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Show BLCF0RD WILSON. lie Makes Somo Terrible Revelations. Reve-lations. i The President uul the- Ui.sk y Thieves. Story oi tho Sylph " aud liubcoeit. Elacltoiiin the While 1 ou.se. tu ou Willi the Jlusir. Washington, 2S. Before tho committee com-mittee on whisky trials todiiy, the examination ot Bin ford Wilson was continued. In connection with the statement in his previous testimony of Gen. Porter's explanation of Ihe word "Sylph," Wilson having re freshed his memory by reference to a letter from a friend iu New York, testified to the annoyance which it was said the woman "Sylph" gave the president by her efforts to blackmail black-mail him in St. Louis. O. Bv Cochrane, chairman of the Bub-committee You said in your examination yesterday that from the time of the discovery of tho "Sylph" dispatch implicating Gen. Babcoek in the whisky frauds, or tending so to implicate hiiu, tho president did not show the pamo sympathy to the secretary sec-retary of the treasury or yourself that j he had previously shown Fiease state any act or nets of tho president from thiit time for war J indicating to you that he was not in sympathy with these whisky prosecutions. A. Before I proceed to answer th;il ques tion I wisli to make an addition tn my testimony yesterday in reference to the couten s of the Barnard ielier, on which the president made the well known endorsement, "Let no guilty man escape, if it can be avoided." Either in the body of that letter or in an accompanying document, there was a statement from Emory S. Foster Fos-ter of St. Louis to the elleut that the president was himself charged with being a par'y to the unlawful combination com-bination in that city to defraud government gov-ernment of its revenues. I want thtit fact to bo noted, because L have no doubt that the president has made his endorsement as much with refer ence to that fact and tha. allegation as with rolerence to the allegations that Babcoek was a party; and that Jim Casey, the president's brother-in-law, was openly asserting that th secretary of the treasury would not hold his ofiice lor thirty dajs. Anoth- whether the president conscuttd willingly wil-lingly to the publication of his endorsement ou the Barnard letter, which has been often referred to. By reference to a letter addressed lo me by General Bristow, umhr date of August 7th, written in the treasury department, I find that the secretary of the treury had addressed an official communication to th president presi-dent asking him lor perniirsion I" publish that endorsement, and thai at that date, August 7th, ho h.l received no reply. For the purpose of fixing the d.ito when the "Sylph" telegram was discovered, 1 will refer to a letter of General Bristow to me written from New York, August 9th, 1S75, and which I hare no ob;eetiou to make part of the record. It id as lollows : Xew Yonx, August 9, 1S7 j. M'j Dear Wilion : Your letter of yesterday, with the enclosure, is received. Tne timo is very near at hand when I must make a square isue with tho thievis and scoundrels who have sought to d s-troy s-troy Qie. I miiit be supported cordially cor-dially and earnestly, or I must ami will break. I fear the complications are such that tne former can't lie done, and tbe latter muut. You can't be too careful about tilting to anybody. any-body. I have heard hern that itif matter about the "Sylph" i!;.-p;.t,-n aud our having seen it in i-oinirctiun with I'ierrepont, is fully known to F. and B. (meaning Forte-r and Bah-! Bah-! cock) and they are greatly disturbed. Don' t su flex you rel f to tal k with j anybody about it. Of course thu is j not meant fur censure, but caution. I suppose I must make up my mind to bear the abu.se of the ring paper, hard as it is to do. Tuey aru fighting ; 'o keep their friends out of prison, i and to save themselves from eiosure, and, of course, will s'-ek lo destroy .anybody who elands in Iheir way ' Well, as for myself, I can'l turn hack, nor will I htop to parley with thieves. I have no ambition to serve and no purpose to accomplish, but the enforcement ol law and the honest hon-est collect inn of the revenue. I will compromise on nothing short of tide, but on this iMie am willing to be sacrificed any ilny. F.S. Ak rbstcr to write- tho president fully his views about tho Chicago ciidtom house aud the whiuky ring. He has great confidence in Webster, and it i going lo require ttie utmost watchfulness of his real triends to prevent him hing minh-d by men who profefw friendship tor him, but who are acting treacherously. Tell Webster to write strongly and give him the plain truln and mark bis letter confidential. B. If. B. Now, in response- to tho qurntioii of the chairman, I may say that the secretary of tint treasury and mynell having been orden d by tl,o president to see that no guilty man Hhould escape if it could be avoided, on consultation, con-sultation, mutually concluded that the president could not go back on that injunction without Htultilying himself and placing his officers in a falso position, and wo therefore re-HOlvcd re-HOlvcd to leave tho whole matter of General Babcoek'a alleged connection connec-tion with the whisky ring at St. Loui to bo dealt witii by the local oflicer there. Until about thu 1st of I hi eemher, and indeed until it was known absolutely that Gen. Babcoek had been indicted the relations of Bristow and mynclf with In-) president wero passable, hut as so m j as it was seen Hint Babcoek wm to bo indicted, tho idea of a military court of inquiry win j brought to tho front, lo my knowl-, edge by General Babcoek a net his ' friends. The idea of a military couit was broached before- tho indictment was found against Babcoek, and the fact that the president of tho United States took tho ground thtt that military mili-tary court should wupcrseilo the proceedings pro-ceedings before the civil "tribunals at St. Louis was taken by myaelf ami by the secretary to