YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY LETTER HON. HOWELL COBB, . SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY, BY STEPHEN B. |)ILLAYE, OF NEW YORK. NEW YORK: CONTEJSTTS. Howell Cobb's reasons for his removal of Stephen D. Dillaye from the office of United States General Appraiser. Howell Cobb's complicity with the notorious Daniel E. Sickles. The Authors of the assault upon the character of the Hon. John B. Floyd, Secretary of War. Howell Cobb's treason to the Administration and to the Democratic Party. LETTEE to HOWELL COBB, &c Sir: My official connexion with you, terminated with my removaP from office. I address you now as a Democrat and as a citizen ; and if I do not observe the official servileness to which you are accustomed in the language I shall address to you, it will not be because I have ceased to respect the office which you hold, but because I am constrained to believe that you have wilfully vio lated the honor which attaches to the position you occupy, and that you are attempting, for selfish purposes, to make use of the confidence reposed in your supposed integrity. You have undertaken, under the advice of a social, as well as a political pimp, to disgrace me, and it is not my fault, if you have disgraced yourself. It has been well said, that " there is no generosity in being just ;" and yet you have refused me even this. But the right to arraign you through the press, before the people, leaves me nothing to ask at your hands. Possessing this right, and responsible for the use I make of it, I shall proceed by portraying your character in its true light. I propose, in this communication, to examine' the causes which led to my removal from the office of United States General Ap praiser, and by a plain statement of facts to present and discuss the issue which I make with you, whicli is, thobt^u are neithm- a man, <^ hmav ar a man of irdegrity. IVhen yon entered the Cabinet, the country was at peace, fhe treasury was overflowing, confidence was universal, and the Democracy was not only united and harmonious, but confidant and triumphant. But a little more than a year has intervened since you were inaugurated into the position you have so sig nally disgraced ; for though peace still reigns, the treasury is depleted before you have inaugurated a single measure, or matured a plan, except that of foisting a Know-Nothing into position as your confidential agent, and accepting a political vampire as your mentor on the trackless sea of that indiscre tion, in which you are exploring the Northern channel to the Presidency, and yet the treasury is exhausted and confidence is destroyed. Then you found the Democracy united, you have divided it ; you found it full of reliance in the administration of President Buchanan, you have filled it with distrust ; you found it ready to accept and elevate you ; you have forced it to acknowledge your incompetency and drives it to despise your ambition. Until you interfered with the Democracy of New York, it was daily strengthening in its conservatism, and laying wider and deeper the foundations of its power; but from the moment when you began the centralization you have since so zealously exercised in the distribution and control of the patronage of your department, you knovdngly systematized the severance and the disruption of the party, unless you were weak enough to suppose that dictation would be acceptable, or arbitrary enough to believe that insolence would be rewarded by the cringing support of a subdued Democracy. Leaving for this communication any farther consideration of these general truths, I shall now proceed to the special facts in connexion with my removal from office. At the time you entered upon the duties of your Secretary ship, I had been an incumbent of the office of General Appraiser at New York, for about nine months, and it was umversally con. ceded that I had performed its duties with credit to the gov emment and with honor to myself, at least, you repeatedly expressed this opinion after consulting your predecessor, and advising with your subordinates. You continued of t|lji,i^|! |j y,| In the month of July last, Mr. ScheU was inauguratedia^ntl^? Collector of the Port of New York. The patronage f^fmt}^^ office was regarded as a positive element of pqlitical piOW^ji:;, confided to his hands, and the Democracy welcomed his i?