The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1911-10-15

Richmond without Success. accepted
a proposition to enter Pickett's SER
vice.
He wrote TO Pickett as follows L
have now only to say that II you can
offer lac such a sum monthly as will
enable me to support my little family
of wifi, and child In an economical
manner will devote my best ener-
gies to the discharge Of the duties l
may be required to perform
| Soon Pickett offered to sell the com.
/ plete records OF MIR. Benjamin's office
to men of prominence and wealth in
! the South. Upon the refusal of any OF
them to buy. in 1865 he offered to sell
| TO Secretary of State Seward large
and valuable documents Of the late
| papers belonging to Mr.. Benjamin.
Office
! Seward declined to buy except upon
| inspection in Washington. and further
| because the price. 100000. WAS cX-
cessivc. Pickett said the papers were
in Canada and refused to allow them
TO be brought TO Washington for in
spectton.
I'm July. 1879. they were bought by
| the United states government, by spe-
cial act OF Congress. for $4,000. BY
the agreement of sale the papers were
to be delivered in Canada. and Lieu
tenant Thomas o. Selfridge. U. S NJ.
was commissioned to receive them
| from Pickett They were secured by
Lieutenant Selfridge. inventored by
him. with remarks, delivered to the
proper authorities. and are now in the
| Library OF Congress and are known
as the Pickett papers.
Denounced In South.
When the sale was announced Pic
kett was denounced In the South for
selling the archives of the Confeder-
acy. On September 3. 1872. about a
month after Pickett received the $751;
| 600, Bromwell made declaration and
certificate before n. Callan, in Wash
ington, in substance as follows: That
his, j. w. Bromwell's last official act
| OF duty as an official of the Department
! OF State of said Confederate States
| consisted in the packing up at Rich
mond, Virginia, about the last OF March,
! 1865. of all the archives and so forth
OF the said Department OF State and
| transporting them to a supposed place
OF safety In the South.
That having complied fully with his
instructions and having turned the said
archives and so forth over to other
officers of the said Confederate States,
the fduciary relations of the said de-
! ponent to said archives and so forth
ended and inasmuch as he, the de-
ponent, shortly after renewed his al
| legiancc to the United States he gave
himself no further care with regard to
said archives, and presumed that they
had heen captured by the United States
forces.
THAT he. the deponent. became aware
some years later that the said archives
had never come into the possession of
the United states. hut were spirited
away by private parties. and that John
T. Pickett, Esq. attorney-at-law at
Washington. was employed By holders
of said archives to negotiate their de-
! livery to the United States government.
should Southern and Northern Demo
Gratis refuse to take them.
That deponent was privy to all OF
Mr.. Pickett's negotiations, and he,
Pickett. had given Il truthful relation
of the same. avoiding any breach OF
confidence, to the public press. He de-
clared that Pickett had no iiduclary
relations to the archives. that he dealt
honestly with everybody connected
with the matter. and although the en-
tire sum of $4,000 paid by the United
states government for the archives was
ultimately received by Mr.. Pickett,
he retained less than half Of 1t for
his own arduous, responsible, and valu-
; able services.
Soon after this declaration was pub
lished Bromwel went to Europe In
one of Pickett's letters to Bromweii in
Paris. dated October %. 1872. he stat
cd: I am slad that you propose max
, ing 81 tour: ii Viii he OF imcstimable