A Brace Of Letters

Washington, L. C. May 20, 1877. My Dear PlTKIN - I have yours of the lóth ii-.st., inl'oniiing ipe t.luit wlion you wore in Washington both the President and Mr. Devens, the AttorneyGeneral, gave you substantial assurance that you would not be disturbod in your office as United States Marshal, being a native of the State of Louisana aud a good Eepublican, and against whoni no official malteasance or personal dereliotion froni the path of right had been showu, and who, theieforo, carne eininently within the provisions of civil service reform, which is the corner-stone, as I understand it, of our Republiean aduiinistration. I am certain, therofore, that the President and AttorneyGeneral would never have asked your resignation of the office of Marshal, as you say they heve done, in contravention of their assurances aud in disregard of the principies of civil service reform. I am bound, therefore, from what I know of both of these gentlemen, to boliove that they intend in good faith to carry out their assurances and proserve their principies. One ftiult whicn I find with your letter is that you do not make sufficient allowanco for political necessities and entanglenients, by which good men are compelled to do that which they would rather not do. It is an open secret herfi, as I am informed, that Colonel W hartón, your competitor, aided Mr. Mac Vea gh, one of tbo commissioners at Niw Orleans very largely in getting a portion of tho members of the Eepublican Legislature to desert from Packard and go over to Nieholls. by which a retuining Boarc Legislature was put uudcr the contro of Nicholls, and then that Legislature enabled the conimission to advise that as the Legislature had recognized the Nicholls government, the President was bound to withdraw tho' troops. It is also asserted that $2,000 was to be paid to the leading deserting legislators and only $200 to others, disguised in the latter case in the shape of mileage, so that Mr. Johnson, a colored man, speaking out of the innocence of his heart, said on the floor of the House that all he want ed was to get his inileage aud go home. It is also assorted here that Col. Wbarton, being the instrument selected by Mr. MacVeagh to do this piece of business, had his promise of being made Marshal if he succesÉfully accomplished it. ïTow, Whartoa performed his side of the bargain, and I think you are veiy unreasonable in objecting that the administratiou should carry out their side of it, or, at least, do the best they can so to do. It ought to satisfy Wharton that they have asked you to resign, and you won't, and therefor theyhave done the best they could to make good MacVeagh's bargain, and as they can't, Wharton ought to be satisfied, precisoly like my friend Gen. Garfield, who having done his best, and succeeded in electing Mr. Stanley Matthews to the Senate at the request of the President, as it is said, on the agreement that the President would make hitn Speaker of the House of Representativos, will have to be, and ought to be, satisfied with a fdir, honest, and "hearty" endeavor on the part of the President to do all he oan to make hitn Speaker, and if he fails Garfield will have nobody to blame but hiniself for not remembering that a "a bird in tho hand is worth two in the bush." Now, my dear Mr. Pitkin, I cali upon you, by the love you bear to the Repub lican party and its principies, in memory of the many sacrifices you have made during and since the war as a Union man in Louisiana, for the safety of the country, and not for the sake of holding office under the United States, not to throw any impediinent in tho way of the President's fulfilling all the bargains which his subordinates made, as necessary steps in inaugurating his Southern policy, which is to be of so great and incalculable advantage, not ouly to the party which you love so well, but also to the country, for the unity and pacification of which you havo given the best days of your manhood. I writ.e thus to you because I thought I detected in your note to me what seemed to be an uureasonable tone of complaint that you are thus to be sacrificed. Remeinber that Abraham was about to sacrifico his only non, Isaac, the child of bis oíd age, to what he believed to be the will of God and the necessities cf his people, and tho Good Book does not make uiention of any unreasonable cotuplaints or outcries of Isaac on that occasion ; and so, whun you find that the President, in obedience to the cali of his country and the public exigency for its pacification, deerns it necessary to sacrifice you, and take away your office and givo it to one who wore the gray when you stood in the blue, you ought not to kick and squirin any more than Isaac did when he lay upon the altar under the knife of his father, Abraham. I am sorry that I cannot write you any other words of comfort and consolation, but such as have I give unto you. I am yours, truly, BENJAMIN F. BUTLER. ■VAYNE MACVEAGH TO BEN. BUTLER. Philadelphia, May 27, 1877. Generat B. F. Butler, Washington, D. C. Sir - I have just read your letter in the New York limes. 'Your informant' happens to have told you the exact opposite of the truth in every statement respectiug mu. Col. Wharton did not aid me at New Orleans, but was one of the adherents of the Packard government to the end. He did not manage or transact any kind of business for me. He did not receive any promise from me in respect to any office. I have not asked the President to appoint him Marshal. So much for that portion of your letter. Whore I am known I do not need to deny the silly story about the use of money, or to declare it to be, as you well know it to be, a base and cowardly falsehood. Por those who do not know me perhaps I ought to add that, apart from any repuguunco on my part to the crime, there were two practical difficulties in the way of my committing it : I had no money of my own to sparo, and it is only a military commandant of New Orleans in time of war who can safely appropriate any considerable quantity of the property of others to his own uso. The faot is that :!io eneniies of reconciliation in Louisan waste their time in trying to discover or inveiit some kind of bargaiu with which at once to account for its success and to discredit it. Strange as it raay seem to some of thera, political results are still attainable in this country by straightforward and houest metbods ; and the country will judgethe result we secured by its fruits in comparison with the fruits of the opposito policy-comparing the four yeara to come of honest and lawful government with the eight years ust ended of hatred, iutimidation, out:age, corruption, anarchy and luurder. Therefore, froui the bitterness of good men misguided and of bad men disapjointed I appeal to the generous judguent of tho American pooplo, and I await their decisión upon the subject of our labors in Louisana, not with misjivings or excuses, but with confidence aud pride. Yours truly, WAYNE MAC VEAGII.