The daily Minnesota pioneer. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1854-1855, 1854-09-05

dilu Houi lutSASOulOS AuCW WClt NuttI luStt
object was.
Gen. JONES did not answer the questions
ropOunded to him as a man would do who
was DESTROYS that the rhole truth should ap-
pear. When asked to tell with whom he had
conversation in regard to the change before it
was made, he replies, With Mr.. BILLINGS ;"
but he took good care not to assert that he
had not conversed with others about it. The
General must have had lenient, or unlawyer-
like cross-questioner to deal with. But the
General says he does not know by whom, or
when, or where, the change was made
Mr.. PATTON swcars directly that the change
was made at the Generals request and that
after it was made, he communicated the fact
to General JONES, who replied, Every well ~
Now, we submit that, if the old legal MAXIM
Suppressio Der, suggestio falsi, is correct, then
General JONES stands forth in a most uncnvia-
BILE position before the public. He goes de-
liberately to clerk of the Senate, and asks
him to commit what in law would constitute
the crime of forgery, by altering or mutilating
an engrossed bill, bearing the signature of the
clerk of the House of Representatives, and
yet he as deliberately testifes that he knows
nothing about the alteration, or by whom, or
when, or where, the alteration was made.
With this exposition, we might end our ar
ticle; but as General JONES and his friends
have chosen to open the ball, they must not be
surprised if we Minncsotians decide to remain
and close it; especially, as we must nccessari-
ly foot the bill for an entertainment, of the
benefits of which, General JONES, by his con-
nivance with our Delegate, with Mr.. BILLINGS,
and with others of the Schuyler confraternity
in their base and unprincipled schemes, has
deprived US.
1t will be remembered that, of all the friends
of the charter of last winter, giving away all the
lands we might receive from Congress in ad-
vance, Mr.. RICE, and his immediate friends in
Minnesota, and the clique at Dubuque in the in
terest of the Illinois Central Railroad, and I'M
der the particular management and control of
General JONES, were amongst the most clam
orous. When these men, moved thereunto by
the Wall street stock dealers, sent citizen of
Dubuque to ST. Paul, with charter ready
drawn in his breeches pocket, it was with an
assurance ON the part of HENRY NJ RICE that
the charter should be got through both branch
es of the Legislature in twenty-four hours, or
thereabouts. This was dictation, insolent and
overweening enough, in all conscience ; but Mr.
RS dictum was all but obeyed. TO be sure,
some alterations were made, without which
the Legislature could not be brought to swal-
low the dose but it was at length passed in a
shape very favorable tv the interests of the
Company, that they clutched at it with all
eagerness. Not that they ever expected to
build the road without the grant of land by
Congress but they wished to get possession
of charter, which had not even clause al
lowing the Legislature to alter or amend it,
for all time to come. That accomplished, they
felt sanguine that the anxiety of all Minneso-
tians to have road speedily constructed, would
lead to an unanimous movement on their part
to obtain grant of land from Congress, which
would, of course, enure to the benefit of the
company holding these chartered privileges
The bill which passed the House of Repre-
sentatives was so carefully drawn to exclude
these land cormorants from appropriating the
grant to their own benefit, that they were forced
to resort to the last and most Infamous
game of changing certain words in the bill, so
that they might still clutch the spoils, and
thereby defeat the expressed will of Congress-
With indecent haste, Immediately after the
passage of the bill, they meet and "organize,"
by electing their directors, &c. Thanks to the
watchfulness of Mr.. WAsHBURNE, and others
the fraud and its perpetrators were alike shown
up, and the Territory saved from the grasp of
a set of ruthless, unprincipled SPECTATORS
True, we have been deprived of the land, but
we sincerely believe that more than nine tenths
of the people of Minnesota would prefer, inf
nitely, to dispense with a railroad for ten years
to come, rather than to be placed at the abso-
lutte mercy of a set of sharpers, who were be-
lievcd to be no better than they should be
when the charter was under discussion, but
who have proved by their subsequent acts,
that they would hesitate at nothing, however
base or criminal, to accomplish their purposes.
In conclusion, we would invite some COM
ments from the M1nnesotian, upon the evidence
of HUGH TYLER before the Investigating Com
mittee; as that gentlemap's character for hon
or and integrity, and his friendship for Mime
sofa, have been again and again eulogizcd by
that print Now, however, that Mr.. TYLER
tells truths which place some friends of the
Minnesot'an editor in an awkward light, we
will not be surprised if he, too, is denounced
as one of those bad men, who chose to be hon.