Year: 1878

FHE TRAP INTO WHICH BUTLER HAS


LED SHERMAN.


The Testimony Before the Potter Corn"


mlttee-Kaow z. L.. Weber Was


Trfcked.


Especial Correspondence of the Democrat.l


WASHINGTON, D. c., August 27, 1878.


Last Sunday evening that peculiar states
man,


GEN. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN BUTLER,
was seated in the luxurious rooms which he /
at one of the palatial hotels when in
New York. The General occupies these luxu-
rious rooms because he is q horny handed son |
of toll and the recognized leader of the Amer
lean workingmen in the Northern section OF
the American Union. he Is probably the only |
in the whole United States who |
is in the habit Of occupying rooms OF that |
character. AS Is his custom in his hours OF |
ease Gen. Butler was surrounded by an adj
rniring throng of his feiloW-citizens who were |
availing themselves OF his stores of wisdom |
and experience In the course OF conVersa- |
ton somebody remarked that the great Sher- |
man letter seemed TO have dropped almost |
entirely out OF public view and inquired II its |
loss could possibly be supplied by any oral
testimony regarding the fact Of it's previous
existence. To this Gen. Butler is said to have
made the sententious response that


THE SHERMAN LETTER
was In safe hands.


Naturally this remark excited much COM
ment, and further inquiry was made, the re-
suit of which was the discovery that the cele-
brated letter which Mrs. jerks swore she
dictated and which E. T.. Weber swore he
had destroyed is still safe and sound and in
the possession of persons who are not, under
any circumstances, to be regarded as appli-
cants for office under the Fraudulent Admin
istration-a state Of facts which renders it
utterly impossible for John Sherman to get
possession of it. That letter has played a
curious role in the drama of the Great Fraud
investigation. At the outset it formed the
basis Of the charges rected in the preamble
of the Potter resolutions, and the fact that it
was known to be in the possession OF the
movers OF the scheme, was the chief influence
that induced a great many reluctant Demo-
Gratis to vote for investigation. AS soon as
this object had been accomplished and the
committee organized, the astute lawyers who
were managing the case for the prosecution
decided to make that letter the piece de re-
sista,sce of their programme. These man
aging lawyers, it is needless to say, were
Butler and McMahon. They both understood
the peculiarities Of the man they were after,
and


THE TRAP


they set to catch him will, when all is over
and the history of the greatest of investiga-
tions comes to be written, appear as one OF
the masterpieces OF legal ingenuity, craft and
skill. Generally speaking, their design was
to lead John into deliberate perjury But
in order to make the trap complete, it was
necessary to arrange vast and complex sys-
tenn of preliminaries, like the meshes Of a
net into which the victim might stumble step
by step, ignorant of the true nature Of the
situation In which he was involving himself.
Accordingly Anderson was brought on the
stand to produce as part OF his testimony a
copy of the letter. Now presume it is not
Anderson was, in one or two thrilling particu-
lars, inexact. 1t was purposely made SO in
order to mislead John into the supposition
that it was copy TeprodAced from memory
by the witness, which would naturally indl-
cate that the original or even an exact
COPY was not to be had. But, though this
delicate artifce had part Of its desired effect,
it did not wholly set John's mind at rest. The
Johns counsel, to find out whether the origi-
nal was in existence, betrayed the suspicious
that still lurked in Johns cunning mind.
Butler observed this, and Immediately re-
sorted to a new strategem. Suddenly as
suming toward Anderson an air Of great
severity, which was SO well played as to even
raise suspicious of his good faith in the minds
OF one or two Of the more ebullient Democrats
on the committee, Butler put Anderson
through a sharp cross-examination, with an
apparent intention Of showing that the copy
| which had been produced was a shaml And
then he remarked, by way of summing up
his own cross-eXamination, $50, what has
been produced as q copy turns out to be no
real copy at ALL! This


FLANK MOVEMENT OF BUTLER





and his attorneys clear out OF their reckon
ing, and then they established relations with
Marks, through whose suggestions, directly
or indirectly, the plan OF employing the tai
ents Of the jerks woman in the art OF per-
jury was adopted. AS soon as Butler and
McMahOn discovered the line Of defense in
yolved in the jerks episode, they determined
to humor that female to the top OF her crazy
bent, and fairly encouraged her in her sense
less extravagances. The design here was to
allow her wild story to have considerable ef-
feet on the popular mind, and, above all, to
fool the newspapers that appeared as the
supporters and apologists OF Sherman. That
they were successful does not need to be said.


The next move in the programme was to
summon E. L. Weber, who, as they knew, be-
lieved that he had, as he subsequently testi-
fled, destroyed the original letter among his
brothers papers, E. L. Weber had, indeed,
destroyed copy of the letter; it was a copy
which had been made by an expert at that
sort of business, who will appear later in the
programme Weber had had the original in
his possession, and certain parties had deter
borrowed it; had what would pass anywhere
for a fac smile made by an expert imitator OF
handwriting, and this fac sina5te was returned
to Weber, leaving the original in the posses
sion Of the other parties.


Finally, upon the strength of


Ell. wEBER's TESTIMONY,


and under advice from his own strikers in
Louisiana based thereupon, John Sherman at
Atlantic City declared that he had never writ
ten the famous letter ascribed to him. 1t will
he observed that the committee has adjourned
subject to the calzof the chairman. The call
will be made about two weeks before election,
when John Sherman will be put upon the
stand to be convicted by his own handWrlt-
he was made Secretary of the Treasury OF
Fraudulent Administration The record will
be read, and John will be asked il he stands
by his declaration made in Atlantic City:
hot Ta h thnrn wi