BANCROFT 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
Issued by the Republican State Central Committee of Cal, 
 
 \VM. SHERMAN, Secretary. 
 
 THE PRESIDENT VINDICATED. 
 
 SPEECH OF 
 
 DELIVERED 
 
 111 the United States Senate, June 3, '72. 
 
 -. 
 
 After a thorcugb. and comp'ete vindication of the 
 action of the committee appointed to investigate 
 
 - the French Arms Sales, Mr. Carpenter, adverting 
 to the bi-.ter personal attack on the President by 
 Senator Suznner, said : 
 
 " But, sir, the present debate, began by the Senator 
 from Massachusetts en Friday, acd continued by 
 
 ' the Senator from Missouri on Friday evening, was 
 not intended to discuss the question of the sale of 
 
 , arms. That was the pretext for thrusting asother 
 
 - political debate upon the Senate prior to the Phila- 
 delphia convention. I have already shown you how 
 the Senator from Massachusetts glided by this sub- 
 ject with only a passing and angry glance, and 
 devoted columns of personal abuse <o the Chief 
 Mag'strate cf the nation. The subject was origin- 
 ally introduced fcr mere partisan purposes, not to 
 ascertain the f^cts, and this new phae of it is in 
 full keeping with the primary design. The object 
 is to prejudice the Administration with calumny 
 and falsehood, in the vain hope of thwarting the 
 mirifest purpose of the people to rencminate and 
 reelect General Grant. The late speech of tee 
 Senator from Massachusetts, with two paragraphs 
 upon the subject and twenty columns of calumny 
 upon General Grant, fully jnstifys this statement 
 
 Mr. Presldert, tbo Senator from Massachusetts 
 has assumed a posi'.ion which cot only invites but ' 
 ccmpels an examination of his motives, and after 
 his deliberate and merciless attack upon General 
 Grant, who by the proprieties cf his station is pre- 
 cluded from replying, the Senator cannot complain ! 
 
 if the friends cf Genera! Grant accept the war h 
 has declared, ard catryit into tte Senaloi : s own 
 camp. 
 
 Tbe Senator from MaEsachnsetts has lorg been in 
 pub'.ic life. He was associated early with measures 
 which finally triumphed, changing the policy of 
 tbis country from a protection of slavery into a 
 vindiCit'on Of freedom. When this great consum- 
 mation was accomplished, it was natural that its 
 leaders and champions should be held in honcp 
 and regarded with affection by co-laborers in tte 
 same neld, and by the enfranchised race. The 
 Senator enjoyed the flattering and dangerous en- 
 comiums which a grateful people always bestow 
 upon real or supposed benefactors. But it 
 proved true of him, as of many others, that the 
 fcrti.ude which can survive opposition is not a'- 
 ways distinguished by the steadiness that c&n 
 endure success. The adulation of thousands, and 
 the constant burning of incense before him, have 
 BO complete' y turned his head that he seems ir- 
 capable of considering any subject apart from hica- 
 self. He has, as it is reported, long been not OL!T 
 an ada?irer, but an imitator of Burke; and it ?s 
 clear that in the elaborate and. malignant philippic 
 upon the President, which te read in the Senate oa 
 Friday, which was composed at great expense of 
 midnight oil, ^printed in pamphlet form, ar.d 
 partially distributed before its deliveyin tteS:D- 
 ate, the Senator bad in mind Burke*s terrible 
 arraignment cf Warren Hastings, which was so 
 vindictive as to provcke the following epigram : 
 
" Oft Lave we wondered that on Irish ground 
 No poisonous reptile has e'er yet bf en found ; 
 Revealed the secret stands of Nature's work, 
 She saved her venom to create a Burke." 
 
 Imitators are always more successful in copying 
 the vice s tb an the virtues of the old masters; and 
 the Senator's philippic as far excels its model in 
 malice and meanness as it fal's short of it in grand- 
 eur and eloquence. And there are many reasons 
 for fearing that the Senator will meet the fate of 
 Burke, who late in l : fe turned away from his early 
 principles, and died in the embrace Of his early 
 enemies, detested by his early friends. 
 
 I propose to consider several of the articles of 
 jmpeactment which are set in array by the Sen- 
 ator's speech against the President. And first let 
 me consider the charge that the President has 
 turned the Executive Mansion into a military 
 headquarters. What ate the facts? Three officers 
 of the army may be found in the W,hite House. 
 Babcock, a major of engineers, detailed in pursu- 
 ance of an act of Congress to act as commissioner of 
 public buddings and grounds; and Dent and Porter, 
 officers belonging to the staff of General Shtrman. 
 Three more modest and courteous gentlemen can 
 not be found in the United State s. Thy were mem- 
 b:rs of General Grant's military family during the 
 war, and they love him, as do a 1 those who have 
 ever served with him. In so far as they can assist tbe 
 President, it is with them a labor of love to do so, for 
 neither one of them receives ore cent of compen- 
 sation for such service. If they were all dismissed 
 from the White House to-day, Babcock would have 
 an office in some other public building, and receive 
 the same salary as at present. Dent and Potter 
 would be occupying rooms in the War Department, 
 dividing with other assistants of General Sherman, 
 labor not very severe in these pipirg times of peace, 
 and which would be lighter still when still further 
 divided. It has been attempted by the Senator to 
 exalt these gentlemen into some official impor- 
 tance, but they are merely clerks at the White 
 House, assisting the President, with the peimisBion 
 of General Sherman, the official chitf ; and htre let 
 me repeat that neither of them receive a cent for 
 such ass ; etance beyond his pay as an officer of the 
 army. 
 
