New-York tribune., 1872-09-30
LILLE EPIDEMIC OF YENALITY.


The startling exposure of Speaker Blaine's
venality in connection with the Union Pacific
Railroad, Eastern Division, entirely destroys
of course whatever credit some people may
have given to his evasive denial OF the Oakes
Ames bribery and puts the whole case OF the
Credit Mobilier upon different basis. Here
tofore the charges in this latter case may be
said to have rested on the credibility of two
witnesses. 1t was sworn by Col. McCOmb that
Oakes Ames gave him list of persons among
them Mr.. Blaine to whom he had allotted
shares of the Credit Mobilier for the purpose
of influencing legislation in Congress. Col.
McComb wrote out that list from Ames's die
tation, on the back of one of Ames's letters,
and it was produced III the course of a suit
for the possession of certain shares. The au-
thenticity of this list was strongly supported
by the evidence of two letters of Ames's, pre-
sented in the same suit, and admitted to be
genuine, in which, without mentioning more
than one of the names, he speaks of using the
shares for the purpose of corruption at Wash
ington, and mentions the States to which he
has allotted them. Nobody on reading the
original statement and these corrOborative let
ters would have hesitated about believing
the whole story but for one thing several
of the persons named in the list had al
ways borne good character, and good
character in these days has practical
value. Mr.. Blaine was one of the fortunate
persons. Now it is shown that Mr.. Blaine
n ever deserved his good reputation. He had
taken bribes in another case he was habitually
for sale he had made fortune by the pros
titution of his conscience. With this exposure
the whole defense III the Oakes Ames case
falls to the ground. If one was a hypOcrite,
why may not the Others have been as bad If
Blaine was corrupt, not in one case only, but
in several cases, whom shall we call honest
The story of the Credit Mobiler shares, which,
on its face and apart from the evidence,
seemed improbable, becomes in the light of
these Developments perfectly credible and even
natural.
When we come to examine the manner
in which the inculpated Congressman have
met the charge, the circumstantial cOrrobOra-
tive testimony seems wonderfully strong.
First they refused to notice it at all, in the hope
that it would blow over. Then The Times,
finding that bad impression had been pro-
duced, sneered at the story as a Campaign
SANDER" "about one Oakes Ames or Ames
"Oakes, or some such person. This failed,
and the same paper next began assuring us
day after day that the " fabrication had been
promptly put down and made an end of, and
squelched, and hurled back, when it had not
been touched at all. When some of the twelve
Congressman az last were forced to speak they
spoke as we have shown, with evasion and
prevarication, and half Of them have never
spoken at all.
To understand their answers we must re-
member that there are many ways i'll which the
Credit MObilier stock could be assigned to a
Congressman, and Ames and McCOmb both
throw some light on these methods. In no
name of the person to whom it was to be
paid. There may have been arrangements by
which some were merely to receive the divi-
dends on the shares others were to get the
increased value of the shares consequent upon
the desired legislation. Those who bought the
shares gave no money, but paid for them out
of the dividends. Now let US see how they
speak:
The first was Mr.. Blaine himself. After the
exposure of yesterday Mr.. Blaine's testimony
cannot be worth much whatever it may be !;
but even Mr.. Blaine cOntented himself with
saying that he "never Ountd dollar in the
company" in his ife,-which ght very well
be true without invalidating the statement
of 0akes Ames After the lapse of week
Wilson aud Garfield volunteered denials as