Qass .x^-!^ /^ 1- TO "^ THE MEMBERS n^ ^ OF THE "\. ''')' HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES* OF THE FORTY-FIFTH CONGRESS. Washington, D. C, February 22, 1879. I propose to review, as briefly as possible, the action of certain mem- bers of the House of Representatives towards me prior to, during, and after my trial before the Committee on Eeform in the Civil Service. If any one should question the propriety of my course, I refer for my jus- tification to all the facts in connection with the case, and especially to the unfair speeches made by the Hons. J. D. Cox, J. H. Baker, and Car- ter H. Harrison in support of the majority report against me, made up by garbling the testimony and distorting the facts, to which I had no opportunity to make a personal reply, nor had my friends on the floor a chance to state my case fairly to the House. Messrs. Cox, Baker, and other Republicans of their class, were not governed by any patriotic sentiments of reforming the Democratic House, nor of purifying the Dem- ocratic party at large; on the contrary, their object was to increase the scandal about Democratic Doorkeepers, which began with the dismissal of Fitzhugh, by forcing a repetition of that memorable scene in my case. No one can arrive at any other conclusion after carefully reading the tes- timony taken in the case, and after an impartial study of the whole in- vestigation from first to last. A conspiracy had been formed by a band of outside soreheads, com- forted and counseled by some on the inside of the House, and when re- cruited, as thpy were, by the two informers whom I had discharged from my departmv.'i., their plans culminated in the introduction of a resolu- tion to investigate the charges preferred against me, submitted to the House by the Hon. J. H. Baker, of Indiana — perhaps the meanest man in Congress. To aid and abet these conspirators, there were not wanting a sufficient number of Democratic members who had not forgiven me for disappoint- ing them in getting places under me for their friends, so much sought after in the general scramble. There were not many such who became co-conspirators, but a sufficient number to accomplish their purpose. As my case progressed they were able to influence a few better men than themselves to join in the raid on me, disregarding their duty to their party and to me, an officer of the House, entitled at least to fair play, which I did not receive ; I was in an open field, with an ambushed enemy in and out of Congress, firing at me. -7=77 The Hon. Olarkson N. Potter, of New York, is the first gentleman I shall refer to as one of my enemies. Much was said to my injury about ray appointments on the "Soldiers' Roll." To show how I was forced to wrestle with that question, and what my experience with Mr. Potter was on it, I quote in full the pro- ceedings of a caucus of the New York Democratic delegation, which ex- plains Itself: At a meeting of the Democratio Representatives of the State of New York, to the 45th Congress, held at the Capitol, on the 1st day of November, 1877, in pursuance of notice duly given said delegation; there were present Messrs. Fernando Wood, Clarkson N. Pot- ter, Abm. S. Hewitt, Benj. A. Willis, S. L. Mayham, T. J. Quinn, N. Muller, A. Eick- hoff, E. Kirk Hart, Wm. D. Veeder, and James W. Covert. The absence of Mr. Bliss was explained as being caused by illness. All the others not in attendance, excepting Mr. Cox, were absent from the city on leave. The Hon. Fernando Wood was appointed chair- man, and James W. Covert, secretary. Col. J. W. Polk, Doorkeeper of the House, appeared in pursuance of invitation, and stated that he had accorded to the New York delegation the appointment of the follow- ing attaches to his department; One general messenger, salary >>1,000 per annum. Three messengers, soldiers' roll, $3,600 in all. Three pages for regular session, $1,800. The above being in addition to the pageship previously promised to Mr. Muller. On motion, duly made and seconded, Eugene Durnin was unanimously recommended for general messenger. Jno. B. Trainor, of New York ; Jacob D. Hutton, of Greene, N. Y.; , of Westchester county, N. Y., (the name to be supplied by Mr. Pot- ter,) were unanimously recommended for appointment on the soldiers' roll. On motion, the three pages were directed to be named as follows : One by Mr. Hart, one by Mr. Covert, one by Mr. Veeder. Having made the foregoing formal recommenda- tions, on motion of Mr. Hewitt, it was Resolved, That without prejudicing the appoint- ments heretofore at this meeting recommended, the request be made that Mr. Murphy be retained as messenger; that the delegation recommend the appointment of Abm. Van Vetchler Brown to a messengership if a vacancy occurs, or if more messengers shall be appointed. That the Doorkeeper be requested, in addition to the pageships accorded to the delega- tion, to appoint, if possible, another page on the recommendation of Mr. Hewitt ; all the above requests, however, under Mr. Hewett's motion, to be without prejudice to the formal recommendations