 Now for the precedent. General Washington 
 appointed General Knox, his old comrade in arms, 
 Secretary of War; General Jackson was ss^isted by 
 Maj or Donaldson ; General Taylor by his son-in-Uw, 
 Colonel Bliss, and President Johnson by four offi- 
 cers of the army, detailed for service at the White 
 House. 
 
 When General Grant took possession of the White 
 House it was pa'rolled by tettintls day and night; 
 80 was the War Department; so was the residence 
 of Mr. Sewird. The first night Gerieral Grant 
 s'ept at the President's House, after retiring, he 
 heard the tramp of soldiers in the hall below, and 
 presently tbo command, "Halt; order arms," End 
 the crash cf muskets on the floor. The General not 
 knowing what it meant, ran down stairs to atcer- 
 
 ttin. There he found an officer in commas d of a 
 squad of soldiers, and on asking an explanation, the 
 General was informed that it was the night guard 
 of the Executive Mansion, which for a long time 
 had been stationed there every night. But General 
 Grant informed the officer that he could take card 
 of himself, and ordered him to take his soldiers to 
 their quarters. He waited till his armed friends 
 J ad left, then locked the door and went to bed. The 
 next day the whole business of sentinel service waa 
 discontinued, and not a soldier has been en duty at 
 the White House since. General Grant also order- 
 ed away from Washington all the companies cf 
 soldiers which were on duty here when he was 
 inaugurated; and not a company of troops can now 
 be found in or around Washington city. 
 
 Now, in the light of these facts, let me turn to the 
 Senator's speech and read what he says about the 
 turning of the Executive Mansion into a military 
 headquarters. It is a fair sample of the monstrous 
 exsggerations of the Senator's spetch: 
 
 " ILLEGAL MILITARY KING AT EXECUTIVE MANSION. 
 
 " The military spirit which failed in the effort to 
 set aside a fundamental law as if it were a transient 
 older was more successful at the Executive Man- 
 sion, which at once assumed the chancier of mili- 
 tary headquarters. To the dishonor of tbe civil 
 service, and in total disregard of precedent, the 
 President surrounded Himself with officers of the 
 army, and substituted mi'itery forms for tl.oie of 
 civil Jife, detailing for this service members of his 
 late staff.'' 
 
 Allow me to call attention again to tic precise 
 language; and here let me repeat that this speech 
 of the Senator from Massachusetts is not to be 
 estimated as you would estimate a speech thrown 
 off in the heat of an extempore debite. This wrath 
 was carefully distilled; tUs fpsech was prepared 
 with great and protracted labor. 
 
 Here is a deliberate arraignment, and what is here 
 is either deliberate truth or deliberate falsehood ; 
 one or the otDer. When he alleges, as he does here, 
 that " to the dishonor of the civil service, and in 
 total disregard of prectden 1 , the President sur- 
 rounded himgelf with officers of the Army, and sub- 
 stituted military forms for those of civil life, detail- 
 ing for this service members of his late staff," the 
 Senator from Massachusetts penned, revised, correit- 
 ed, prin'ed, published, s?nt to the world a deliberate 
 truth or a deliberate falsehood. Which was it? 
 Was there no precedent f.r his being served by a 
 lew clerks who were willing to aid him wi heut 
 pay, from mere personal affection ? Did not Andrew 
 Johnson have four army officers detailed for service 
 in the White Houssf Had not Andrew Johnson 
 been surround d with sentinels and the White 
 House guarded like a military fortress; and in all 
 tbe complaints thst were made ag&iast Andrew 
 Johnson, did any man charge hiaa with violating 
 the liw in having bis house protected at night by 
 sentinels? Was any ccmplaint made upon the 
 ground that thre e or four army officers were serv- 
 ing him in the capacity of clerks in tbe Whits House ? 
 If there was I never heard of it, and yet wo 
 know that in that heated and angry time those 
 
Who opposed Andrew Johnson were not over-smi- 
 puloHs about the charges they brought against him, 
 and still such a thing was never laid to his charge, 
 although, as I have shown, instead of what has been 
 done, and is being done now being wi'.hout a prece- 
 dent, it is less in every respect than was done during 
 the entire administration of Mr. Johnson without 
 c riticism from an j body whatever. 
 
 Bu* again, this is a charge not only that the 
 Executive Mansion kas assume! the character cf 
 mill! ary Headquarters, but that he has substituted 
 military forms for (hose of civil life. I take it to 
 be the duty of this Senate, I take it to be the duty of 
 the mf cabers of the other House, I take it to be the 
 duty of all lovers of truth and justice, who reside 
 for a portion of the year in Washington and know 
 the facts, to bear testimony to the American people 
 whether this arra'gnmcnt cf President Grant is a 
 truth or a falsehood. Senators, how has the White 
 House been made to assume the character of mili- 
 tary headquarters ? Do you encounter any sentinal 
 at the door? Do you see any orderly on the stairs? 
 Do you see a gun or a musket or a shoulder- s'rap in 
 the White Houss from top to bottom? Not one. 
 The whole charge is baseless as a dream. 
 
