The Portland daily press., 1873-01-29

! ash you wneoner that conversation OCCUR
Mr. Ames-It was the da law OF night after
onered the resolution, and occurred at the di
ner table OF the Arlington. was laughing
road. e.
You are very positive Mr.. Stevenson h;
no information whatever from you before
offered the resolution A
Al am, sir.
Mr.. Blaine-Then the allegation of Steyenst
Is not supported by you?
| A-No, sir.
Mr.. Blaine to Judge Poland-Mr. Ames to
me the other day that he had the conVersato
with Mr.. Stevenson after he tStevenson) offere
the resolution
Mr.. Stevens to Mr. Ames-You have FRI
| quently stated Ehere Mr.. Ames that your rec
objection as to dates is not very olstlnct.
Witness resumed Did You not know whe
| the company was formed. Did state to MI
| Stevenson that he had never been over tn
road. There is but one larger stakeholder il
| the amount of stock held by himself; believe,
he subscribed for five or six thousand dollars
and afterwards for more Did not remembe
the date when he had the conversation will
Mr.. Stevenson, but knew it was after that gen
tleman offered the resolution in the House, a
ton, and telling him (Stevenson) he had hoit
of the wrong road. Never heard of the resolu
ton until Mr.. Stevenson offered it,
Mr.. Blaine then questioned Mr. Stevenson a;
follows
Q-Did you have any anonymous or other
kind of letter from Iowa on this subject before
You offered this resolution?
A.-None whatever.
Q.-Have you ever spoken of having received
such letter?
A.-No sir.
Odd you ever say to any one that you
thought you had caught the Speaker?
Al don't remember
Odd you have such a conversation with
Senator Stevenson of Kentucky?
Al don't remember / had any CONVERSE
ton with him ON the subject.
Q.-And you said. II have caught the
Speaker? M
A.-Not in that rough way. may have in
Dictated first that had something which would
implicate the Speaker in land grants.
Q.-Do you think your controlling motive
was for the public good OF to catch the Speaker?
Any object was to catch the Speaker,sif
he was involved in this road, and said further
that If the Speaker of the House was engaged
in such transactions it was equal to dealing in
Credit Moblier stock.
Mr.. Blaine was then sworn, and made state
ment with regard to the Sioux City road and
his connection herewith substantially as fol-
lows:
The Iowa Falls and Sioux City Railroad is
about $50 miles in length. 1t was begun in 1869
and finished in the autumn of 1870. 1t never
received an acre of land by direct act of Con-
gress. The State Of Iowa gave to the company
the remnant of the old land grant made to the
State in 1856, amounting to a trifle over three
thousand acres to the mile. The road was built
by contracting company entirely for cash..
The capital of the contracting company was be-
tween six and seven million dollars and the
amount necessary for building the road was
levied ON the stockholders of this company pro
rata by direct assessment. The total assess
ments were, think, about sixty per cent. of
the whole OF a shade over four millions of dol
lars. In this contracting company my particu-
lar and highly valued friends, Messrs. A. & p.
Coburn, the wealthiest men in Maine and as
good men as ever lived, took two hundred
thousand dollars of the stock, and paid their
assessment in hard cash, amounting to about
one hundred and twenty thousand dollars. all
within period, 1 think, of about eighteen
months. The road was thus finished to the last
When completed, the company issued bonds on
the road for 1000 per mile, and stock to the
amount Of $4,000. The bonds at time of issue
were worth eighty, and the stock about sixty
SO the contracting company got securities worth
twenty-seven thousand dollars per mile in cash.
when the construction of the road had actually
cost them about twenty-three thousand dollars
per mile cash in advance. Their profit was
in the anticipated rise of bonds and
stocks and profits not yet realized. In Janu-
airy last, just year ago, in settling up some
business with the Messrs Coburn, I took from
them q quantity of the stock of this road, for
which paid about $50 in cash. That was the
first of my ownership in the road. hold the
stock in my own name, and the transaction is
one which Congress in my Judgment is no more
called upon to investigate than it would be to
inquire into the weekly expenses of my house
hold. But at the same time wish the Com
mittee to understand that make this explana-
ton without the slightest reluctance.
