at, in my opinion, an impartial investigation
and disposition of his case, whatever were its merits, could not
be made until the passions and prejudices begotten by the war had
subsided much further than they had done at that time. In the
course of conversation I told him that while I never permitted
myself to form an opinion of any case without much more knowledge
of it than I had of his, I presumed, from the finding of the court-
martial, that he had at least been guilty of acting upon what he
supposed to be his own better judgment under the circumstances he
found to exist, instead of in strict obedience to General Pope's
orders. He said that was not the case; that he had not even
literally disobeyed orders; that in so far as he had acted upon
his own judgment, he had loyally done all that could be done to
carry out General Pope's wishes; and that all he wanted was an
opportunity to prove such to be the facts. I replied that if he
could prove what he stated beyond question, he would of course have
a case worthy of consideration--not otherwise. Nothing was said
in respect to the facts or the evidence in contravention of the
judgment of the court-martial which tried him. Hence, beyond that
above stated, I had no knowledge of his case when the board of
review, of which I was president, met in 1878 to hear the new
evidence; and I believe neither of the other members of the board
--Generals A. H. Terry and George W. Getty--was any better informed.

The duty of the board was very different from that of a court-
martial appointed to try an original case. The accused had already
been tried and convicted. He was not to have a new trial. He
could not have any benefit whatever of any doubt that might exist
after all the evidence, old and new, had been fully considered.
He must prove his innocence positively, by absolutely convincing
evidence, or else the original judgment of the court-martial must
stand. This view of the issue was fully accepted by General Porter
and his counsel. This caused a new and peculiar duty to devolve
upon the board--at least it was so to me; that is, to find, if
possible, some view of all the evidence, or of all the facts
established by the evidence, that could be regarded as consistent
with the theory or supposition that Porter was guilty.

When the evidence was all in, the members of the board separated
for several weeks to let each examine all the evidence and reach
his own conclusion, t