 Then came Ihe Senator to the great crimes of 
 nepotism and gift-receiving. Well, I do not propose 
 to waste mcch strength upon either of these sub- 
 jects. Nepotism is a pretty large phrase, and would 
 include a gocd many oi us in i'.s rigid application. 
 I m not aware that it is any worse for a man to 
 procure nis brother to be appointed to an office, if 
 compatent to disch rge i'e duties, than it is to pro- 
 cure an appointment for a particular friend. In 
 principle there is no difference between the two 
 ca es. It may be that if we were exercising that 
 romantic Spartan simplicity of manner which nuy 
 return at'.er the millennium, when the Senator 
 from Maesichusetts and the Senator from Missouri 
 shall be in joint possession of the White House, this 
 sort of thing might be objected to; but really, in 
 the piac'.ical course of business in this country, the 
 thing is a little too trifling to deserve serious at- 
 tention. 
 
 Recavinz gifts! What is there of this? Simply 
 that it results from the consciousness of the Arueri- 
 c in people that the salaries paid by oar Government 
 are but niggardly comper sat'on for high public 
 service. Wnen the war closed the exul'.ation and 
 gratitude of the ptople were unbounded, and it 
 naturally found expression towatd those who hid 
 rendered most distinguished service in suppressing 
 the rebellion. 
 
 Many ii stances of the same nature are found in 
 English history. Marlborough and Wellington were 
 both honored an 1 rewarded by similar expressions 
 Of admiration and gratitude. True, in these cases 
 the ac s o' reward prcxjeeded from Parliament, but 
 Parliament was not fettered by the rigid provisions 
 of a written cons itution, and could ia its omnipo- 
 tence so give voice to the feelings of the British 
 people. Here, tie most that Congress ccnld do 
 would be limi'ed to the gift of a sword, with as few 
 diamonds as possible about the hilt. Bat here the 
 
 people, in their own generous way, spontaneously 
 rendered tribute, and a victorious general could 
 certainly not be regarded as tarnishing his liurela 
 by accepting sush voluntary, nay, enthusiastic evi- 
 dence of appreciation. Grant was nut alone in 
 receiving suah tokens of appreciation and grati- 
 tude. Sherman, McClellan, Sheudan, and other 
 distinguished offliers were recipients of the same 
 kinds of acknowledgments. 
 
 Are these free gifts of a grateful people a people 
 grateful for country and libarties saved to be 
 liktned to bribes? Who will say it? The Senator 
 from Massachusetts, in his assumpti3n of personal 
 purity and lofty virtue, miy u'ter his spurious in- 
 dignation, and fortify his position by "wise saws 
 and modem instances," but the robust common, 
 sense of the American people will reject with con- 
 tempt all such absurd criticism and censure. 
 
 The next serious arraignment of the President ii 
 in respect to the " big " war he prosecuted against 
 Iliyti! I do no; propose to go through the San 
 Domingo discussion again. We had it here in secret 
 session and in open session. The Senator from 
 Missouri labored at gre.it length, in open session, 
 to show that the President of tha United States had 
 for a long time been levying war upon the republic 
 of Hayti, and the Senator from Massachusetts, 
 sweU'ng with what I have no doubt he thought was 
 I inspiration, but what was undoubtedly mere atmos- 
 j phere, repeated some ancient writer, who ay 
 I "there is no such thing as a small war." Ha 
 allowed the Senator from Missouri to establish the 
 fact that there had been a war, and then he resur- 
 rected antiquity to say that there could b no 
 "small" war. Wei], take the two Senators together, 
 and what resu ted ? Why, that General Grant prote- 
 cuted for months a great war against Hayti. 
 
 Now, is that really so, or is there a little exagger- 
 a'ion absut that, too? Is that subject to the same 
 deduction and discount you have to make in regard 
 to the Whits House having been turned into a fort, 
 and civil life having lost its appearance entirely in 
 the military arrangement -for defense within whicb 
 General Grant has intrenched himself against the 
 assaults of the Senator from Massachusetts and the 
 Senator from Missouri? Yes, sir, this statement 
 needs just the same deduction. General Grant, it 
 must be understood, knows something about tha 
 methods of war. Had the Senator from Massachu- 
 clmsetts been President of the United States and 
 wanted ts levy a war upon Hayti, it is very probable 
 tint he would have waged it in as gentle a manner 
 as Grant is alleged to have done this ; but General 
 Grant minages war after a different fashion. H 
 WiS Commander-in-Chief of the Army and of the 
 Navy, and if he meant to make war upon Hayti ae 
 knew how to do it. 
 
 But, sir, what was there of that greit war upon 
 Hiyti ? When it was finally ciphered down on the 
 investigation, and the precise facts ascertained, tha 
 only act done by any naval officer which could ba 
 tortured into a prosecution of war, was the firing off 
 of one sky-rocket from the deck of one of our ships, 
 somewhere near the coast of Hayti. So that we 
 are told that General Grant, a chieftain of sojna 
 
reputation and exparience, in command of the army 
 and nary of one of the greatest nations on earth, 
 levied a war upon that feeble government for 
 months, and, in the frescoed rhetoric of the Senator 
 from Massachusetts, a great wr, too ; yet not a 
 Boldier marched, not a gun was fired, not a pocket- 
 pistol was drawn ; a eingle sky-rocket wae discharged 
 from a man-of-war. [Laughter.] 
 
 What is the charge against the President ? Why, 
 that he usurped the war-power of this nation when 
 he fired that sky-rocket, [Laughter.] You can not 
 fire a sky-rocket from a man-of-war in the Indian 
 oeean, nor in Liverpool, nor anywhere on the globe, 
 without a previous act_ of Congress specifying the 
 precise moment when the sky-rocket shall be fired, 
 In what direction it shall be aimed, how much 
 material shall be in it, and the purpose for which 
 it shall be fired; and if you do not so provide, and 
 if any naval officer somewhere shall, no matter with 
 what purpose, send up into blue spaoa one sky- 
 rocket, the President of the United States, who never 
 even saw the sky-rocket, is chargeable with having 
 usurped the war power of the nation and levied a 
 w*r for several months. There are a great many 
 things that nvgbt be said about this momentous 
 matter, but, indeed, it is haid'y worth more talk. 
 I do not believe the people of this country will 
 quite think General Grant made a war for several 
 months that nobody ever hsard of, and in which 
 not even a pocket-pistol was discharged. 
 
