Birmingham state herald., 1897-07-31
GAUNTLET THROWN DOWN By Prof Henry EIIiott-Pick It
 Up Who Dares. THE FUR SEAL QUESTION Revived by Startling Letter From the Noted Authority-Sherman and Foster Held
 Up to te Light of Day.

Cleveland, July 90.-Frof. Henry w. Elliott, of the Smithsonian Institute, to- night gave out the complete text of his recent sensational letter to Judge Day, assistant secretary of state, regarding the ssal fisheries. It is as follows:
 Lakewood, near Cleveland, July 13, 1S97
 Hon. w o. Day, Assistant Secretary of
 State.
 Dear Sir:-In the Mornirlg Recorder, of this city, appears the text of a letter to Lord Salisbury, date May 10, 1897, and signed by Hon. John Sherman, secretary of state, on the fur seal question. This letter is prefaced by an account of the great embarrassment it's publication would cause the president and secretary of state, and I think its pub. ton was held up a few days at the Instance or Hon John w. Foster, who now fears Tor the result of his work of a few months earlier.
 As have bsen closer connected with this question than any otn- CT man living, and vastly more the author of the modus vlvendi of 1893, which is the only credible step taken by our government towards settling this seal dispute since it began in 1890 up to date, I desire to say that after a careful perus.al of the letter of May 10 above cited, the president has reason to feel greatly embarrassed because it lays the state department open to a crushing re- ply from those of the Canadian otfice, and you will be in the sam3 mortifylng fix that Blaine found himself in 1890 when the Canadians simply crushed his contra bonos mores letter by the data which they promptly furnished in rsbuttal.
 Inexperienced men should not write letters on data about which they know mo more than so many parrots. John w. ic fof1~ aft hp in regard to the salient flea lures of this seal question on the islands; that letter of May 10 is like all other preparations from , his hand on this subject-full of gross errors. His dullness in making up the American case In 1S92-93 cost us that shameful and humiliating defeat which we met with at Paris in 1893. Had he been bright and quiclwittad he never would have met with such disaster.
 Taking this common place man up now after this record of flat failure Is stamped all over his anatomy and putting him In charge of the sealing question will only thrust you deeper in the mire than you and your predecessors have been placed before by the bright men over the line at Ottawa. I am moved to write you on this point because a senator of the United States recently said to me that Foster assured the president that the informa- tion I gave the. British in 1892 caused the defeat of the Americans a Paris in 1S931 lne n1eanHeSS anu uHllulH LII llllS cItf's5c will be quickly seen by your turT-hg to my report of Nov. IT, 1890, zw'fch con a .tains this information. tr. Foster and l his suup.a- e~ssaofatae. .i1ed to suppress this report because 1t contained the proof of my authorship of the nodus vivendi of 1S91-93. which he meanly stole from me-plagiarized, in fact, but he' was unable to suppress it. And now that he comes forward again to figure in this question, I intend that he shall be re- qured at the proper time and before the proper tribunal to give full account of his wretched record as to the agent of the United States before the Benring sea tribunal at Paris in 1893. This whole sealing business from the day the trouble began in 1S90-91 up to date has not been in the hands of a competent man for one moment It has been and is now the sport of the Canadians and the languid attention of the British queens council is all the attention it receives when it comes up there. Very truly yours.
 HENRY w. ELLIOTT.