St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1873-02-21
ST. Johnsburn Galrdonian.
st. bloomsbury. VT. Friday. Feb. FL. 1878.
Mr.. Colfax's Defence.

COrrObOr;itIOn 10y his sister ANA fdthcr
in-law:
Gentlemen Last fall was one of
number of persons in public life charged
with havim" been brihcd 10y gifts "
stock in the Credit Muhilicr. from whlcl
an enormous dividend had been re-
ceived, and for which certain lcglSla
ton had been procured. replied Il
these charges in Il speech AT South Bend
Indiana. September p. l-12. in which
after showing that the most important
part of this legislation had been enact
ed four years before the alleged bribery
| responded to the personal attack rs
follows. which | read from the Chicago
Inter- ocean of the next day: ''NcVcI
having i'll my life Il dollar of stock ot
any kind that | did not pay for. claim
the right to purchase stock III the Crcd-
it Mobilicr OF Credit lmmohilicr, il
there is one. nor do know of any law
prohibiting il.
Do | need to add that neither Cakes
Ames nor ANY other person offered I"
give me one share OI twenty shares oI
two hundred shares i'll the Credit Mo
hilier or any other railroad stock, and
that. unfortunately, have never seen
or received to the value of IL talthug
out of the 20 per cent. dividends ofthe
800 per cent. dividends. III cash. stock,
or bonds. you have read about for the
past month. nor 100 per cent. nor the
tenth of one per cent. have said that
if twenty shares of it could he purcla>-
ed at par without buying into Il pro
spective lawsuit it would he IL good i'll
vestment if it was ;iS valuable Il stock a.
represented, bnt never having been Il
plaintiff nor defendant in ii court of jus
tice, want no stock at any price with
lawsuit on the top of it
1t will hc seen from these extracts
that | publicly claimed last fall the.
right to purchase the stock. avowcd
frankly that would have been willing
to pay for twenty shares if | did not
buy into Il prospective lawsuit. but that
no possible profits could induce me to
involve myself in litigation. having over
four Years before this speech voluntari-
" abandoned IL contract to purchase at
the rate | had stated. and having no
certificate. no ownership of the stock III
it, my answer to the charges then made.
are the exact truth. and then accepted
whatever 0dium might attach to the
Willingness to purchase and hold its
stock aS | then understood it. | Will
add that what | then said last Scptcm
ber-that neither Cakes AmcS nor any
other person ever gave OF offered to
give me any of this stock-haS been re-
peatedly printed during this session
with the essential word give omitted.
entirely changing its scn>c.
Mr.. AmeS having sworn Dec. II. IN
his original statement before the com
mittec which he declared (Scc page II
of the cVidcucc) tmhudicS the exact
facts. that he could not remember hay
ing paid me any dividends. now de
clarcs that in June. l-t;-. Il check paya-
bile To the initials :. e. or bearer tor
$1,000. hut not endorsed 10y me or any
one else. was paid 10y him 10 me rs II
cash dividend of the Credit Mohilirr.
In answer to this charge. | repeat
again that | have not the slightest
knowledge. or recollection. ~ belief.
that | ever saw this check or amy other
check of Mr.. AmeS till he presented it
before the Committee. nor that | have
ever been paid or protftred 10y him. di
rectly or indirectly. i'll checks. stocks on
bonds. $4,000, or : 100. or 81, on any ac-
count whatever. further state that
have not the slightest knowledge. rec
collection or belief that | ever heard
there was or could he amy cash dividend
on the Credit M"hilier until the discus
sion of last fall. and am as positive AZ
| can he of amy fact i'll the past that Mr..
AmeS never spoke to me of this last
dividend. OF never paid To me OF prof
fered to me in person or through any
other channel any check OF money OF
bonds on that OF any other account.
1t seems to me impossible and in
credible that should have received
the check without remembering that
addition to my Income, and especially
i'll Il check drawn 81 SiugulaTly to mi
tials and not containing my name on il
at all. nor could have talked to him
when he failed about letting the 5000
20 which had paid him on the divi-
dend stock if he had paid me an over
plus of 500. | must add that until to
day never heard of the certificate for
$500 of Union Pacific bonds. stu in
terest on which Mr.. AmcS SAYS he paid
me in January. l-tD. and would not
have been more d>tonIShed to have
been charged 10y him with assassination
of one of his family than | have been
by the charge that he paid me either
Sl2OO OF stu or amy other amount " hat
ever on the stock that | had abandoned.
| will add that for four Years | have
spoken in my family of this transaction
exactly as described it in my trStmn-
ny of January :. namely, that | had
contracted to purchase. had paid about
five hundred dollars. had heard of
threatening and acrimonious litigation
among IFS nriucipal stock holders and