The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1888-09-26
MR.. BLATNE'S ANSWER
To Charges That Were Simply
Made for Political Effect.
ROSCOE CoNKLING'S LETTER
Recently Published, MIR. Blaine Evl.
IDENTITY Relieves a Forgcry-Gener-
ons Words About His Old
Encmy-Campaign Fake.

AUGUSTA, Me-, Sept. 25.-The kenne
bee Journal, under the head "NIr. Conk
ling and Mr.. Blaine" will to-morroN
publish such response rs Mr.. Blaine dc
sires to make to the recently published
private letter OF Roscoe Conkling to hi
friend in New York State.
Mr.. Blaine was asked by the Kennebe,
Journal reporter If he had any reply t,
make, aud this was the response: "Noth
ing could induce me to enter into con
troversy over Mr.. Conkling'sI grave
During our joint service in Congress
some sixteen years in alive had som,
exaspenting controversies, but nevel
spoke or wrote word concerning him
except publicly, and now that he il
dead, my lips are sealed against every
form OF criticism or unkiHd expression
10 matter what may be the imprudence
or the injustice Of any OF his surviving
friends"
When in the progress OF questions and
answers Mr.. Blaine made several obser-
vations, us to whether Mr.. Conkling
was the author of the letter or not. Mr..
Blaine said that he, OF course, knew
nothing, but it was great surprise to
him that such letter should lave been
written by Mr. Conkling. The date
shows that the letter was written lust
six days after the close Of an exNsperat-
ing personal debate with Mr. Conkling,
and ii Mr.. Conkling had intended to say
anything OF the kind he would have
been apt to say it then and not imme-
diately afterward in private letter,
which was not given to the public for
twenty-five years, and not until Mr..
COnkling had been dead several months.
The whole affair was not in accordance
with Mr.. Conkling's habitual courage in
debate.
When asked il he knew anything of
Crandall OF Haddoek, Mr.. Blaine replied
that he had never seen either of them,
and had never heard the name OF either
except on the occasion OF his personal
debate with Mr.. Conkling in April, 1866.
Though he had not charged his mind
with the faCt, so as to remember accur-
ately, his strong impression was that
they were both officers in New York un-
der the enrolment act during the war,
aud that both had been dismissed from
the service for misconduct in office.
Then Mr.. Blaine was asked il he had
anything to say about the chprge that
lie had made money out OF the recruit
ing funds Of the war, and he replied
that it might with equal truth be charg-
ed that he had made money by robbing
the mails or piracy on the high seas.
Prompted further by questions, Mr..
Blaine said the recruiting scandal of
Maine in the last year OF the war had
been investigated by two committees.
and one public commission (wbose eff
forts, Mr.. Blaine said, he aided), and
there was, Mr.. Blaine says, not u word of
eyiderce, Or even suggestion or hint,
in any one OF the three reports, that he
had any more connection with the mat
ter than had Mr.. Conkling or his unwise
friend who publishes this letter and at
tributes it to the dead statesman.
Mr.. Blaine next refers to successful
legislation promoted in Congress by
himself in 1864 to prevent recruiting
fraud in all the States. Such preventive
measures, Mr.. Blaine said, had been
passed by eighty-four to thirty-six, the
majority being made up of Republicans
and few Democrats like Mr.. Holman,
OF Indiana. The negative was unani-
mously Democratic, concludes Mr..
Blaine, and he adds, at will thus be
seen that the official record OF the State
and nation refutc5 the whole charge"
Outside political campaign, Mr..
Blaine remarked, he would never have
noticed The matter, and outside politi-
cal campaign the charge would never
have been made.