herein made by the delegation. On motion adjourned. James W. Covert, .Secretary. (Signed,) Fernando Wood, Chairman. The blank, which it will be observed, was left on the soldiers' list for Mr. Potter, was, on the 12th day of November, filled with the name of ■ E. J. Horton, by ray clerk, (Coryell,) in the pre.sence of and at the dic- tation of Mr. Potter, as he informed rae ; and at the same time Mr. Hor- ton was sworn in without my presence, consent, or approval, as the oath will show. I .ifterwarda found Mr. Hort.n on the floor of the House, where, after examining him, I discovered he had not been a soldier, much less a disabled one; but. on the contrary, was an able-bodied newspaper man from Mr. Potter's district, whereupon I refuse'd to. appoint hira on the soldiers' roll, or to assign him to duty. After this he called me into the cloak room to talk the matter over with Mr. Potter, where I in- formed that gentleman also I could not appoint his man on that roll, and, a.s the place had been so naraed for him, none but a disabled soldier would be accepted. Mr. Potter became somewhat excited and overbear- ing in his manner and thereafter ceased to recognize me. This manner toward.s me was maintained l)y him until the close of my trial. Our re- lations did not, howfivor, restrain him from sitting in judgment on me while I wa.H h(^\\\'X iv\oA, nor from signing fho majority report condemn- ing me, ;ind votiu;: lor the resolution to dismiss me. After tliis, Mr. Horton remained a guest of his member in the hall of the House, generally occupying that gentleman's seat in his absence, or otherwise in the way, doing nothing whatever for the Government, which fact, nevertheless, did not prevent Mr. Potter from seeking pay out of the public treasury for Mr. Horton's valuable services at the rate of $100 per month, by having a resolution introdueed and referred to the Committee on Accounts to pay E. J. Horton $155.93. (See Record, 1st Session, page 722.) This resolution was introduced by the Hon. Heis- ter Clymer, at the written request of Mr. Potter, as he (Clymer) in- formed me. The committee disallowed the account upon ray testimony, which did not increase Mr. Potter's regard for me. I was equally unfortunate, on the soldier question, with the Hon. Benj. A. Willis", of New York, who drew a soldier, (as will be seen by reference to the proceedings.) I found his man, Mr. Jno. B. Trainer, a New York politician also, with no claims whatever to entitle him to a place among the disabled soldiers. Mr. Willis stormed about it, and henceforth became my opponent. This trouble about Mr. Trainer, who was acting as private secretary to Mr. J. H. Acklen, involved the loss of the latter gentleman's vote also. Thus it will be seen the unfortunate selection made by the New York delegation of able-bodied politicians, (who probably never heard the report of a hostile gun during the civil war,) to go on the disabled soldiers' roll, gained for me the displeasure ol three Democratic Representatives, because I refused to become a party to the fraud two of them attempted to practice. Candor forces me to confess, however, that I was not as successful in avoiding the deceptions of some others named, who not only succeeded in deceiving me, but their members also, as to their competency for the soldiers" roll ; but in time 1 succeeded in regulating that roll, so that when I was removed there was not, in my judgment, a man on it not entitled, under the law, to be there. The last man I removed from it was Mr. Jas. G. Knight, Gen. Bragg's soldier, and the same to whom Mr. Frye, in his speech, alluded as follows : "Was a soldier in 1861;" sprained his "ankle" while drilling; served until 1864, after he had " sprained his ankle." He had been fastened on me as a disabled soldier by the representations of both General Bragg and himself, repeatedly made, and especially after I had informed all the Democratic members of the Wisconsin delegation by letter, and General Bragg orally and by letter, that in the readjustment of my rolls I could give to their State but one messenger, and he on the soldiers' roll ; and at the same time notified them that, inasmuch as it was my understanding they wished Mr. Knight to have the place, I had -ut his name on the printed list furnished their chairman, but no ap- pointment would be made without their sanction. The list was in their case — as in that of every other delegation — subject to their revision. Whoever they should name would be appointed. That discretion ac- corded to every delegation was thoroughly understood by every Demo- cratic member of the House, and by none b'Hter than by General Bragg, who was, at the time referred to, in Washington in advance of his Dem- ocratic colleagues several days before the assembling of Congress after the recess. In conversation with him held in my office, on the subject of Mr. Knight's appointment, I expressed some doubt of that gentle- man's eligibility for the soldiers' roll. General Bragg replied : " I know him to be; put him on, and I will fight it out on the