Babcock

[From the New Votk Tribune.] The -whisky ring eouspiraCy began in Í87Í and continued without interruption till tho wholesale seizures were made last May, but no attempt has been made to connect Gen. Babeock with any of the operations prior to 1873. The principal official culprits in St. Louis were Ford, the Ooilector, McDonald, the Supervisor, and Joyce, the Bevenuc Agent. Gen. Babcook sterns to have been on intímate terrns witli all of them, and a number of his letters to Joyce have been introduced by the defense to show that there was nothing impïoper in the intimácy. These letters aro dated howcver in 1870, 1871, and 1872, and for the period covered by the Babcock indictment we havo nothing but the telegrams which were obtained from the telegraph office. In October, 1873, Collector Ford died, and it became vitally important to the ring to have a man of their own appointed in his place. Joyce telegraphed the news to Babcock Oct. 25, addihg, "Let the President act cautiously on thé sticcessorship. " But when Geil. Babcock presented the application of Joyce himself for the vacant place, Gen. Grant replied that he did not wish to make the appointmeilt without consulting Ford's bondsmen. Thereupon Babeock telegraphed Joyce, Oot. 27, " See that Ford's bondsmen j mend you." The bondsmen would not i do it. They chose Maguire, so Joyce and McDonald hastily concurred in the seleotion, and telegraphed as much to the President. Joyce sent a private dispatch to Babcock at the samo time : "See dispatch sent to the President. We mean it. Mum." Maguire was as good a man as the ring could have chosen for their purposes if they had been allowed their own way. The distillation of illicit whisky was soon in f uil blast, and in the following MarcL Oommissioner Douglass ordered Joyce to San Francisco so as to get h 'm out of the way while an investigation was made at St. Louis. Joyce received timely notice from Avery, Ohief j Clerk in the Department at Washington, tbat the detectives were coming, and after making things "all perfect" (as he expressed it) in St. Louis, he telegraphed Babcock to stop the investigation. "MakeD. cali off his scandal-hounds, " runs tliia dispatch (March 14), "that only blacken the memory of poor Ford andfriends. Business." Oommissioner Douglass testifles that Gen. Babcock canie to his office, asked what examination had been made, and protested against " blackening the memory of " Ford ;" and at another time he carne to ask if any agent was going West, as he wished to "send a thrush." Nothing came of the threatened investigation at that time, but in September, 1874, a raid was organized under the charge of Agents Brooks and Hogue, of which olso Avery sent prompt notice to St. Louis. Joyce appealed again to Babcook: "Haveyou talked with D.? Are things all right? How?" No answer to this message is in evidence, but it appears from the President's depoffition that Gen. Babcock on one occasion, tho date of which is not given, remonstrated with Oommissioner Douglass for " treating all his officials as though they were dishonest persons, by sending spies to watch them." The raid was postponed, on account of the elections. On the 3d of December Joyce telegraphed to Bibcock: "Has the Secretary or Commissioner ordered any one here?" It is at this point that an unfortunate hiatus occurs in the dispatches. A copy of one from Babcock to Joyce, dated December 5, in answer to the above, was excluded for lack of sufficient identiflcation, the original, with a package of others, having been &bstracted from the telegraph office. On Dec. 7, however, McDonald came to Washington, and remonstrated with Deputy Oommissioner Bogers against the proposed raid in language singularly like that used by Gen. Babcock to Oommissioner Douglass. McDonald returned to St. Louis on the 9th, satisfied that the dauger was averted. Sometime " between the lüth and the 15th" Gen. Babcook went to Oommissioner Douglass with a copy oí a letter written by Special Agent Brooks to Deputy Commissioner Rogers a month earlier apropos of this same raid, and stolen, nobody knows how, from Mr. Bogers' dosk. The letter was as folio ws: " My Dear Sir: I am summoned to appear in the United States Court at Philaielphia, on Monday, 23d. The cases will probably be disposedof on that day, so I can be in Washington on Tuesday. If possible please have Mr. Hogue there by that time; and may I ask that any Western case you think -we can work shall be put in such a shape that we can tafce charge of it, and so make our trip profitable to the department and satisfactory to ourselves." Gen. Babcock told Mr. Douglass that this was a blackmailing letter, and that Brooks and Hogue ought not to go. He urged that Senator Logan was a very sensitive man, astd would teel hurt and angry if such incursious were made into nis district. It is not easy for us outsiders to discover the evidence of a purpose to blackmail ; but Mr. Douglass was a candidato for promotion to the Üourtof Claims, and possibly that made him unduly careful of Senator Logan's feelings. At any rate, on the 13th of December Gen. Babcook sent to McDonald the celebrated "Sylph " telegram : " ïhoy will not go. Ihave succeeded. Will -write. Sylph." And on the 14th the Special Agents received instractions from the depai-tment to abandon the enterprise. Tlie Sylph dispatch was given to Joyce, who showed it to the distülers te satiafy tlaem tliat it was safe to go on with the crooked manuiacture, arul soon aftexward a letter froin some one was handed around ior the game purpose. This letter has not been produced, and witneases were not allo wed to testií y as to its cöntents or to say who wrote it. Tne next transaction with whicn the prosecutioa has to do is in January, 1875. The fratids continuing, the Secretary and Commissioner dotormined to transfer all the Supervisors and Treasury Agents, so as to get them ont of ruts and broak up entanglmg alliances between them and the distülers. The St. Louis of conrse remonstrated. McDonald telegraphed to the Oommissioner, Feb. 3, " Don't like the order ; it will damage tlio Government and injure the Adininistration ;" to which Mr. Douglass replied : " The order of transfer ia goneral and only temporary." Thia auswer seema to have been interpretad by the rng as an indication of irresoltition, for Joyce immediately telegraphed to Babcock, the same night, " We have official information that the j enemy weakcns ; push things ;" and igned the message "Sylph." Gen. I Babcock did push things. He I I sented to Mr. Douglass tbat the transfer was "an uuwise measure, and woulcl result in bringing such a etrong presmiro on the President that the order would have to be recalled, which," Mr. Douglass added, "would be unpleasant íor me.' He mudo similar representations to Deputy Ooilector Eogers, whom he asstaed that the inevitable revocation would be " cUsastroüs' to the öommisSionei. Mr. Itogers tbrows a side light típon this interview by esplaising that Mr. Douglass just then was very anxious to be Judge of the Court of Claiina, and that he himself was anxious to promote that ambitioti, in the hope of sUcceeding to the Comíüissioneiship. The order was revoked the next day ; but the President bas made it clear that Gen. Baboock's püshing Was üot what induced the cbange. The last chapter in the case is the story of the f500 bill, which we need not now repeat. It is said to have been sent very soon after the order of transfer was, to use Joyce's exultant phrase, ' busted forever" - that is to say in Pebrtiary, 1675. We say, said to have been sent, for we are not aware that th witncss Everest mentiöned the timey but the letter carrier McGill, who proïessed to have taken the letter out of the box and given it back to Joyce, was kind enough to supply the deflciency. These points, with the furthef fact that after McDonald's inaiotment Babcock wrote letters to him secretly, confititute the i case for the prosecution. Tkere are many other suspicious circumstances in the history of the trial, such as Gen. Babcock's behavior when his name first became involved, and the flat contradiction between his untimely demand to be heard and his cipher dispatohes to Mr. Luckey.