Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1888-03-27
COL. GRANTS REPLY.
Gen. Badeau' Recent Letter Answered at
Length.


Length.
NEW YORK, March 26.-sCol. F. d. Grant
made public last night very long state
ment in reply to Gen. Adam Badeau's let
ter to the American people upon the con-
troversy which has arisen between Gen.
Badeau and the family of the late Gen. U.
S. Grant, as to the services rendered by
Gen. Badeau in connection with the writ
ing of the personal memoirs of Gen. z. S.
Grant. Col. Grant says that it is his last
word in the matter prior to the hearing OF
the case in the court, and for that reason
he presents the history of the case in e1-
tense. Under the circumstances, there
fore, he goes over much ground
which has already been covered
by publication in the daily papers, and
gives much space to the correspondence
participated in by himself and the law
yers in the case, chiefly in the negotiations
with view to the settlement of the case
without resort to the courts; to personal
denunciation of General Badeau and to
arguments going to show that General
Badeau's services were of much less i'm
portant character than Badeau claims
that they were.
In relation to the letter which General
Badeau wrote to General 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 dis
missal in a letter which General Badeau
attributes to Colonel Fred Grant, it being
in his hand writing, with General Grant S
autograph at the end Colonel Grant says:
T. Gen. Badeau 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, re-
turning on the 4th.
Gen Grant read it, and when / came in
was agitated and trembling. He unlocked
the drawer of a 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 l thought it despicable. My
father then, without any suggestion from
me, began to write an answer with his
own hand, being so weak that he could
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 correc-
tons" Colonel Grant admits that this
demand of General Badeau was source
of grief and annoyance to his father for
VIC lCllctlIuCl VI Ills lhc, anu dCllS. f1S
to the letter left by General Grant to be
sent to General Badeau under certain con-
ditionS to which reference is made to para
graph seventeen of the address, it has
never been used with the authority of my
fathers family as a threat. It's proviso
is not in the terms stated by General
Badeau, nor is the paper such as he has
any right to demand. The letter was writ
ten eleven days before my fathers DEATH
at period of keen physical suffering, and
when the memory of General Badeau's
letter of May 2 made his mental anguish
greater than that of the body"
Col Grant denies that his family pre-
vented Webster & Company from publish
ing Gen. Eadeau's book, and quotes a
letter from himself to that firm, saying
that they should not consider any sup
posed objections of Mrs. Grant in the mat
ter.
Further on Col. Grant says: ''The state
ment OF Gen. Badeau in the twenty-frst
paragraph that / ever proposed that he
should finish my fathers memoirs and let
me sign my name to it is an unqualified
falsehOod."
Again he says: cit cannot be to often re-
peated that had Gen. Badeau been willing
to accept $4,000 for his services as an
amanuencist upon the first 421 pages, or
about one half of the first volume of the
Personal Memoirs" as to which his SER
vices were rendered, such as they were, he
would have been paid the full sum of
$4,000.
In another place he says: "In the TWEEN
ty-seyenth paragraph of his Address to
the American People General Badeau
putting his name unwittingly to an i'm
portant document 1t is true that General
Grant did sign a letter placed before him
with false representations as to its con-
tents More than half his life had been
spent in executive positions requiring him
to intrust matters of details to Subordin-
ates, and moreover, trust was instructive
to his loyal nature. He could not have
acted on broad lines during the strenuous
times in which he played conspicuous
part had he assumed all clerical duties of
detail, and it became the habit of his life
to sign letters of routine, which were sub
mitted to him in numbers, upon a
statement of their contents by
persons in whom he had confidence 1t is
true that Mr.. James ID. Fish relied largely
upon this letter to escape conviction for
his share of the frauds that wrecked the
Marine bank and the firm of Grant q
Ward. but General Badeau does not call
attention to the fact that his present coun-
sci were the counsel of Mr. Fish; that they
propose to postpone the criminal trial of
their client on account Of General Grants
cOnuEtiOu tndl the newspapers were Hlled
with ambiguous giyings out. [ do not
mean to say to those gentlemen that letters
We're in existence which would seriously
compromise General Grant, but that my
fathers answer was to cause those letters
to unpublished, to insist that the trial
shonld not be postponed ON his account
and.to go forward to meet the implied i'm
putation to his honor.
The remainder of the statement is de-
voted chiefly to the correspondence in the
negotiation for a 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: % To sign a
paper disclaiming any of the credit for
Gen. Grants book; (2) to suffer his claim
in the courts; 81 to arbitrate the matter.
An agreement to Settle for S, 600 was
reached at one time, but failed of ratifca-
ton because of disagreement as to the
form of disclaimer of authorship.
Col Ora Mt declares that the only wish
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 compen-
sation to Gen. Badeau cuts no figure in
the matter.
AN EMBEZZLER UP.
UTICA, \. Y, March 26.-Gen. Lester B.
Faulkner was arranged in the United