|pfi- tion to the responsibilities of the position with an unliir\i,tjp,d confidence in his integrity and his judgment. Soon after epft^P/^- ing upon the duties of the position, Mr. Scheil remove^ Inspector hj the name of Byrnes, whose pugilistic qualities, thought, were neither required in the office, nor a credit t9|4|^, administration. Mr. Sickles, in whose service the muscle^, ,(p)f Byrnes had been useful, demanded of the Collector that |.]:|p reinstate him — the Collector declined so to do — ^Mr. Sickjl^ threatened the Collector, and proceeded to you, by way of appeal from his action. You took part with him, and although you d]^(J not reinstate Byrnes into the position from which he had be^p removed, you yet created a new office for him, and required Miij. Scheil to induct him into its duties. Thus, in the very com,- mjepapement of Mr. Schell's official career, you disregarded hip .s^ql/yiicenjaiil^iiipsfll^ed him at the dictation of Mr. Sickles. In the ,Gi^p^rf4')l'PPWWiW9?i».'<»fMW¥pJi. Mr. Sickles and myself were m^mM^AB, Mr,.,S,,(;^ft]pLly,^tt^fil^f?l th^ ^R}l^<^ior, and I, as openly, .(Jefew^ed„iijinjf.,.,T]iWP, ,V,9,%eWl^rnl?i9Wie^lW an issue ,W^, F^i^ecJi W.tljiie, [fi^^ Y.w^)5p.(;>TOiWnt^u"iWsw ^mh^m^^^^" /iMVi Illi llfilii'i't-ili Ki;7/ H')i>|-)iH .-iM I)il(i Ji'i'lj^i'ili iiniL I >ii; ,Mr. Si,ckles aijd myseilf were members ol the,. Cooper Commit .li/: .(loniriviin. Jr •iTlrl lo Jii'i!f(il'ill<)|l)j;. 'iin T),!!); iftiorl riiiuxj. Sickles. He nad introduced mtO the Reform Convention, which (hadtjMsife! QoM^^nddittoilhia-iB.fiab'Outilai {loipiiui^lhthi^ilD^woPtacy e under one general committee, a plan for the organization of the Ward Committees, which the Wilson Small party repudiated as anti-Democratic, and as unworthy of the Democracy — ^but the plan was adopted^ — the Cooper Committee sprung into existence under it, and the Wilson SmaU Committee, refusing to be bound by it, kept up its organization, and the division of the party was thus rendered inevitable. Seeing the defeat which must result from such a division, I, with many other members of the Cooper Committee, very soon after its orgamzation, and at the first meet ing, after Mr. Sickles' attack upon Mr. Scheil, proposed a union with the Wilson Small Committee. Such a union involved the abrogation of the Sickles' plan for the Ward Associations, but it would cement the Democracy, and I advocated it. Mr. Sickles opposed it. The contest was kept up until the meeting of the State Convention in September. The Cooper Committee sent delegates to the Convention, in the main, pledged to oppose a union of the two committees. The Savage Committee also sent delegates, who advocated^ the supremacy of the Cooper Commit tee. To match this defunct organization, a set of delegates was gotten up, known as the People's Delegates, who were in favor of the union of the two committees. The Wilson Small Com mittee sent delegates favorable to a union of the committees. If the Cooper Committee succeeded in being recognized by the State Convention, then a union was impossible. Mr. Sickles was the advocate of this result. I, as a member of the People's Dele gation, did the utmost in my power to prevent the success of Mr. Sickles, and to urge upon members of the Convention the absolute importance of recognizing neither of the committees. I desired the Convention to divide thfe delegation between the Cooper and the Wilson Small delegates, believing that such a course would harmonize the party, and compel its union under one General Committee. On each side, every power and appliance that party skill or individual influence could bring to bear was exercised. The Convention decided to divide the delegations, as I had desired, and Mr. Sickles was defeated on every point. Soon after the adjournment of the Convention, Mr. Sickles took occasion to say to me, " You Imve dom whai you could to defeat me here— I vnU defeat ¦you at Washington." I have thus^developed the causes which led Mr. Sicldes to oppose me. From this period, by direct attack, he opened his opposition to me to you, and ordered you to remove me ifrom office. By indirection, he set a hoard of hired spies, and meaner villains, to attack me. Your opposition grew to me in proportion as he spurred your ambition by promises of. devotion to your in terest. I do not propose to characterise it by epithets. I pre fer proving that your treatment of me, has not only been cow ardly, but infamous. Let me remind you of facts which estab lish my allegations. I had suddenly been transformed from a most efficient and valuable pubhc officer, to a suspected and accused subordinate by you, without a word of accusation or the shadow of informa" tion on your part, that my integrity as an officer, or my charac ter as a man of honor, had been questioned. That you may