |
book. He reviews at length the relations
between Gen. Badeau and his father, and |
claims that his father and the rest of the |
family invariably befriended him, while Ba-
deau showed little or no gratitude. He says |
it is very painful to the family to have this
matter forced upon the public attention, and
it will be a trying ordeal for his mother and
the members of the family to drag the mem
DRY of the dead husband and father into court,
but they have decided to leave nothing I'M
done to refute the claims of Gen. Badeau to
the authorship of the book.
All the correspondence between Gen.
Grant and Gen Badeau is given, as well as
that between Col. Grant and Badeau's law
vars, In, pna Of his lattAIa tn RaJaou'S In |