floor of the House if the question is raised. The whole delegation want him to have the appointment." The way he fought it out was to say, in an interview published in the Washington Post on the 16th day of last April: "Mr. Knight did not ask to be put on ttie soldiers' roll, nor did I or any one else ever make such claims for him." In the same interview he also said that I had, in my evidence before the committee, stated that Mr. Knight was a chivalrous " soldierly gentleman," but that "I said so before I knew the Wisconsin delegation was going to vote for my dismissal." That is true : I don't deny being deceived in more instances than this. An ex- amination of the testimony will show that I was speaking of the past, and I had not, up to that time, believed that a gentleman who had worn the honored uniform of a Brigadier General, would distort facts lor the purpose of imposing upon me a slightly damaged quartermaster for a gallant disabled line officer to secure him a $1,200 place in the Door- keeper's office. After my removal, Mr. Knight — smarting under Mr. Frye's ridicule — addressed a letter to that gentleman, the following ex- tract from which was read by him to the House : " What 1 desire to gay, it was no fault of mine that I was on the soldiers roll ; I was put there without my knowledge, and kept there against my protest. Very respectfully, J. G. Knig-ht." — (See Record, 2d Session, page 2,311.) This letter was written and read to the House in April. On the 26th of February, five weeks before my removal, I received from Mr. Knight a letter, in response to my demand on him for more evidence of his competency, under the law, for the position he held oa the soldiers' roll, from which the following is an extract ; '' I accompany this with my affidavit, which, perhaps, will furnish the proofs you desire." The affi- davit referred to was received under the same cover, from which I insert the following extract: " That during the time he w%s serving in the army as aforesaid, and in the discharge of his duty as an officer, he so injured his foot and ankle that he has suffered from the same, ai'l been lam-i a large portion of the time ever since, and that he is now a sufferer from said injury. JAMES Q^. KNIGHT. " Sioorn to and subscribed before mc this 20th day of February, 1878. "ZACff. B. BROOKE, J. P. [ seal.]" (I have italicised all extracts.) With the above evidence in my possession, and more I can produce, I have no hesitation in asserting that I am prepared to make good all I have said on the subject. Moreover, if it will encourage General Bragg to call for a committee of investigation, I repeal, that both he and his man practiced deception on me to secure the appointment, and then af- terwards misstated the facts to shield themselves and cast odium on me. If Messrs. Cook, Henry, Cravens, and Eden, who spoke, and other gentlemen who desired to speak in defense of the minority report, had not been cut off in their time, (in violation of what the Speaker and all of them understood to be an agreement,) manv things in connection with the soldiers' roll, and other questions not fully explained, would have been raado clear to the House. If my own Representative, (Mr. Franklin,) who was specially charged with the facts, could have obtained the floor after the previous question had been ordered, he probably would have infused into those who abandoned me on a stampede at Frye's speech, some of his own manliness, and stimulated them into sustaining me for the sake of justice, instead of deserting me through fear, as they did. soldiers' eoll. If all the facts in connection with the soldiers' roll had been fairly presented to the House, instead of being garbled, as they were, by those opposed to me, it would have been seen that there had been little or no cause of complaint. The facts are plain and simple. In the first place, the Appropriation Committee had omitted the words " disabled " or "crippled." The provision in the law reads " $16,800 00 to pay four- teen messeno;ers on the soldiers' roll." My predecessor, who, like myself, had probably been deceived, or at least the question had not been raised on him, had put on that roll some men who, under the present construction of that law, would not be considered eligible. I found there several such, and did not remove them immediately; in fact, under what I learned had been a decision of the Judiciary Committee, I questioned my right to do so. On the 1st of December, 1877, when I decided to readjust my roll, my difficulty then was to get enough Democratic members willing to take soldiers. In order to fill up the roll, I ofiered the appointments to several besides those for whom these places had been intended. Among those who spurned the offer was the Hon. Carter H. Harrison. The'result was, there were several vacancies nearly every month from December until March ; so, to absorb the appropriation, I put on, temporarily, as the frequent changes on the roll will show, the names of other employees doing the work the soldiers would have done, until they should be