see how an infamous act will appear in print, and , in it, discover the reflection of your own infamy, I will narrate the circumstances which brought the information of your equivocations and opposition to my knowledge. I was, accidentally, informed that J. B. Guthrie, your official spy, was privaiely taking evidence against me. I immediate ly called on the Collector, and asked that officer, if he knew any thing concerning it. He replied to me, that he did not. I then sent for the spy himself, and asked him if such was the fact, and he declared to me that it was not. About two months subsequent to this, a rumor reached me, that charges had been preferred against me. , I immediately wrote to a gentleman at Washington, enjoying your official con fidence, and. desired him to call at your office, and learn whether there were either charges or complaint in your department against me. He did as he was requested, and was, unqualifiedly informed that there was not. This, sir, was weeks after the charges 'had been ffiled in your office. Supposing that the rumor was ill-founded, I paid no further at- 8 tention to it. Shortly after this, while in Washington on of ficial business, I saw it announced, in a telegraphic dispatch of the "New York Daily Times," that I was to be removed. An item, to the same efi'ect, in the "Evening Star," was shown to me. I then had two officisd interviews with you, but you did not, in any manner, allude either to complaints or charges against me. The foUowing day, I was informed, by a member of Congress, that you had selected my successor. I called upon you at once, and asked you if such was the case. You, then, for the first time^ informed me that there were charges on file against me, seri ously impugning my official integrity, and that you had selected my successor. I then demanded a copy of the charges. After two days of reluctance, you placed them in my hands. Now, sir, what were those charges ? where did the imputa tions they conveyed find their origin ? and who spirited them into accusations ? I answer : nearly every fact occurred during the administra tion of Mr. Redfield, as CoUector, and before you came into of-- fice. Two of the main charges had, at my own request, been speciaUy investigated by Mr. Dummer, under the direction of Mr. Redfield, and found to be utterly groundless, more than six months before you came into office. A third, gotten up by yotir ccmfidential spy, who though "treach erous without art, and a hypocrite without deceiving," arnMtious '^tofind or forge a fault," charged me with receiving $300 for tes tifying ina case against the government, and deciding the case by my testimony, when, in point of fact, I was neither sworn as a witness, nor in New York at the time of the trial. A fourth, where Mr. Collector Redfield and Mr. Charles Dummer were conversant with every fact, made every recom mendation, and originated and joined in every step complained of. A fifth, where I was cljarged by an Israelite with receiving $425 for' aUowing $125 of damages, when the mean-souled and skulking Jew, who made the charge, certified, in writing, to the aUowanxx befme I gave my cerUficaie of its correotness. A sixth, when the whole cause of complaint -grew out of a mistake, pertinaciously adhered to by a clerk, in which, as a hired irf ormer, he insisted that five aunes made but six yards, but who was promised, if he would accuse me, and stick to it, that he, should be retained in the place he had disgraced. And thus I might go on, and show each charge to have been an outrage : but, sir, I shall content myself with saying that they originated in the fruitful brain of Emanuel B. Hart, with his brother, Benjamin S. Hart, to act as witness, aided by the informer above alluded to, under the intelligent direction of the virtuous Sickles. But I pointedly and unequivocally disproved each of the charges by men of the first respectability. The fol lowing certificate will doubtless be entitled to some respect, as an evidence of the fact. Sib: The undersigned, members of the Democratic Delegation in Congress, from New York, state that they have examined the charges and allegations against Stephen D. Dillaye, Ap praiser at Large, contained in a repOrt of J. B. Guthrie, Spe cial Agent of the Treasury Department, under date of Nov. llth, 1857, and also the proofs and papers furnished by the said Dillaye, in refutation of the same : and that, in their opin ion, said proofs on the part of the said DiUaye, fully meet all and every of said allegations against him, and disprove the same. They avaU themselves of this occasion, also, to express their unabated confidence in the character of the said DiUaye, as a man and as a Democrat. Washington, Peb. 20th, 1858. John Cochrane, Elijah Ward, John Kelly, John A. Searing, W. B. Maclay, William F. Russell' Israel T. Hatch, Horace P. Clark. To Hon. Howell Cobb, Secretary of the Treasury. 