In answer to questions by Judge Poland. Mr..
Blaine testified that he. never had a dollars
worth of interest in the road until 1872 The
road was chartered by the State, the land do
mated to it by the State and it was accountable
to the State, and it could not possibly come be-
fore Congress for anything, and added: l
must say, with all due respect to Mr.. Steven
enson's better Judgment, that consider an in
vestigation into the weekly expenses of my
as legitimate as this.
Judge Poland-Do you know Of any other
member of Congress interested in the road?
Mr.. Blane-Mr. Ames says he is and f. A.
Pike, formerly a colleage of mine, purchased
900 worth of stock in it. He acquired it in
an honorable manner and paid the money for
it.
By Mr.. McCreany-Has this work any con-
nection with the Union Pacific Railroad?
A.-Not the remotest in the world; no more
than it has with the Baltimore and Ohio or
New York Central
Mr.. Blaine further testified that he owned
shares for which he paid 1872, 800, and hoped
that they would draw dividend, but up to
this time they had not. (Laughter.) He was
not generally in the railroad business; would
like to be more.
Question, by Mr.. Stevenson You know
how much the Coburns invested?
Mr.. Blaine-If you want to put them on in-
vestigation will send for them.
Q.-What was the nature of you transac-
tions with them?
IN it,r +1% ~,
timberland in Maine or coal land in Penn. If
you would like an interest in this railroad, Mr.
Stevenson, l will sell it to you upon slight adj
vance Nee over what I paid paid. daughter :.
until I get out of Congress.
Mr.. Blaine-Well that win be on the fourth
of March (Great laughter) And will agree
to take it all off your hands when you are elect
ed. Renewed laughter.)
Mr. Stevenson questioned Mr.. Ames and the
latter testified that he sold some bonds of the
Sioux City road to Mr. Blaine; thought he sold
$4,000, but could not remember.
Mr.. Blaine to Mr.. Stevenson-Ask me, can
tell you; bought $4,000 worth of bonds from
Ames and paid him eighty cents on the dollar;
at another time bought think $4,000 worth
him eighty cents on the dollar That 1 believe
was in the winter of 1870 or 1871. 1 turned
them into the Messrs, Coburn, partly at one
price and partly at another, none of them as
high as ninety and some at eighty-five cents.
My business with the Messrs. Coburn is very
large, embracing timber land and coal land.
Judge POland-That is not german to what
we are to inquire about
Mr.. Ames was further questioned by Mr..
Stevenson and testified that Mr.. Alley was in
terested with him (Ames) in the Union Pacific
railroad as well as in the Credit Mobilier. He
thought Mr.. Allison was interested in the Sioux
City and Iowa Falls road Witness and Mr..
Alley were interested in other roads in Iowa
all of which he named at the request of Mr..
Stevenson, and said a'Is there anything else
you want to know?'
Mr. Stevenson-I have no personal interest.
The committee require me to come here.
Mr.. Ames-But the committee did not re-
quire you to go into all these things outside of
the resolution. l never knew that it was a
crime to build RAILROAD until this inyestiga.
ton commenced and am not satisfied of Il
now.
Senator LOgan's Statement.
Judge Poland-Well, we are now through
with this part of the case. The name of Sena-
tor Logan was mentioned a day or two ago and
he is now here at my request to make a state
ment.
Senator Logan was then sworn and testified
as follows: | have seen the testimony of MI
Ames given before the committee. 1 have
nothing whatever to conceal in this tfansac
ton as far as l am connected with it. Mr.
Ames said agreed to purchase certain stock
did do so in 1867 or 1868. agreed with him
to purchase ten share of the stock at par.
paid nothing to Mr.. Ames at that time and re-
ceived no stock. On the June Goth following