 But the most remarkable part of the Senator's 
 speech ramalns to be considered. I think the people, 
 as they read this malicious arraignment, may lose 
 their patience, but they will probably preserve their 
 gravity until they come to the place where the 
 Senator from Massachusetts arraigns the President 
 of the United States for egotism, self-pretension, 
 and a Quarrelsome disposition. Mr. President, if 
 the people of the United States could see these men 
 as we see them daily in official and social inter- 
 course, if they could be acquainted as we are with 
 their incomings and outgoings, their daily walk and 
 ccnversation, they would comprehend the joke to 
 a degree which they never could without such 
 knowledge. Sir, go to the White House any day or 
 acy evening, and you see the President of the 
 United Ststes, a mild, gentle-mannered man, acces- 
 sible to the highest, lowest, richest, poorest, blackest, 
 whitest cidzen of the United States; to all who 
 seek him "sweet as summer," never alluding to 
 himself, never referring to his achievements in the 
 war. Turn from that picture to the lofty and 
 prancing Senator from Massachusetts, who has jast 
 pranced out of ths chamber, [laughter,] and then 
 imagine that Senator in all his pomp and pride ot 
 Circumstances rising here with a prepared and 
 printed, revised and correctad oration, arraigning 
 General Grant for egotism and pretension, and yet 
 more, for a quarrelsome turn of mind t 
 
 Now, Mr. President, here is another point as to 
 which it is our duty to testify. The American 
 people do not fully know these two men. They do 
 not know how false in every sense, not only in its 
 eiter, but in its spirit, and in all the impressions it 
 
 is designed ta produce, that assertion is. We da 
 know it. I appeal to you, Senators, as men of 
 honor; I say you caunot sit here silently and wit- 
 ness su3h injustice committed in this chamber. If 
 you do, you become a party to it. Your silence 
 gives assent to it, and in some sanse you give your 
 approbation to that charge, and ssnd it out against 
 General Grant before the American people. 
 
 What are the facts? And I speak now of what 
 every man who knows General Grant knows. I was 
 trying last night to recall a single instance if, in 
 conversation in regard to the lata war, I had heard 
 General Grant allude to himself, and I could not. I 
 have heard him speak in the most glowing terms.cf 
 his comrades in arms. I have heard him spaak of 
 the exploits oi Sherman. I have heard him allude 
 to what was done by Logan, by McPheroa, and by 
 many other officers of the Union army. I never 
 heard him siy, speaking of a battle, "At such a 
 juncture I thought I wou'd do so and so;" or "I 
 ordered a battalion this way or that;" or " I turned 
 toe sca:e by such a maneuver." I ntver heard Mm 
 allude to himself in connection with the war. I be- 
 lieve you might go to the White House and live with 
 the President and converse about the war day after 
 day, and you never would know from anything ha 
 said that he was in the war at all. 
 
 Turn now again to his great accuser, the Senator 
 from Massachusetts. Whoever heard him speak- 
 five minutes on any subject that he did not glorify 
 fcimself? [Liugbter.] I challenge any mac, any 
 fiiend of his, to go to the Library and bring at 
 random any volume Of the Congressional Globe since 
 ha took his seat s&a Senator, and show me five inches 
 of a speech of that Senator that does not praise him- 
 self. Why, s'r, in tais very speech in which he ar- 
 raigns Genaral Grant for egotism, he commences by 
 glorifying himself. He established this Republican 
 pirty; he was the earliest and tha most anxious, 
 and he the most effective of those men who brought 
 it into being ; and he prays for its life less for its 
 own sake than that Jut m >y be spared the sorrow of 
 following its hearse. Sir, the absurdity of this- 
 charge, when you consider the two men as we 
 know t^wn, both the accusar and the accused, 
 passes all human understanding, comprehension, 
 or belief. 
 
 I have heard it said (and I am sorry that the 
 Senator is not here to correct m3 if it is not 
 true) that a very estimable lady once wrote to the 
 Senator from Massachusetts invoking his aid for 
 some individual who had a case or a claim before 
 Congress. The Senator repl'.ed that he was so ab- 
 sorbed in the contemplation of geneial princi- 
 ples, and so arduously laboring for the welfare 
 of ;man in general, that ho had no time to de- 
 vote to the wints of individuals. The lady re- 
 sponded, thanking him for the civility of hia 
 reply, and reminding him that, so- far as sha 
 was informed lie had taken a somewhat loftier at- 
 titude tuan was occupied by ttie Almighty, [laugh- 
 ter;] that while He governed the Universe, while Ha 
 ruled the oibs_in their spheres, He also considered 
 
the want* of His children, and that not even a spar- 
 row could fall without His knowledge, 
 
 But another great offence of the President is that 
 he is so quarrelsome ; and here I will ask the Sec- 
 retary to re ad from the Senator's speech the para- 
 graph which I have marked, 
 
 The Chief Ckrk reads as follows : 
 
 "Evidently our President has never read the e'ev- 
 enth commandment : ' A President of the United 
 Sta'es shall never quarrel.' At least he lives in 
 perpetual violation of it, listening to stories from 
 horse-cars, gobbling the gossip of kis military ring, 
 discoursing en imaginary griefs and nursing his un- 
 just anger. Tiie elect of forty mi lion of people Las 
 no right to qusrrel with anybody. His position is 
 too exalted. He cannot do it witthout offence to the 
 requirements of patrio.ism, without a siock to tae 
 decencies of 1'fe, wi.hout a jar to the harmony of the 
 universe." 
 