10 But, sir, how have you treated these charges, and the proofs in refutation of them ? Did you consult the Democratic Delegation in Congress, from New York, either as to the charges, or as to my successor ? You did not. You alone consulted Daniel B. Sickles He, alone, directed and ruled you. He and you thought it wa^ criminal in me to have borrowed money of Importers. While you were consulting your confidant, might you not have propounded other questions in morals to him ? and suppose you had catechised him as to his opinion of a representative who should make a busi ness of peddling out his votes to the highest bidder ! of a man who should forge the checks of a common prostitute, whose pimp he was ! of a Representative of the government of the United States- at a foreign Court, who should give a common prostitute, on whose bounty he had lived in shameful concubin age, letters of introduction to respectable people, asking her introduction into diplomatic society ! of a man who had been indicted for robbing a Post Office of public letters ! of a man who has been turned out of a public hotel, at a well-known watering place, because he had previously consorted at that hotel with a courtesan, whom he had passed as his wife ! In short, of a man who was so lost to honor, respectability, and common fame, as to render him alike callous to the finger of scorn or the frown of innocence ? And suppose such a man had been guilty of, or boldly approved of, aU these infamies,/ would you, after such approval, select him as the guardian of your conscience, in judging of the char acter of men, whose integrity in morals you were to decide upon? But, sir, I know you assert that Mr. Sickles had nothing to do with my removal : but, at the same time, I know as well, that your assertion is not true, else, how was it that he named to you my successor, and how was it, that more than three months be fore I was removed, he wrote to a gentleman in New York that 11 I Was to be removed, that his friend was to be appointed in my place, and that he was to have the benefit of the patronage of the office ? How, too, did it happen that you selected, as my successor, a gentleman who had been removed by Mr. Collector Scheil, as keeper ofthe public warehouses? I wiU answer. Mr. Sickles had been the counsel of Mr. OdeU in the warehouse question. He wanted Mr. ScheU to be again insulted by you, and he directed you to appoint Mr. Odell, and you performed his bidding. But to again resume the question. How did you treat me in relation to the charges and the proofs in refutation of them. The facts are a sufficient confirmation of your infamy. I will proceed to narrate them. Having found that the charges were not only infamously but wickedly drawn, after I had fortified myself with proof of the fact, I called on you and stated to you that I intended attacking the good faith of Mr. Guthrie, in draw ing up the charges and demonstrating that they were maliciously untrue. I said to you that I should prefer that Mr. Guthrie, who had drawn them, should be present when I criticised and reviewed them, that he might have an opportunity of explaining them, if he had any explanation to offer. You said, no ; that you did not wish to give any further publicitj'^ to them, and presumed that my explanation would be satisfactory. The following day was appointed for their examination. At the hour designated, T presented myself at your office, and at once proceeded to take them up. After an examination of each charge, I pointed out to 3'OU the impossibility of the truth of the first ; a perfect ex planation of the second ; the ridiculous infamy of the third ; the mean mendacity of the fourth ; the wilful lying of the fifth ; and so on until I had knocked down the ten, and showed that Sickles, Hart, Kreuse and Guthrie, had united the force of their lying, and the meanness of their viUany to produce a web of libel that would disgrace the slknders of BiUingsgate, and add a laurel to the caUander of Newgate. You heard me through quietly, and as if interested, indeed, you evinced feeling enough to 12 deceive me into the belief that you had some regard for the truth, and had an idea of doing me justice. But let the events, as they occurred, speak for themselves. When I had finished, you