Year: 1874




DEBATE ON THE sASBORH CONTRACTS IN THE


HOUSE, IN WHICH MR. BUTLER ~ woRsrED--HE


DENIES THAT HE rs sANBoRS's ATTORNEY, AND


vAIHLY ATTEMPTS TO PARRY THE BLOWS DEALT


BY MEssas. FOSTER DAWES ROBERTS, PHELPS,


BECK, AND OTHERS.


rBY TELEGRAPH TIE TRIDUNEl .
WASHINGTON. March l0.-Gen. Butler unwisey
precptated the House into n debate upon the San
born contracts to-day. He must have thought 1t
necessary to do something to turn the currento OF
opinion in the House and the country, which 10 SET
ting strongly in the direction Of believing that the
whole business in which his friend and sup
posed client has been engaged is odorons
of corruption and fraud. He did his best
to make it appear that Sanborn was pure and pa
triotic man. who was the victim Of "a corrupt and
lying press" bounded on by corporations that have
been swndlng che revenue 1t was uphill work,
however. Among all the bad cases that Mr.. Butler
has undertaken to defend in the of his prac-
tice Ms % criminal lawyer il is doubtful if he ever had
an diculta a that which he argued to-day. Inc
feeling of his audience was against him, for the
publication by The TRIBUNE of all Tie known facts
connected with the monstrous scheme of pnblIc
plunder had enlightened everybody, and he soon
had four Of the Ways and Means Committee men,
and half dozen other members upon him, with
statements of that had occurred in the opera



every pretense upon which he tried to construct
defense.


Besct on all sides he struck out wildly, threatening
men who denounced the corrupt contracts with an
exposure Of some delinquencies of their own which
he hned at and saying that there ought to be five
hundred SanbOrns let loose upon the country. He
was finally and for the first time in his career as
Congressman fairly cornored and Obliged to give up
the fight. The argument which he set out
to make was that the taxes Sanborn
collected would not have been collected in any other
way that they would all have been lost to the G0v
ernment very soOn by the operation OF the hveyear
Limitation that the opposition to the continuance
of the contracts was stimulated by individuals and
corporations who are IN default TO the revenue; and
that the men who were opposing such continuancein
the House were in favor of relieving the rich Of taxes
they owed, and of collecting the amount from the
seanstresss tea and the poor washerwoman's
coffee. The fIlsity of such statements was thor
oughly exposed by number of members, and
numerous eases were referred to where the taxes
which Sanborn collected on shares were not back
taxes al ALL but had Just fallen due were actually
anticpated Ii was charged too, that the real work
of discovery and collection was done by the regu-
lar revenue officers while Sanborn pocketed 80 per
cent of the receipts.


Charles Foster of Ohio, a gentleman to whom the
credit of exposing this dsgraceful system OF farm
ing out the revenue IS largely due, showed remark
able ability in attacking Mr.. Buffers special plead
ing and putting him down with o plain show of
truth. He SAID that nearly all the money Sanbom
had been paid one-haIf for collecting had been col
lected by two revenue supervisors Simmons Of
Boston and l.. d. Hawley Of New-YOrk. Hawley
had been indicted for embezzement aud would
probably s6or be IN the Penitentary, and Simmons
had been made Collector Of Boston. Mr.. Foster
might have accounted for the difference between
the luck of these two men by saying that one was
Mr. Buffers friend and the other was not; but he
left the House to draw this inference. One. of his
best hits at Mr. Batter made after an angry
speech by the latter lie said, referring to Sanborn
and his Ring, that he would not feel justified in
speaking severely of absent persons were it not
for the fact that they appeared to be present by
attorney. Mr.. Butler denied emphaticaly that he
had been retained as Sanborns attorney and, as he
had before asserted that he had had nothing to do
with procuring Sanborns contract or getting the
legislation through authorizing it, his excitement
about the exposure appeared inexpllcabe until he
admitted soon afterward that he hoped to be re-
tanned 10 prosecute the railroads which Sanborn had
discovered had failed to pay their taxes


Mr.. Butler made half a dozen speeches and
labored hard to parry the blows which Messrs
Foster. Dawes Roberts, Eugene Hale, Beck
Phelps, Hawley and Randall gave him, but after a
two hours discussion which created great deal Of
excited interest, he gave up the battle and took his
seat as badly whipped man as ever tried to defend
a bad cause the floor of the House. Not a single
member came TO his help in the course of the
contest, and il apparent ut the close that his
would be the only vote in opposition to the repeal OF
the law under which his friend Sanborn has pros
ecuted his profitable trade OF sharing equally with
the Treasury taxes collected BY the Ireasyrys own
regular paid officials