 Mr. Carpenter. Mr. President, it IB one of the 
 commonest, though by no me ins the greatest, errors 
 into which the Senator from Massaehusets has 
 fillen that he identifies himself so completely with 
 tie universe tiat he is not at all certain whether he 
 is part of the universe, or the universe is a part of 
 him. [Laughter.] He assarts here that when the 
 President quarrels with him if course that is what 
 he means ; he did not mention himself, but he 
 never considered anybody but himsel"; and when 
 he was fpeikiog of the President quarreling he 
 meant that great quarrel cf which the President has 
 been made the victim, and to which he has quie'ly 
 and silently submitted, a quarrel forced upon him 
 by the Senator he says that such a quarrel jars the 
 harmony of the universe ! Well, well! The Senator 
 from Massachusetts might be jarred a great de.-,l 
 more than hs has baen, and the universe would not 
 take the slightest notice of it. [Laughter.] The 
 universe wonll net tremble if he were hit far more 
 severely than he ever has been. This is one of those 
 stupendous, inconcievabla evidences of the humility 
 of tae Senator from Massachusetts which I wish I 
 could read in the hearing of every man in this 
 land. 
 
 But, Mr. President, th's is not the highest point 
 of arrogance and assumption to which the Senator 
 rises in tbig pirigrsph. It is not that he has mis- 
 taken Himself for the universe that anybody will 
 seriously complain. He h? s risen in this paragraph 
 above the uiiverse : he bai seatol himself by the 
 Eide of the Almighty, and uadertaken a revision, 
 corrsction, and enlargement of His works : 
 
 " Evidently cur President has never read the 
 el.venth commandment." 
 
 Now, then, comes the quotation from whom f 
 
 "A President of the United States eh-.ll nsver 
 quarre'." 
 
 This is the addition which the Senator from 
 Massachusetts engrafts upon the decalogue, that 
 
 body of laws given by God to man amid the thun- 
 ders cf Sinai. I hold in my hand the sacred volume 
 which contains the revelations of man's latest exis- 
 tence on earth, and penetrates the vgil and discloses 
 the mysteries beyond. John, on the island of 
 Patm os, being "in the spiiit, on the Lord's day," 
 eaw many things clem and unclean; he saw the 
 great red dragon with seven heads and ten horns; 
 he saw the wLore of Babylon in scarlet a.t;re; and 
 he saw the Senator from Massachusetts. [Laughter 
 and applause in the galleries.] And apparently 
 with a view to prevent the blasphemy which we 
 have witnessed in this chamber there are written at 
 the conclusion of this sacred volume, which con- 
 tains the light of our life in this lifa and our guide 
 to a better aoode above, words of awful aimoni.ion 
 I which I ecmmend to the careful study of the Sena- 
 tor from Massachusetts : 
 
 " For I testily unto every man thai heartth the 
 words of the prophecy of this book, if any man 
 shall add uato these thing?, God shall add unto him 
 the plagues that are written in this book. 
 
 "And if any man shall take away from the words 
 of the'book of proptecy, Gad shall take away his 
 part of the book of lif ?, and out of the holy city, and 
 frcm the things which are written in this book." 
 
 Oh, Senator from Massachusetts, reviser and cor- 
 recter of the decalogue, toy I regret your absence 
 so that you cannot hear these passages of Scripture! 
 [-Laugh'er.] Why, sir, if the presumption of the 
 Senator from Massachusetts shouM only reach a 
 liUle higher, you might find in the book-stalls of 
 t'ais city within a year a volume entitled "The 
 Sarmon on the Jljuut, revised, correctei, and 
 greatly enlarged and improved, by Charles Sumnsr." 
 [Lsughter.] I submit such a production would be 
 in perfect keeping with his supplement to the deca- 
 logue. 
 
 But, Mr. President, suppose that on a cureful and 
 impartial investigation of facts it should turn out 
 that all the quarrel that exists between the Senator 
 from Masaicnusetta and the President of the United 
 States is a quarrel entirely on the part of the Sena- 
 tor, and that it is based upon motives ut erly un- 
 worthy of a Senator, what would be thought of it 
 then? I am sorry he is not here to correct me if I 
 am misinformed, but I am told by th>Ee who ought 
 to koow that the first trouble that occurred between 
 the Sena'or from Massachusetts and the Administra- 
 tion was in regard tJ the Greek mission. It was 
 bell by Mr. Tuckerman, who dad always performed 
 his duty to tbe satisfaction of the Government, and 
 oa the accession of this Administration the Senator 
 from Massachusetts, as chairman of the Committee 
 on Foreign Relations, demanded that plice, and de- 
 manded it for a friend of his in B^s.on, upon tha 
 ground th&t his friend had, as he said, been a life- 
 loug friend. It so happened that t.e Administra- 
 tion could not consistently and prop.rly gratify the 
 Senator in this matter. The demand, as I under- 
 st nd it, was made on mere personal grounds. The 
 Senator from M -.ssachusetts demanded tha appoint- 
 ment not be:ause Mr. Tucterman was not a worthy 
 
eprese ntative, but because the Senator desired to 
 giatify a " life-long friend." If this was not " ne- 
 potism" on the part of the Senator what was it? 
 