took me by hand and said to me, " I will take the papers and examine them, carefully, and when I have completed the examination I will write you the result. You may rest sure qf this fact, that your papers sJiaR not be submitted to any one for examination or comment, for I toiU not, under any cir- cMmstarvces, place them in the hands of any subordinate for examinor tion." With this assurance I left you. What did you do ? You sent at once for J. B. Guthrie^ and to consummate his task of infamy, and yours of mendacious misrepresentation, placed tlie papers in his hands tliat 'he mighi act as judge in the case, w'hen he had performed, already, fhe douUepart of spy and accuser. Thus you VTilfuUy attempted to deceive me, when, you declined having Guthrie present at the tiine I proposed to continue his charges, and wilfuUy lied to me, when you said to me, I will not, under any circumstances, place your papers intO' "the hands of any subordinate, and was maliciously. nunjusibiiftowalildi^ii me, iwfhenji bi,)*rih^. irfiliinjUelrilry 'potokiiisefl-; fii^i itflle i icontiriiiy^ dfter* dying Hjo'mie'j'yduiipliateedlrtibeipiapleT^jifor'iai rdplclrtidpon'i^JhenJiijjdii ItW .hamflis ofiiAelaj[ianVhpiiliadinqt|ionly aecTlsdd';me, bdttwlibmiryolil kfflielwltoibetmijrt eaiem^ji-^ n"'' .'I'/flo oi iiiM)jiin;li|/.'» vin; hmi miI 'li tr.ih li*iiiiiF'-i'ni| hiu; .Illllll ol ' | i)i|i|(ic| -I'lii )-iii'l /in; -iviii (il il^i/; ¦-¦•¦¦¦¦i ^dll ipowjFitoil, pildteeditO isholw that I^DU7/daiDeliani(!xt(|do me ju^i0ffi,iiaiiMilthaAnjiouj4sfejte^.afraidlitoiihaYe thel(base'l thotoiigfajy dli¥testdg8lted.''i'"i-ii[ f-y.tiW \v, lim: .¦i-u'flo iHdV 1 1; 'IImhyik |)'))ii'>^'i-|r| Jlill lr)l(iiiii| 1 ,'r^-u:il'i ll'jiiM In in li I i;ii i iiii;/ i in; I'lllA .(|IF (ll'iiil - z ¦ Im th© lajffidaVitjipQsitill'ely Idisprortrig) eaichi feiUegfiitionrttDntavned imf tthincltiargias) J ,diid'in6tJiittB[g • fejujbi tol imeleit. iand • iifebuti ithei : i(sa&f Ibhey jriaifife ¦)agakis.|((m?ii,laiilitivw&^n: Il Jhadldofiie'itbiaf I;lpropose:diia ^ttfliei* lauld Imtarel-atapleniaeart* (of/i^rbivibgiiiiJoltiidnlj'/ 'In '|mIi(p;I|i;'i 'iilld) o) Nigwpisir, ¦^Kliiii4Jkrafe'.)this'are(tjra^_st,biiiilimfy ji»rlbi?)vjlt(wis «nipty this, I asked to have the charges and the entire administration 13 of my office submitted to Theodore Sedgwick, the United States District Attorney for this district, and who was a stranger to me, and to Royal Phelps, a merchant in the very front rank of the commercial interests of this metropolis and of the nation, in point of inteUigence and integrity, with the power to examine witnesses for and against me, and in such a manner that I and my accusers should have the opportunity and right of cross- examination ; and I offered, in case they did not find, on the one hand, that I was not only guiltless of the charges, but above suspicion, and on the other, that I had conducted the office and all its duties with promptness, intelligence, and marked improve ment upon its past administration ; then that I would submit to being removed without a murmur, and if they found that I was not only free from culpability and suspicion, but commend able in the whole performance of the duties of the office, then that I would resign, owing to the unpleasant personal relations your tyranny and injustice had produced between us. But, sir, you dare not do me this justice, for you knew that it would show your complicity with scoundrels, and' the infamous means you were resorting to, under the advice of Daniel E. Sickles, to pro mote your chances at Charleston in 1860. In answer to this you had the affrontery to stultify yourself by a proposition which would disgrace any man of honor, and which could only have originated with a man whose moral per ceptions had been wrecked in the insanity of his ambition. You offered in case I would resign, to add you/r offi^wd certificate to the fact, that I had fully disproved every charge, at the same time saying that if I did not resign, you would remove me and decide that the charges were not disproved. This, sir, was the closing scene which preceded my removal and added the climax to the infamy of your tugi ver sations. I leave an inteUigent publio to decide, whether you in office, or I out of office, are entitled to the respect of Democrats. I have thus, sir, concluded a condensed statement of your official treatment of me. I could darken the picture by facts which I prefer to hold in reserve ; but your infamy is sufficiently apparent. Let me now most briefly refer to facts which an out- 14 raged public will not long permit to remain