The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1873-02-25
evening state Su,.rnal.
TUESDAY EvEN'G, FEB. 25. 1878.
Judge Kelley's Case-His Relations
and Dealings with Cakes Ames-A
Full Report of His Statement.


and Dealings with Cakes Ames-l
Full Report of His Statement.
In the course Of Judge Kelley's first ez
animation before the Poland committee
the question was put to the Judge whic
ELECTED somewhat extended answer
which the reporter condensed into the fol
lowing paragraph:
1.-THE witness here stated in detail tn,
circumstances of his own financial embar
rassment, extending through several years
OF time, in which time, but for the indul
gence, of friends in permitting interest tc
run into principle, he must have beer
stripped of all his property"
Thinking that it might have more signif.
canoe than he had attached to it, he has
since written out his notes in full. The
question related to the loan of one thou
sand dollars from Mr.. Ames. It was put
by Mr.. Niblack, and was as follows: ''Let
me ask, inasmuch as this loan has not been
paid, whether it is your habit to allow loans
to run for that length of time without any
settlements" To which Judge Kelley
answered:
II am very much obliged to you for ask
ing that question. When was elected to
Congress | believed myself to be in very
easy circumstances. soon found myself
in extreme embarrassment, arising from
three causes. One was that had invested
q large amount of my past earnings in
building lots within the limits of triangu-
lar lot of land, bounded by Lancaster and
Westminster avenues, and what is now
Forty-first street of the city of Philadel-
phia, every foot of which fronted on fifty
feet street, and had back outlet on an
intermediate street. The city authorities,
almost coincidently with my later purcha-
SEES, changed the plan of streets through
that ground by discarding Lancaster avenue
as base line, and adopting new streets on
rectangular lines conformably to the
general plan of the city. The result of
this was that the greater part OF my work.
ing capital was practically blotted out of
existence, as until the city should open the
new streets it had laid out could not use
q foot of the ground referred to; / could
not even mortgage my property, fronting
as 1t did on the old streets, or use it in any
way till the city should open the others.
If | proposed to sell at any rate or on any
terms the answer was, Il do not want to
buy into lawsuit with the city,
Another cause was that | had UNDER
taken to endorse for friend to the amount
of two thousand five hundred dollars, who
would bring me new notes to provide for
renewals, and to whom entrusted the de-
struction of the old ones without doubling
his good faith, till found myself an en-
dOrser to the amount of between eleven
and twelve thousand dollars of paper.
did not make this discovery till men who
are in the habit of shaving at one and a
half and two per cent. month came to
me with the protested paper My friend
and colleague, the Hon. Leonard Myers,
was compelled, as council, reluctantly to
press me on some of these notes. To
meet some of them l had to mortgage
some of my property, and on others to
confess judgment and obtain stay of exc.
cution. Thus all my real estate, whether
within the triangular lot or elsewhere, was |
bound up by encumbrances.
'Then, again, was member of Con- |
gress, the pay being $4,000 year; the |
war was upon us regiments were TO be |
raised, campaigns to be carried out, and as |
had voice | was made to traverse the |
country as speaker, when, in view of my
pecuniary condition, should have been in
the courts trying causes.
"Snce 1862 have received no profess
ional fee, so that instead of erecting build
ings for sale, and the improvement of
other parts of my property, as had been
doing, had to provide for my family by
the sale, subject to the mortgages had
put upon them, of every building owned
except the one lived in. The point of all
this is, that would have been reduced to
bankruptcy and made homeless, but that
friends who believed in my integrity and
the ultimate value of my property,
made me large loans without re-
quiring regular payments of interest,
oftentimes permitting it to run for years,
or until ! could, by the sale of property or
otherwise, get funds with which Ito make
payment. When my friend John R. Nc
Curdy, esq, died, his executor, Joshua H.
Morris, found thau owed his estate thirty.
five thousand dollars, a considerable portion
of which was accrued interest. From
1862 to the present time l have held on to
my property by the indulgence of friends,
and could not have done it had not en-
joyed this measure of credit with those
who knew me, and believed in the integ-
rity of my character and the ultimate value
of my property.
"During the last two or three years the
condition Of my affairs has improved very
considerably, because l have sold over
forty thousand dollars of property. The
city has also opened streets, paying me
damages to the amount of about ten thou.
sand dollars. have thus been enabled to
extinguish almost all the membranes ex-
cept mortgage for twenty thousand dol
lars on my home and the lot appurtenant
thereto.
''As an illustration of my familiarity
with neglected interest on loans from friends
may mention that in the latter part of
May or early in June last | paid the firm
of a. j. Cattell & Co. one thousand dol
lars on account of loan of seven hundred
and fifty dollars, and gave them a note for
the balance, the original claim having been
long outlawed and the rate of interest hav-
ing been computed at but six per cent.
Among the gentlemen who know my
affairs most thoroughly are Hon. Henry M.
Phillips, predecessor of mine in Congress,
and Mr.. Joseph Patterson, the president of
the Western bank, with whom have en-
joyed intimate relations from my earliest
childhood each of whom am now largely
indebted to, and each of whom has, at
times, permitted the interest due him to
pass into principal so that the fact that
l did not promptly repay Cakes Ames,
who is the reputed owner of millions of
dollars, the loan of thousand dollars, or
the interest account precisely square, will