New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1872-10-03
Speaker Blaine.

IL. Reviews " Dei-matory Article in the
| "Ntw York Tribune"-The AbsUrdity OF a
| haiicious Charge-How lhe HTribune,
Violates the Ninth Commandment.
/ CLEVELAND, October Speaker Blaine
ina'ie Il speech at the public square tonight,
in the course of which he alluded in the fo,:
! lowing words to the personal charges made
| against him:
"ln the New York TiL,a- of Saturday
last, and also of yesterday, | am charged,
| not only as a Representative in Congress,
but rs Speaker in the House. with having re-
| ceivcd 81 10000 of the stock of the eastern
division of the Pacific Railroad Company for
my services and influence in procuring the
| passage ot the original Pacific Railroad bill OF
1862.
| 1.-The Tihme gives the date of the act in
! the article III which 1t makes the charge, not
seeming to notice III its blind desire To assa;l
me. that ii was simply convctin. itself Of
| talsehond and of folly.
Now, gentlemen, please observe that in
| 1867. when this act was passed, l had not
| taken my seat in Congress. had not been
! elected to Congress- Indeed | had not even
been nominated for Congress when the act
to which the Tribune refers became a law. 1
was Il member of the Maine Legislature, and
"Itdhtt ol iHt lower house. 1 f;lU no more
| to do with Congressional legislation than the
| fish-wardens and tide-waiters on the kenne-
bee river; and yet the New York Tribune
asserts and repeats that for my services and
influence in Congress, at the time | was a
member of the Maine Legislature, received
nearly 50 ,0OO, 900 in the stock of great rail
| road corporation.
And now, gentlemen, if | were to stop
after demonstrating the utter absurdity of
this charge, the Tribune would come out early
aud say that Speaker Blaine had not denied
it. Let me, then, deny it i'll the presence of
this vast assemblage, and deny it in the most
emphatic manner.
Neither in 1862 nor in any subsequent
year did ! ever receive, directly or indirectly,
a single dollar of stock in the Eastern Di-
vision Of the Union Pacific Railroad Com
panv, or any other division of the Pacific
Railroad Company nor did | receive dol
lar, directly or indirectly, from the sale of any
stock of that company. In short, gentle
men, | stamp the whole story as not only
false on its face, but absurd and ridiculous.
''But do not expect to make denial that
will satisfy the Tribune. y few weeks since,
when the story was started that Secretary
Boutwell,, Vice President ColfaX, Senator
Wilson, Mr.. Garfield, Mr.. Dawes, and my
self, and others had been bribed BY presents
of stock in the Credit Mobilicr, published "a
card, on the eve Of the Maine election, say
ing that had never owned, directly or indi-
rectly, through myself or through another,
single dollar of stock in the Credit Mobilier.
The New York Tribune pronounced this de-
NAL cyasive and unsatisfactory, and said |
did not deny that L had received dividends
thcEe;rom. Any candid man, think, could
see that my card was intended to be exhaust
i've, and to exclude all suggestions of own
ership. Let me say now, however, that not
only did | never own a share in the Credit
Mobilier, but | never received, directly or
indirectly, single penny therefrom in any
manner or shape whatever.
" But this mania for bearing false witness
against your ncighbor has seized Mr.. Greeley
personally, as well as the New York Tribune,
for I observe that in recent speech in Penn
sylvana he states that more than hundred
thousand dollars had been expended by the
Republicans in Maine in the purchase of
votes at the recent election. Now, in the
very nature of things, it would be impossible
for Mr.. Greeley to know that this was true,
but know it to be absolutely untrue. am
chairman Of the State Committee, and on my
order every dollar of the funds of the COM
mttee was disbursed, and from first to last
we did not have in our control but little
mOrest han sl2, 900, and | further assert that
every dollar of this amount was expended
either in the payment of speakers, the distri-
button of documents and papers, or the bring
ing home of absent voters.
"These accounts of the State committee
are kept with rigid eXactness, and the whole
committee of sixteen men will testify to the
truth of what L state.
- [ arraign Mr.. Greeley, therefore, as a
slandcrer of the Republicans of Maine, a
party of as gallant men as ever cast an UNI
purchased and unpurchasable vote.