concealed beneath the charity of silence. You entered the cabinet with an ostentation of statemanship worthy of the memory of the Duke of Grafton. Dictation and insolence of advice seemed to place you, on the start, in a position where you could easily imitate the weakness and surpass the mendacity of the English secretary. Afraid of the shadows of Daniel S. Dickenson and John B. Floyd, which Mr. Sickles has studiously taught you to believe cov ered your presidential prospects for 1860, you have, from the hour of your inauguration as Secretary, treated their friends with a con centration of treachery and meanness, without a parallel in the annals of corrupt and selfish ambition, under the guise of a faith ful servant on guard over the interest of the Treasury ; in fact, you have systematized corruption ; given reward to traitorous spies, and treated Collector ScheU, of this city, with a false-hearted baseness which no language can fitly characterize, or no degree of despotism excuse. Not only this, sir, but you are a traitor in camp to the very administration upon which you were foisted by the zealous colportuers of your political importance. Por madly impeUed onward by the beatific visions of a false ambition, you have employed such bastard Democrats as Samuel Butter worth, Superintendent of the Mint, of this city, Daniel E. Sickles, your Congressional adviser, and John B. Haskins, the Man-Friday of Sickles, to strike down one of your associates in the counsels of the nation — one of the purest and noblest of Virginia's sons, the present Secretary of War, John B. Floyd. Now, sir, has not Samuel Butterworth long since filed his appli cation with you for the CoUectorship of this port, which Augustus ScheU now holds, and does not every one know that he was and is your preferred candidate for that office. Dpes not every body know that Samuel Butterworth was the author of the secret charges preferred against Augustus Scheil, and also, of the anonymous letter addressed to the chairman of the Committee on Commerce in the Senate, to which committee had been referred hia name for report and confirmation 1 Does not 15 every body know that you secretly, through Haskins and Sickles, instigated the various committees of investigation, in relation to Fort SneUing and WiUet's Point, that you might cast a shadow on the fair fame of the Secretary of War, whom you deemed a formidable rival for the presidency in 1860, and to drive Augus tus ScheU from the coUectorship, which you was ambitious to bestow upon Butterworth ? Had the nefarious purpose of your vaulting ambition succeeded, whUe you would have destroyed the unity and harmony of the Cabinet, and estranged the Jacksonian Democracy of New York, you would have infiicted a blow upon the reputation of John B. Floyd and Augustus ScheU, from which their names could have recovered. But as if to complete this dark picture of party treason and misguided ambition, you have found time under the stiU confidential ^directions of Daniel B. Sickles, to attempt to reform the morals of the state of Georgia, by leaguing yourself with the friends of that paragon of morals in this city, to put down Benjamin Wood,, a brother of the ex-mayor, a candidate^who is to oppose Sickles for re-election to Congress this fall, by an attack on the Lotteries of Georgia, which has had no other effect than to display your weakness, increase Wood's chance of an election, and enhance the profits of those gambling institutions. And while with false affection and hypocritical cant, you now express an entire concurrence of opinion with the State Right's party of the South. How long, sir, has it been since you addressed- a distinguished Democrat denouncing the leaders of this party in the most violent and vindictive manner, closing your anathema with language like this : " That hell itself dobs NOT contain such ELEMENTS AS COMPOSE THB LEADERS OP THIS Seek, sir, no escape from the truth and effect of these accusa- tions under the false idea that I am actuated by a spirit of revenge. For I am your equal in all the elements which constitute a man and a Democrat in point of integrity or party aUegiance^ And I hold myself amenable for their proof to every tribunal of jtiatiee, and to all the laws of honor. Let not, therefore, your .¦ .. ,., •' 16 - fiawning pimps oi; howling panders'seek from me a redress of youT^ supposed grievances, but become yourself the defender of your reputefljtm if you foolishly deem it improperly assailed. With distinguished consideration I am, Sir, your obedient servant, STEPHEN D. DILLAYE. 0390020775 15659B