fur- nished me by the members entitled to the appointments. Such em- ployees were not appointed as soldiers. For instance, no one can seri- ously think I intended to appoint Lafayette Fitzhugh, a mere boy, per- manently on the disabled soldiers' roll. That is the whole case, and the testimony, fairly considered, shows nothing more. As before stated, I had been sometimes deceived, but corrected the mistakes as I could. NEW YORK DELEGATION. The history of my transactions with the New York delegation serves, in a general way, to illustrate my experience with some others. On the final issue, all the Democrats of that delegation voted against me, ex- cepting Messrs. Beebee, Benedict, Mayham; Muller and Covert paired for me, Mr. Hart, who was absent and ill, and Messrs. Bliss and Quinn, who were present and voted for me, THE PENNSYLVANIA. DELEGATION. The Pennsylvania Democratic delegation held a meeting also on the 1st of November ; all present excepting Mr. Collins, lo arrange the ap- point-fTif^nt of t-,heir men to fill the place? I had accorded that State, and, notwithstanding I had heen more liberal with Pennsylvania than any- other State, several of the members were dissatisfied and clamored for more. Bach, excepting Mr. Olymer, wanted an appointment in my de- partment. After resisting the pressure for some time, and after the assurance had been given me that the House would increase my force to cover the extra appointmetits, I yielded, and agreed to appoint four more, three of them to be " session messengers." When it came to a vote on the resolution to dismiss me, all voted against me excepting Messrs. Riley, Collins, and the Speaker, who, although not voting, were on my side, as they have since assured me. Without specifying, at this time, the particular members, I will say that the fourteen Democratic members representing districts in the former slave States, who voted against me, did so on personal grounds, growing out of my failure to satisfy them in making my appointments, for even with the stretch I made, 1 could not please all, but found my- self in Mr. Lincoln's predicament, with " more pigs than teats to suck." It is a pleasure, however, to be able to say that there was a goodly number of other members (whom also I shall not now name,) I had failed to oblige, but who rose above selfish resentment, and stood by me. It is to me a cause of sincere regret that some of these gentlemen have not been rsturned to the positions in the 46th Congress they have 30 highly honored in the present. That sorrow is somewhat soothed, however, by the knowledge that a far greater proportion of those who opposed me have been retired ; among them, six of the seven members of the committee who signed the majority report against me, including the three Democrats. HONS. JACOB D. COX AND CARTER H. HARRISON. The occasion of my trial just suited Mr. Cox, who, with his allies on the committee to sustain him by a majority vote on all questions, and the weak minded Harrison to rule ifor him, right or wrong, was able to run the committee pretty much his own way. From the first he showed more zeal as a prosecutor than desire to give me a fair trial. Upon the charges preferred against me, apparently sympathizing alto- gether with the two informers, (Coryell and Duffy;) even after they had when on the witness stand, discredited their own affidavits contained in the Baker resolution, to such an extent that the committee was forced to admit it was unnecessary to produce testimony on my part to rebut their statements, and so notified me. Mr. Cox saw the prosecution had broken down, so far as the charges of corruption were involved, which was all there was in th(3 case the committee had been ordered to inves- tigate. The remaining offence was not denied, and had been condoned by the House of Representatives. It was at this piiint Mr. Cox, regard- less of justice to me, ranged outside of the charges with no apparent purpose but that of convicting me to gain a party triumph. I wfis before the committee ou charges contained in the affidavits of two men I had discharged, one (Coryell) for incompetency, and for ■ slaiidei-iag members of thu House who demanded his removal; the other (Duffy) for drunkeness and rude conduct. They were put on the wit- ness stand early in the investigation, examined and discharged, and after- wards paid in violation of law for the whole period of my investigation. Thev were kept by Mr. Cox as his prompters, Coryell occupying con- stantly a whispering relation to that gentleman throughout the trial. They also acted as scavengers in the interims, to have ready-made for each meeting anonymous charges against me that had no business there, even if they had been true. Contrary to uhe well-established rules of evidence, I was put on the witness stand before the witnesses for the prosecution, upon whom should have rested the responsibility of making good their information, and was thus made a witness for the prosecution against myself; as fast as they broke down, the drag-nets were used to gather up new issues and