Daily Globe

From Sunday's Edition.

[The following matter on this page appeared in Sunday's edition. The reason for this republication is because our regular mail rate subscription does not include the Sunday issue, and comparatively few in the country care to pay extra for the Sunday edition, which lies in the St. Paul post office and goes out in the same mail with the Monday paper. The more important news, to the extent of two or three columns, is therefore republished on Monday for the benefit of country subscribers who do not see the Sunday Globe.]

END OF HIS OWN
PRESIDENT
ARTHUR BRINGS HIS
FIST DOWN ON THE TABLE.

He is Dissatisfied With MacVeagh's Course in the Cases of Guiteau and the Star Route Gang-An Animated Cabinet Session-Confederate Paper in Uncle Sam's Hands-Other Items From the National Capital.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 5.-The Star publishes the following: A very important meeting of the cabinet was held in President Arthur's parlor directly after his return from Yorktown. It was of unusual length, and the secrecy maintained by members and ominous looks which followed all questions relating to the subjects discussed, occasioned a good deal of comment at the time, particularly among correspondents of newspapers. Putting this and that together, and taking one consideration with another, the Star is enabled to present a tolerably accurate history of the meeting. Every member of the cabinet was present. The president stated that he had called the members together to consider the question of the prosecution of Guiteau; that from facts which had come to his knowledge he believed the government to be entirely unprepared for the case. He added with a good deal of emphasis and accompanying his words with clenched fist that came down with some force on the table, that he would consider it pre-eminently disgraceful to the government if in the Guiteau case, as in the star route cases, the government should confess itself unprepared to go on and become compelled to ask a continuance. Attorney General MacVeagh was present and gave no sign. The president noticing MacVeagh's silence, put the question to him directly as to the preparation of the government to proceed in Guiteau's case. The attorney general replied that he did not consider it being part of his business to give attention to criminal prosecutions. The president replied that this was a great state trial, and that the whole country looked to MacVeagh to see that it was conducted properly and efficiently. MacVeagh said there was no law or custom for the attorney general to appear in criminal trials, and he had been told so by Judge Jeremiah Black. The president then quickly and somewhat angrily asked MacVeagh how it had been in the trial of Aaron Burr. "Oh! but that was a trial for treason," MacVeagh replied "Yes," said the president, "and this is a trial for murdering the chief magistrate of the nation, and to my mind it is the positive duty of the attorney general to take charge of the case." MacVeagh then reiterated that the law never contemplated that as any part of his duty. The president replied that the statutes of the United States authorized the attorney general to appear for the government at any time, in any federal court, in any case in which he might deem it his duty to do so, and referred MacVeagh to the particular section of law. By this time there was a good deal of excitement around the cabinet table. The lawyers of the cabinet being appealed to, they agreed with the president. As MacVeagh maintained the position that it was below the dignity of the attorney general to appear in a criminal case, the president then asked him if he had done anything to obtain counsel to assist District Attorney Corkhill in the prosecution of Guiteau. MacVeagh said he had not; that "that was a duty which belonged to the district attorney himself, if he desired additional counsel." The president, with considerable warmth, said that was a new suggestion to him, and that either MacVeagh or himself was very ignorant of the law. According to his reading of the United States statutes it was made the express duty of the attorney general to engage assistant counsel in any case where, in his judgment, the interests of the government require it. MacVeagh said that he took a different view of his duty, and did not consider himself bound to take any part in the trial of Guiteau, or to procure additional counsel for that purpose. He said that in the star route cases Col. Corkhill had suggested a desire for the employment of Wm. A. Cook as additional counsel, and MacVeagh had nothing to do with him. Col. Corkhill could do as he pleased in the matter. The president said he was determined that the government should have able counsel, and he would himself direct, if MacVeagh declined to do so, that Judge John K. Porter, of New York, and Walter Davidge, of Washington, be employed as additional counsel in the prosecution of Guiteau. MacVeagh then said that if the president desired it to be done he would employ the gentlemen named. It is said, that at the close of this somewhat remarkable cabinet scene, the president remarked that the attorney general's knowledge of the law would be greatly improved by reading the statutes of the United States, which defined the duties of his office.