 Then came the removal of Mr. Motley, Minister to 
 England, for reasons satisfactory to the Senate. 
 This mitter was considered in sscret session, and I 
 Cinnot refrrto anjth ng that took placp. 1 cannot 
 say whether or not in that debate fie Senator from 
 Maasachuset's deslared that Mr. Motley's appoint- 
 ment had been conceded to him as clnirman of the 
 Committee on Fore'gn Relations. I caanot say 
 whether or not Mr. Sumner declared that Mr. Mot- 
 ley was his personal f ,-iend. I cannot say whether 
 or not Mr. Sumner said that if Mr. Motley should be 
 removed it wo jld be the end of ad amicable rela- 
 tions between him and this Administration, or 
 words to that effect. I Cannot say anything about ir, 
 and I do not intend to do so. [Laughter.] Bu f , I 
 say, suppose such were the facts, wlut would toe 
 people of this country think of the Senator who 
 now comes here and arraigns the President as a 
 quirreler, and announces bimsilf 8 the champion 
 of civil service reforoa, and opposed to entertaining 
 personal considerations in the administration of 
 public affairs? 
 
 There are so many remarkable things in the Sena- 
 tor's speech that it is impossible to dwell longer on 
 auy one point, &iA my strength is so far exhausted 
 that I sta'lVe compelled to leave many of these 
 swee's for fur:her consideration by other Senators. 
 There is one thing, however, which for its enormity 
 deserves special attention, and if I thought it wcu d 
 lake the 1 st bieath of life I have to spend on any- 
 thing, I would spend it on this. I ask the Secretary 
 to reid the ex'ract in relation to Mr. Stanton. 
 
 The chief clerk read as follows: 
 
 "THE TESTIMONY OF HON. E. M. STANTON. 
 
 " Some'hing alao must be attributed to individual 
 character; aud here I eipr.ss no opinion of my 
 own; I shall allow another to speak in solemn wO:ds 
 echoed fiom the tomb. 
 
 " On raachirg Washington at the opening of Con- 
 gress in December, 18j9, I Was puned to hear tbat 
 Mr. S anton, lately Sicretiry of War, was in failing 
 healih. Full of gratitude f.rhis unsurpassed ser- 
 vices, and with a sentiment of friendship quickened 
 by common political sympathies, I lost no t'me in 
 seeing him, and repeated my visits until his death, 
 toward the close of the same month. My last visit 
 was mirVeJ by a communication never to be forgot- 
 ten. As I entered his bedroom, wnere I found him 
 reclining on a Eofa, prtpped by pillows, he reached 
 out his hand, alre.idy clammy cold, and, in r, p'y to 
 my icqu ry, 'Hose are you?' answered, 'Waiting for 
 my furlough.' Then at onae with eipgal&r solemnity 
 b.3 said, 'L have something to say to you.' Whom I 
 was scat id he proceeded, without one w_rd of intro- 
 duction: 'I know General Grant better ttai any 
 other psrsoa in the country can know him. It was 
 Ely duty to study him, and I did so, night and day, 
 when I siw h'm a:d when 1 did not tee h ; m, and 
 now I tell you what I know, he can not gove;n this 
 
 country.' The intensify of his manner aud the Jk)8- 
 itiveness of his judgment surprised me, for though 
 I was aware that the late Secretary of War did not 
 place the President very high in general capacity, I 
 was not prepared for a judgment so strongly couched 
 At las*, after some delay, occupied in meditating his 
 remarkable words. I observed, 'What you say, is very 
 broad.' ' It is as true as it is "broad, 1 he replied 
 prompMy. I added, ' You are tarty ; you tell this 
 late; why did you not ssy this bafore his nomina- 
 ti n?' He answered tbat he was not consulted about 
 the nomination, and had no opportunity of express- 
 ing bi3 opinion upon it, besides b sing much occu- 
 pied at the time by his duties as Secretary of War 
 asd his contest with ihe President. I fol'owed by 
 saying, 'Bu* you took part ia the Presidential elec- 
 tim, and mule a sucjession of speeches for him ia 
 Ohio and Pennsylvania.' ' I s;oke, ' said he, ' but I 
 never intr.dused the name of General Grant. I 
 spoka for the Republican par y and tlie Republican 
 cause.' This was the last time I saw Mr. Stanton. 
 A few days later I foltowed him to the grave where 
 he now rests." 
 
 Mr. Carpenter. Mr. President, let us examiae 
 this remarkable statement a little in detail. The 
 Senator asserts tht this interview occurred a few 
 days before Mr. Stanton's death; and tnat Mr. 
 Stanton was expressing not a suddeu conc'ujion, 
 formed upon nawly discovered testimony, but the 
 result of his study of Grant's ciaract jr for many 
 years. Hemak s Mr. Stanton say : " I kuow General 
 Grant better than any other person in the country 
 can know him. It was my duty to study hioi when 
 I saw him and when I did not see him," etc. And 
 he makes him say "that he was not consulted 
 about the nomination' 1 of General Grint fjr the 
 Presidency, &ud that in the speeches which he 
 (S'anton) made during the campaign ha never intro- 
 duced the name of General Grant. 
 