new lies, to harass me with. Messers. Cook, Henry, Cravens and Garth, who signed the minority report, all gentlemen and able lawyers, showed every disposition to give me a fair trial ; but they were only four against seven, and were therefore impotent. They ceased to attend the meetings with punct- uality, seeing, no doubt, there was no use in their doing so. My able and distinguished counsel, Judge Hanna, of Indiana, attempted to get the com- mittee to observe the rules of practice governing the court in such cases, but that truculent majoricy vote rendered his efforts abortive also, and thus for more than six weeks was I so treated to give Mr. Cox a chanca to practice his political strategy, which resulted in a decided success in one congressional district, if no more, that of the Hon. Carter H. Harrison, whose apprehension was so feeble, and his egotism so strong, he never seemed to realize that he was suspending a sword of justice over his own head, and was being used by this crafty partisan to the injury of his (Harrison's) own party. Besides the majority on the committee, Mr. Cox had to support him an outside lobby, composed, as they were, of disappointed office-seekers, discharged office-holders, dead-beats and Capitol rounders; among them the Clerk Weiner and the sergeant-at-arms to the committee then trying me. The latter was Mr. Harrison's man (Whalen.) This fellow had pro- posed to me, after the Baker resolution had been referred, that if I would appoint him to a place, and date his oatli one day back of the introduction of the resolution, to shield Harrison, that gentleman would be my friend in my investigation. I declined. I told Mr. Baker of this, who informed Harrison that I said he (Harrison) had made me the offer. We three met for explanation in the hall of the House at Mr, Errett's seat, where I corrected Mr. Baker's version, and informed them that it was Mr. Harrison's man who had made the proposition. Notwith- standing, Whalen was employed as a confidential officer to the committee. This same man had offered before that, as the price of a positi n, to keep me posted in the proceedings of the conspirators, with whom ho was meeting as an accomplice, and actually did force on me many of the names and some of their plans before I could stop him. He was utterly suprised and disgusted when I informed him thai I desired no information obtained from a traitor; and he is the same man about whom Mr. Harrison quarreled with me at the desk occupied by the Sergeant-at-Arms of the House and ceased to speak to me until after the resolution to investigate me had been referred to his committee. To cap the climax, Messrs. Cox, Harrison and James, held without notice to the other members of the committee, or to myself, secret meetings, and reopen.-d ray case four days after the two reports had been made to the House and put on the calender, by stealthily bringing iu new witnesses and examining them on new issues hunted up by Coryell, who was also acting as sergeant-at-arms to the inquisition. I made this discovery by accident, and surprised them in the act by entering the committee room unannounced. In reply to my expostulation, Mr. Harrison said : "We consider we have the right to take testimony in your case in any manner we see proper. Your friend in the House re- fused to let my report be considered. Your son-in-law, Buell, has abused me in the newspapers, and you discharged my page, Bradford Whitely." Before my departure, it was agreed that if any more witnesses should be examined, I would be sent for to hear and cross-examine them ; that promise was not kept, nor was it intended to be kept, for both Eugene Durnin and H. M. Rogers were sworn and examined after that, on the same day, without my knowledge. The testimony thus obtained was used in the debate before the House by both Harrison and Cox, they suppress- ing parts of Mr. Rogers' testimony which were materially in my favor. CIVIL SERVICE. So far as developed, the uses of the committee on reform in the civil service have been — to" immolate one Doorkeeper, report one bill, white- wash three members who needed no vindication, and recklessly spend about $5,000.00 of the public money, mostly in the payment of claims for services under the Doorkeeper, none of which were legal, not more than half of them in any sense equitable, and some of them had no shadow of right. This was done against my protest, submitted to the commit- tee through the courtesy of General Cook, a member of it, before any of the claims had been presented. When the resolution was introduced by Mr. James, which led to the provision in the Sundry Civil bill of |7,000, to be disbursed by the Civil Service Committee, I foresaw the raid that would be made, on that fund by the crowd who have always outmanaged their representatives, and through them had outmanaged me ; and to prevent imposition on the Government, as well as to avoid further odium on myself, I prepared the protest or statement above re- ferred to, and emljolied in it a full list of those employees entitled to pay who ha