The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1899-01-20
REFUSED TO ACCEPT MS sENsA-
TIONAL TESTIMONY.
GEN. MILES STATES HIS POSITION.
Cabinet Discusses the Commissary Gen.
erals TestImony-A Question
of "Immunity." d.

war Investigation commission Friday |
passed a resolution of censure on Gen
eral Eagan for the language used |
Thursday when he appeared to ans
wer the charges made against the COM
missary branch Of the army by Major
General Miles, and returned to him
the carefully prepared typewriter
statement which he left with the COM
mission after reading it to that body.
With its return was sent letter ex-
planning the reason for this action and
a copy Of the resolution.
Everybody is discussing this con-
troversy. In and out Of congress it
is almost the sole topic, The excite
ment caused by General Eagan's UNI
precedented attack is scarcely second
to that pursuant upon the official dec
laration of war last spring. The army
has rushed to the defense of Miles.
Almost the entire city denounced Ea-
gan, and at the first blush is prepared
to believe in Miles against all his de-
tanners.
General Eagan does not stand high
in army circles, and is generally dis
liked. He is not an American by
birth, but was born in Ireland, and
often makes himself particularly Often
sive in his abuse of England. GEN
eral Eagan came into the army at the
beginning of the civil war as first
lieutenant, but was mustered out in
1865. In 1867 he was given COM
mission in the regular army as sec
ond lieutenant. He served we'll in the
Indian wars and was brevetted for
bravery once for fighting the red men
in the lava beds. This is the only he
roism of his career that his friends
point to with any pride There have
always been charges pending against
him as commissary general.
General Miles Talks.
General Miles, when asked what Of
fetal action, if any, would be taken
regarding General Eagan's attack, re-
piled that he had not made any state
ment on the subject and did not in
tend to forecast the proceedings of the
war department
When it was suggested that the war
department was estopped from any
proceedings against General Eagan on
the ground of the protection promised
by the president to all witnesses in
their testimony before the war investi-
CATION commission, General Miles said
there might be some dividing lines be-
tween testimony and personal abuse;
that in his opinion any court of JUS
tice or, for that matter, public court
would have stopped witness who had
used before it such language as was
used before the war commission by
: General Eagan. Miles further said;
''I did not want to appear before the
war commission in the first place.
: when they wrote me suggesting that
voluntarily appear before them, I re-
: piled that believed it to be for the
best interests of the service for me
u not to volunteer any testimony. When
5 I was ordered before the commission
z, and they asked me concerning certain
y facts that then had in my possession
was obliged, as matter of honesty
to answer them and produced oficia
complaints as my best reply.
Gwen then / did not tell them al
> the facts which I had discovered b,
my own investigation. The inquir,
: was carried on quietly through tn
= proper branches of the war depart
= ment, and was begun as matter o
:, duty by the commanding general afte
the receipt of an immense number 0
: complaints. That investigation is still
being prosecuted, and I still think, a
I said before, that it would have bee
much better had the officers of til
! war department who have in charg
~ the care and proper feeding of the sol
= diers been allowed to attend to thos
"a matters quietly in their own way"
a. Cabinet Discusses Matter.
At Fridays cabinet meeting larg
70 share of the time was consumed in
n discussion of General Eagan's test
~ mony before the war investigator
commission. The cabinet members
however, were unusually reticent wit
respect to what was said, and decline
to express any opinion as to what,
er anything, would be done in the ma
ter, which is now in the hands of th
< president and Secretary Alger. Neve
d. theless, all members Of the cabin'
We commend the action of the committt
in in declining to receive the manuscril
st of General Eagan's testimony
II It is said that high authorities
st the war department take the positio
en- that Eagan enjoys immunity fro
" punishment by courtmartial, the pres
re IL hnrinn ,,rnr,nisnd imannnifrr