 Tae Senator from M issachusetts has been very 
 unfortunate in all this business. He waded into 
 this investigition chin dsep upon the strength of 
 letters of very emineut iadividm's, whose names he 
 refused to disclose, and whose testimony, therefore, 
 we couM not obtain. But upon thU occasion he 
 evidently intended to support his charge agains 
 General Grant by witnesses who cou d not b3 ca'led 
 lo impeach him. So he violated all the de icacies of 
 friendship and invaded the sanctuiry of ths grave 
 and cilled Edwin M. Stanton bick to beir testimo- 
 ny against the President of the United States. Sir, 
 it is a little difficult to ke-p strictly wi :hin parlia- 
 mentary decorum and say wh it ought to b i said on 
 such an occasion. I shall attempt to do it, and I 
 hope I shall succeed. 
 
 In the first p'aoe. I am speaking to men who will 
 know whether I atn right or wrong in whit I say ; 
 and I assert that if Mr. Stanton nude that declara- 
 tion to the Senator from Mmactu^etts under 
 the circumstances detailed by him, if thsre is a 
 word of subs'antial tru:h t j t^at whole paragraph ; 
 if it be not an infaimu:, fbrication from first tj 
 
last, then Mr. Stanton was the most double-faced 
 and cishonest man that ever lived ; and I call -a pan 
 Senators around me to bear testimony upon this 
 pM&t. 
 
 Tnere were accidents that brought me to know 
 Mr. Stanton very well. I came h^ra to attend to an 
 important lawsui*, occupied a room in the Wsr De- 
 partment, and for several months siw ,Mr. Stanton 
 daily. I went to'the Supreme Court in the morning 
 at 11 o'clock to watch the progress of its business, 
 and I was at leisure for the rest of the day. I was 
 much of the time at the Department, and therefore 
 frequently wi*fa h-'m. He was at that time, as you 
 all know, imprisoned in the Department in cors;- 
 quence of troubles with the Prt sident, and he used 
 to come into my ro m to smoke, and often invited 
 me to walk with him. In the course of our conver- 
 sations I beard Mm refer to General Grant a hundred 
 times, and never but with the highest respect and 
 the kindest feel.ng. 
 
 I came here a Senator at the session at which Mr. 
 Stanton died, and was frequently at bis house dur- 
 ing his last illcew. I ssw him just before he dieil, 
 under circumstances which gave me an opportunity 
 to kn w more than I should otherwise have known 
 of his feeling toward General Grant. I bed charge 
 for ti e first time In my life of a bill in the Senate, 
 the bill which we passed for the reconstruction of 
 the Legislature of Georgia, after the colored mem- 
 bers had been expel ed. We sat late at Light to pass 
 it. At about hall-pist eleven, while in my seat, it 
 occurred to me sorre*hing might be done to insure 
 the appointment of Mr. Stanton as judge ot the 
 Supreme Court. It had been talked about for sc me 
 week s. It ha d been expected by many of UP, and ye t 
 his ncmioa- ion did not come. I then and tbere drew 
 up a letter to the President recommending Mr. Stac- 
 ton to be appointed judge of that court. I tcok It 
 around this Chamber acd in less thn twenty min- 
 utes obtained thirty-seven signatures of Republican 
 Seratcrs. That was Friday night, and beforj leav- 
 ing t l e Sec ate Chamber I agreed with the Senator 
 from Michigan [Mr. Chand'er.] to meet me at the 
 White House the following morniog, Saturday, at 
 ten o'clock, to present the letter to the Presided. 
 
 The n;xt morning, at ten o'clock, I rode to Mr. 
 Stanton's and shewed him the letter, and as b.i 
 glanced over it 'he tears started down his checks. 
 He said cot a word. Ha did tot even say, thank you. 
 Witness : ng the depth of his emotion I bowed myself 
 out, telling him that I was going to present it to the 
 President. 
 
 I carried it to the President and found the Senator 
 from Michigan with the President, awaiting me. 
 Said the President : 
 
 "I am delighted to have that letter ; I have de- 
 sired for weeks to appoint Mr. Stn(on to that place, 
 and yet in cot sequence of his having been Secret^ ry 
 of War, and so pr minent in the recent pjlUic.il 
 6 r;fe, I have doubted whether it would answer to 
 make him a judge; that in-lcrsement is all that I 
 want ; ycu go to Mr. Station's house and tell him 
 his name will be sent to the Senate on Monday 
 morning." 
 
 This was en Saturday. 1 then drove back to Mr. 
 Stanton's house and t^ld him whaS the President 
 tai stU. Mr. Stanton's first reply-was : "ThekiLd- 
 ness of Genera'. Gran' it is perfectly characteristic 
 of him will do more to cure me than all the skill of 
 the doctors." And, sir, I know th t in the serious 
 illness which terminated so disastrously, he fre- 
 quently had occasion to rjfer to the course of the 
 Administration, to matters that were pending In 
 Congress, and I do know, and I can tes'ify, and I hold 
 it to be my solemn duty to testify, ttat in all those 
 interviews, from first to last, from the time I first 
 made his acqnaintance down to tbe hour of his d"ath, 
 I never heard h : m siy of General Grant anything 
 that was not of iha kindest nature and of the highest 
 prise. 
 
 My friend from Vermont [Mr. Edmonds.] reminds 
 me of a difficulty that occurred after the name of Mr. 
 Stanton was eent to the Senate. He was pppointed 
 to succeed Mr. Justice Grur who had reMred, to 
 take effect on a future day the first of February I 
 think, that he might be present at the decision of 
 some causes that bed been previously argued. Mr. 
 Stanton's name wae sent here ; he wt-s confirmed by 
 tbe Senate, and a commission made out and ready 
 to 09 delivered. The Present th>:n suggested this 
 difficulty: Mr. Jus'i?e Grier still beirg in office, 
 could tbe commission be delivered? Thereupon 
 several friends were consulted by tbe President, and 
 they advised him that there was r>o difficulty on that 
 ground ; and thereuprn the comm'ssion was sent to 
 Mr. Etanton, to take effect on the day when the res- 
 ignation of Mr. Grier should take effect The Pres- 
 ident continued to call upon him al his house, day 
 after day, during his last illness, up to the day of his 
 death, and followed his remains to the grave. 
 