bo a maikrd indication indi-cation of his purpose- to defeat tin-prosecution tin-prosecution in that city. On the 'I I or 'lib of December J wrotea letter to General Hendo hoii advising him fully of my views and indicating to him tha settled purpose ol the secretary of of tha treasury to see, by all honor-omblo honor-omblo menus, that thu proceeding before tho civil tribunal should not be postponed or delayed or nuihar rauud if lie could proven t it by any proceedings U) bo instituted or had before- a military tribunal. Of that letler I have not a copy, but General llendrrHon, I believe, him the original. In tho next plaen it is a faet that I heurd nothing from tho prrxidont ot tho charge that 1 bad put Hpic upon him or forged a letter which w.n nddueed agauiHt mo as win ted in my testimony yesterday, until it win noon anil known Hint General Babcoek was indicted. in-dicted. A conference between tho president ard myself took place, I: find, by reference, on December 8th, : 1S75. It will be remembered in that conference that the president express-' ed himself to me with regard to Gen. I Henderson and Dyer with great bitterness bit-terness and immediately thereafter! Henderson was dismissed from tho i prosecution. He was dismissed in opposition to my written protest, nd-; dressed to ihe secretary of the trcas-1 ury, in which I called the attention of . the secretary to the fact that I was; advised officially by Eaton of counsel for government, that Judge Treat, presiding officer at the trial in which the alleged objectionable remarks of i Henderson were made, was said to have declared to Eaton and requested Eaton to notify tho authorities here that in his judgment Henderson's remarks re-marks contained no reflection whatever what-ever on the president. I also called attention to tho faet that Eaton, Dyer and Henderson had nil, in writing, in lornied me that no such purpose existed on Henderson's p.ul, and that o:i the contrary it appeared Ironi official records in my possession at that time, and now in the treasury department, that General Henderson went out of his way in an argument in that case to state that iu his judg ment tne president ot tne uniteui Stales was altogether above reproach as far as lie knew, and to pay the president a compliment I s tid, therefore, there-fore, to the secretary of Uie treasury, that I accepted thu judgment of Gen. Uendeison's colleagues and of ihe i court as conclusive on that question, andlhatinmy judgment the president presi-dent of the United States ought to rise above personal considerations, since the public interests imperatively required Henderson's retention in the. prosecution. The dismissal of Henderson was, iu my judgment, a fatal blow to ihe proipect of a buc-cesslul buc-cesslul prosecution in Babcoek 's case. Question Have you the protest to which you have referred? Answer It is now on the files in the treasury department, and I will make it an exhibit before I get through. By reference to my private letter book I find, under date of December De-cember 4th, the following letter written writ-ten by me: "Dear Eaton. I wrote General Henderson a confidential letter last night, giving you the situ atioo of affairs at this end in the "Sylph" matter. We don't know here what you are doing, but pre sume, of course, that you aro doing your duty." That is the letter in which I have made reference to the controversy in regard to the military and civil tribunal. tribu-nal. Another ground was the president's presi-dent's relusal to remove J. D. Ward, U. S. district attorney at Chicago. Until he was confronted by evidence on the 3d of December, which showed that Ward was a partner in the "owell distillery, and had improper relations with Jacob liebm, which statement was made to the president by Hon. Bnrt in C. Cooke ot Cnicag). On that point I wrote to Secretary Bristow, December 31: "Dt-ir (,'encra? Mr. Cooke w.w i'ist into see me with some startling . ws. He aw the proident alter he met you, and was assured by the president that he wouid remove Ward promptly, and to that end ho would ask Webster lo nami his successor at once, but what was especially noli worihy was a letter lo Cooke from a reliable Iriend in Chicago, attributing Logan's illness to sheer fright ebarr.es that he is in it, that the atmosphere was full of rumor at tout Ward's connection connec-tion with ttie ring, his relations with Distiller Powell, etc., etc. Tne en closed from Brooks may interest you. To- Lord give you wisdom. Faithfully, Faith-fully, WlLS')S. Tnat note I snt to Gen. Bristow in the cabinet. The ejaculation nt the end of it was became I knew the proposal pro-posal to have a mdiiary court of inquiry in-quiry was under consideration. Following is a letter to me from Gen. Webster: Chicaoo, DecemWr 23, 1S75. .Vy dcir Xtr, Do jou not begin to rut) your eyes and inquire whether whether you are awake; wnelnsr we are any ot us awko, aud not all m-volvtd m-volvtd in some bad dream? Waa there ever such scamUlous lying and pleading? Is it not the rnrl remark able fight of a century? I then any-key any-key to it all, exvpl that banded ror-ruptionists ror-ruptionists of all classes and kuids are de-pttralo and arc summoning all their forces placing their reliance on mi unparalleled audacity ot vituperation vitupera-tion ni.d cunningly contrived accusation? N it ptiMo that Babcoek baa lent any countenance coun-tenance to a proposition for an attack on Bridtnw? Will he conlea-hu conlea-hu own infamy and try to drag (h.wn tho secretary with himself? What oilier explanation is thero for ttie Inter-Off'in's attack? I inspect that the ring have got entire control of the .-(. They are desperate and will furnish nil tho money necessary to got nn English oriian, as they have a Geirnau ono in tho Want Zntunj. What are we coming to when buck tilings can even be attempted in open ,!,,; The lateneas of the hour compels us to break oil here, in order to catch the mails. Kns. IlF.iui.n. |