The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1873-02-20
CREDIT MOBILIER.
Vice President COIfax's Explanation
Conclusion OF the Testimony Before
the Poland Committee.

lne fOIanQ COmmfItec.
The Poland Special Committee re-
assembled at seven O'Clock the 1Ith
inst, and Vice President Colfax read
the following letter from gentleman
whom he declared to be the best par
Humanitarian in the United States
CLERKS OFFICE,
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. OF
THE UNITED STATES, Feb. 10. J
Hon. SCHUYLER CoLFAX-DEAR
| SIR: AtyOur request have examin-
ed the proceedings of the House of
Representatives for the session of Con-
gress commencing December 1867,
and ending July 1868. l have exam
ined all your rulings as Speaker on
every proposition made during the en-
tire session by Hon. @. G. Washburn
in relation to the Union Pacific Rail-
road, and find no ruling made by you
that was not in my judgment COM
msnded and justified by parliament
ary law. Very respectfully,
JOHN M. BARCLAY,
Journal Clerk OF the House of Rep
resentatives.
Mr.. Colfax then addressed the COM
mittee as follows:
GENTLEMEN Last fall 1 was one
Of the number of persons in public life
charged with having been bribed by
gifts of stock in the Credit Mobilier,
from which enormous dividends had
been received, and for which certain
legislation had been procured. re-
piled to these charges in a speech at
South Bend on September 25th, 1872,
IN which, after showing that the most
important part of this legislation had
been enacted four years before the al
legged bribery, 1 responded to the per-
sO..Rl attack as follows, which / read
from the Chicago Inter Ocean Of the
next day:
''Never having in my life, a dollar
of stock of any kind that did not pay
for, claim the right to purchase stock
IN the Credit MObilier or Credit Inn
mObilier, If there is one, nor do
know of any law prohibiting it. Do
L need to add, that neither Oakes
Ames nor any other person, ever gave
OF offered to give me one share, or
twenty shares, or two hundred shares
IN the Credit MObilier, or any other
railroad stock, and that unfortunate
ly, have never seen or received to
the value of farthing, out of 30 per
cent. dividends, or 300 per cent. divi-
dends, in cash stock or bonds you
nave read about for the past month,
nor 100 per cent, nor the tenth Of one
per cent l have said that if twenty
shares of it could be purchased at par,
without buying into prospective law
III iF yunr,1h no frnpn fr1UaGf
but never having been plaintiff nor
defendent in q court of justice want
no stock at any price, with law suit
on top of it,"
It will be seen from these extracts,
that publicly claimed last fall the
right to purchase the stock, and avOw-
ed frankly, that l would have been
WnIInS ~ pay IOr twenty snaresi IL
did not buy into a prospective law
suit but that no possible profits
could induce me to involve myself in
litigation. Having, four years before
Jhis speech, voluntarily abandoned a
contract to purchase a rate, l had stat
ed and on the very grounds had
stated and having no certificate, no
ownership of stock in it, my answer
TO the charges then made are the
exact truth, and then l frankly ac-
cepted also whatever odium might at
tach to willingness to purchase and to
hold its stock, as then understood 1t.
1 will add that what then said, last
september, that neither Oakes Ames
nor any other person eyer gave or Of
fered to give me any of this stock, has
been repeatedly printed during the
present session with the essential word
gG.-sr-,1T cv-.fFNaI araffwaIwT nho narfr1oF ire
sense. Ames having sworn, on De-
cember 18th. in his original statement
before the committee, in which he de-
clared (see page q Of the evidence)
was embodied the exact facts, that ne
could not remember having paid me
any dividends, he now declares that in
June, 1868, a check payable to the in
itials IS. G. or bearer" for s., 200, but
not endorsed by me, nor any one else,
was paid by him to me as cash divl-
dend OF the Credit MObilier. In an
swer to this charge, 1 repeat again, l
have not the slightest knowledge of,
recollection, or belief, that I ever saw
this check, or any other check OF
Ames', till he presented it before this
committee, nor that have ever been
paid or offered by him, directly or in
directly, in Check, stock or bonds,
twelve hundred or one hundred, or
one dollar, on any account whatever.
I further state that 1 have not the
slightest knowledge, recollection or
belief. that I ever heard there was, or
could be, any cash dividends on the
Credit MObIlier till the discussion OF
last fall, and am as positive as l can
be Of any tact in the past, that Ames
never spoke to me Of this last divi-
dend, and never paid or proftered to
me in person, or through any other
channel, any check or money or bonds
on that or any other account. 1t
seems to me impossible and incredible
that should have received the check
without remembering that addition to
to nv income, and especially in a
check drawn so singularly, to initials
and not containing my name at all,
nor could have talked to him when
he failed, as l did about letting the
$500 go, which had paid him on the
dividend of the stock, If ne had paid
me an overplus of seven hundred dol
lars. I must add that until to-day 1
have never heard of the certificate for
fifteen hundred dollars Of Union Pa
cific bonds, sixty dollars in interest on
which Ames says he paid me in Jan,
'69, and would not have been more
sstounded to have been charged by
him with the assassination Of one Of
his family than have been by his
charges, that he paid me either twelve
hundred dollars or sixty dollars or
any other amount whatever, on stock
that I had abandoned. 1 will add
that for four years have spoken in
my family of this transaction exactly
as described it in my testimony of
January 7th; namely, that had con-
trscted TO purchase, had paid about
$500, 1 had heard threatened an acri-
monious litigation among its principal
stockholders and had therefore, aban-
doned it, without receiving any divi-
dend or certificate, but at a loss of the
money I had paid upon 1t, and of the
fact of these conversations, will pro-
duce evidence.
I come now to the bank deposit of
8, 200 In bills, for June p, 1858, and
the committee will remember that
really invited the examination Of nv
bank accounts, by stating to them
unasked, that kept my accounts at
the First National Bank, where all
my checks were deposited and would
be found, endorsed by me, whether
payable to order or bearer. Difficult
as it is to recall all the transactions of
five years in q public mans life, I will
state to the committee, where all the
money came from, deposited from
June ., 1855, and will add that il was
the month Immediately succeeding my
nomination for Office, now hold that
the total deposit was 81 ,96s.03, and
there being no previous deposit later
than the 1st of June, it shows that
amount was the accumulation Of the
Haoneys paid to me during the inter
vening three weeks. This is also
proven by the dates of the checks de-
posted. One check was for S16.63,
dated June 18th, signed by J. n. Sey.
mour, since deceased, one for $3.50,
dated June 18th, signed by Z. G.
Cardin, and one for $500, dated June
18th, signed by T. Denny & Co., none
Of them having the slightest connec-
ton with the subject Of investigation
before this committee. Ofthe deposit
Of bills for 500, 7 am positive they
were paid to me by my stepfather,