 The c.TCums'arces of the appointment of Mr. 
 Stankn to .the place were very remarkable, Mr. 
 Justice Grier, an old maa, full of honors and full of 
 days, bad sent in bis resignation or announced his 
 disposition to retire on a cfrtain day. Mr. Stanton 
 was nominated, confirmed, C3mmifsioned, and ready 
 to take h-s seat. He w s then taken sick, died, and 
 was buried, all te'ore the 1st day of February, and 
 on that day good old Justice Grier returned, took 
 his place on the bench, and helped to decide causes 
 af er his successor had bsen appointed, commission- 
 ed, and was dead and buried. The circumstances 
 show the anxiety of the President in this matter to 
 do tbia kicdly act to his friend Stanton ; and I tell 
 ycu, sir, what I do know and what no statement 
 could shake from my belief for one moment, that 
 there i not one word of truth in the whole para- 
 graph which has been read from the desk. 
 
 In the paragraph quoted from the Senator's fpeech 
 be represents Mr. Stanton assaying that although In 
 the campaign of 1868 he tcok the stump for the Re- 
 pub'ican party, he did not mention the name of 
 General Grent. I have here the report of a speech 
 made by Mr. Stanton at Steubetville, Ohio, where 
 he had formerly resided, and I read from it, being a 
 report in the Washington Daily Chronicle of Septem- 
 ber 27, 1868, as follows ; 
 
* * * "And now I ask what reason has any 
 man to vo'e againet General Gran 1 ,? His capacity 
 tnd integrity for civil administration were equally 
 manifest in the vast territory in which he operated. 
 If any man smong you would hide from the boy, the 
 musket aad knapsack that his father carried at Don- 
 elson, at Vicksburg, upon Lookout Mountain, 
 throughout the Wilderness, before Richmond, at 
 Five Forks, at Appomattox Court-house, and 
 Shouldering proudly, marched with two hundred 
 thousand of his fellow-soldiers through the streets 
 of Washington, and around the Capitol and Execu- 
 tive Mansion that he defended wiih his life, for years, 
 in the long march, <he wearisome siege and the storm 
 of battle, l^t such men vote against General Grant. 
 [Applause.] If -there is any man among you who 
 would blot from the page of our history the story of 
 these great achievements, let him driw black lines 
 around them and write across thsir face, " Have no 
 share in these greafdeeds, for I vote against Grant." 
 [Applause.] Is there any man among you that would 
 compel the armies of the Potomac, of the James, of 
 the Ohio, of the Cumberland, of the Tennessee, and 
 of tho Gu'f, to be again gathered at the tap of the 
 drum, ai>d Eurrendered, as prisoners of war, to Lee 
 and Jobnson, Beavsregard and Forrest, and Preston, 
 let him vote against General Grant. [Applause.] If 
 there is any m-m among you who has forgotten 
 that bright Sabbath day the little Monitor, as she 
 steamed out eg^inst the new sea monster, the 
 Merrimic, and, before noon, drove her, shattered 
 and crippled, to port ; if there is any man who 
 would have rejoiced to behold a cannon ball shatter 
 Farragut, as, lashed to hie mast, he drove through 
 
 the Rebel fleet and pushed them to pieces, let that 
 man vote against Grant. If any man would lave 
 Worden, and Farragut, and Winslow and all our 
 great admirals haul down the s'ar-epangled banner, 
 never again to brave the battle end the bresze ; if he 
 would see them slink in shame from their own 
 quarter-decks, and give up their ships to Miury, and 
 Buchannan, and Senunes, and MofiV, while the 
 Confederate bars, emblems of slavery, flaunt on 
 eveiy sea, in every Sttte, let him vote against Grant. 
 Vote early and vote often; for if Grant ba elected, 
 this globe shall disappear from the firrnamint be- 
 fore the banner of the United States shall suffer 
 tarnish or shame on the land or on the deep. [An. 
 plause.] If there is any man amocg yon that would 
 reverse the order of history : who would bring upon 
 you a shame and a reproach never before kno^n 
 p.mong the nations of the earth ; wbo would have the 
 commander of the United S'ates arm'es deliver up 
 bis sword and humbly bow before the Rebel com- 
 mander let that man vote against Grant, but never 
 again call himself an American citizen. [Applause.] 
 If there is any man whose eyeballs would not burn 
 to behold Lse upon the portico of the Capitol, with. 
 Beauregard, P/eston, and Forrest at his side, with a 
 Confederate army around him, and, as the Govern- 
 ment is transferred to them, listen to the rebel yell 
 as it sounds on the field of battle, and in the New 
 York convention, [loud cheers,] let such a man vote 
 against Grant and go to Washington on the 4th of 
 March. [Applause.] Why, then, I repeat, should 
 any lover of his country vote against Grant, Collax, 
 and the Republican Members of Congress ? 
 
 ROOMS OF THE 
 
 Republican State Central Committee, 
 
 417 KEARNY STREET, SAN FRANCISCO, CAL. 
 
 Francis & Valentine, Steam Printing House, 517 Clay Street, San Francisco.