Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1872-10-16

LANCASTER, ONO, Oct. 7th, 1872
Hon. James q. Blaine, Speaker House Rep
resentatives:
My DEAR SHY our letter Of the st inst
from Cleveland, was received by me yester-
day on returning home after an absence of
ten days. l had previously seen the New
York Tribunes of 2Sth and 30th Septem-
Der. in which is published, with editorial com
ments, what purports TO be a list (maGe by
General j. {. Stone, Of Leaveuworth, Kan
sas, dated May, 1869 OF contracts alleged
to have been made by him and myself jointly
as officers of the Leavenworth, Pawnee and
Western Railroad Company, afterwards the
Union Pacific railroad, Eastern Division, and
now the Kansas Pacifc) to procure the pas
sage of the original Pacific railroad law Of
1862.
On this list your name is said to appear,
first as the recipient of 3 500 900 Of the stock
Of that company, and the second time as the
recipient OF $4,000 of the stock. And on
the faith of these entries you are accused Of
having taken u bride to aid in procuring The
passage OF the law of 1862, and also OF hav-
ing acted as agent OF the company in using
large part of its stock to corrupt other men,
bers of Congress.
So far as the charge imputes to you per-
sonal corruption in office, IL is conclusively
disproved by public records accessible to all,
which show that you did not enter Congress
for nearly year and Il hall after the Law refer
red TO was passed And as to the other branch
of the charge, my general knowledge OF the bu-
siness of the company, and especially my init
macy with you, make il certain that YOU could
not have had any contract with the company
withou; my knowing the fact; and uuhvsita-
| tingly declare that you were uotin any manner,
or at any time, directly or indirectly employed
| l. tho.
its affairs stockholdrr, agent, or otherwise,
in any capacity Whatever. Your brother, j.
L. Blaine, at that time clerk Of the District
Court at Leavenworth and one ofthe early set
| tiers of Kansas, was the owner of ten thousand
dollars worth OF the stock of the Leavenworth,
Pawnee and Western Railroad Company,
which indeed was held very generally among
the influential men of all parties along the
line Of the road in Kansas; but that was in
1861 or 1862, and considerable period
before you were ever nominated for
your first term in Congress. Beyond that
there never was, at any time, the remotest in
terest in the company held by any of
your family. The entry of 1920, coo OF stock
opposite the name OF .'Blaine" was there
fore wholly a fiction or a blunder, and the
grave imputations on your character and on
that OF the officers of the company, are
utterly groundless and without shadow of
justification.
l know nothing whatever of the list alleged
to have been furnished 10y General Stone. 1t
purports to have been prepaed nearly year
after the act had been passed, long after had
| entered the military service, and more than six
months before you took your seat in Congress.
/ am informed that Gen. Stone is now in
Europe. He will doubtless take occasion.
when he learns of these charges, to speak for
himself about them. So far as my knowledge
of the affairs of the company goes, deliher-
stely assert that it never, by any of its Of
icers, agents, or attorney, made any contract,
the proceeds of which there was good reason
to believe were to be in any manner partici-
pated in by any member OF Congress or other
public officer"
Very truly yours,
Thomas EWING, JR.