National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1874-05-23

were appointed 3 member Of the board on tn
Esd Of October, 1872, see from your Testimony
A. 1t may have becn the 221, but l spink IN
Q. On the 26th day Of December Of the sssn
year you were appointed engineer of the board
q. No, sir; was then requested to take charg
Of the engineer department.
q You were the engineering member Of thu
board, but on that date you were requested Y
take charge OF tbe engineer department Of tn,
boardf A. Yes, cir; was requested to take
certain duties. An appointment, you know
would not be propeJ-I am their eqnal, so they
can ask me to attend 10 certain dutie,, but they
cannot appoint me.
Q. You were not appointed, then, engineer
Of the boardf A. I was designated to perform
these duties as engineer in charge.
Q. On ths 18th Decsmber, 1871 A Yes
sir.
Q. In your testimony On page 1850 Of Oh,
record you say, in answeT 70 question pu
to you:
t1 seriously impede the operations Of the ysr.
best engineers that could b on hand. ] fouHl
this state Of things whom came here. hau
dous with frmness and courtesy the best to rem
edy what seemed to. me hack Of system; bat
do not think have boom very successful IN h5.
efforts, The Woo president takes the assistsn
Instructions to take no work and pass bills with
out the engineer knowing Of It.
Q. Is that the only reason you have for max
ing that statement A. No, sir; have gooC
many other reasons. My opinion Is that the
Board Of Public Works have 50 far murdered
the reputation Of able engineers az much a
Blue Beard did his wives. Laughter.
Q. The story Of Blue Beard numbering hi
wives is only matter of fiction, and do you
mean to say. that the reputation Of the sbk
and competent engineers that you speak O
was murdered In the same wayf A. / have M
answer TO give to that.
Q. On this same page Of the record, second
page of your testimony, in referring to the mat
ter of Government measurements, you say
again, the Government measurements which
think, according to the reading of the law
are certainly under the engineer in charge o
the Board of Public Works, and to be controlled
by him, and remeasured by the engineer il
charge of public buildings and grounds, wert
done without my knowing word of them. SC
all those errors, wish to say, / am not respon
sible for, nor the department under my charge ,
They were not done under your supervision
A. No, sir.
Q. Have any of those matters been subjected
to your inspection or supervision after theI
were done? A. Which mattersa
Q. Those matters in regard to Government
measurements, &c. A. The first saw of then
was in the printed statement-int the Governor
answer. .--. -. s .
Q. Is that correcti A. No, sir; I wish Il
correct couple of errors that appear in TIL
printed testimony. -. ..
Q. Do you mean to say that you did not sa,
that, or that it is a mistake of the reporterl A
Well, 1t was an error into which fell In thosl
many statements I had to make in q few
hours. -.-.. d.. ..
n Yo,, fall ;,to a o,ooJ v,on, .--o.,a A "
sir; there Is only one of them; the others
have got here in black and white.
MIR. Christie. He has the right, OF course, t.
correct. .-... 80 =
The Witness. I ought to answer, of course
that this was printed In the former report, bu
l mean to convey the idea that the Governor
answer only gave the key to unlock the mys
teries Of those former reports. Those answer
were terra ircogHita, without the facts given il
the Governors answer; and so as. not to fal
into an error, l might be allowed, perhaps
l made one statement, namely, that eontrac
fer %, 900 square yards of wood pavement wa
given in blank to the successors of DeGolye
& Mcclellan. ought to have said to thu
best of my knowledge that 1t was given to tn
trustee Of Austin p. Brown, 2. Jones being tn
trustee. -.
Q. That is the same matter already referrsi
to beforel A. am nos through yet. In thi
item think have not been correctly recorded
| said that by the stroke of the pen of the vic
president million dollars worth of contracts
had been given out or awarded in his priyat,
office for main sewers. 1 said these main sew
ers were awarded to Carrohan & Co., Grant
& Appleman, Samuel Strong, Gregg & Co.
William H. Adams. / certainly said, at tn,
same time, Bartlett & Williams. If the latte
name was not included, the million woult
seem to be extrayagant-an exaggeration.
The Chairman. If you will allow me to SAY
word there. | tn. K you did not mention b,
justice to the reporter who was here at tn
time.
Senator Stewart: think you did not.
The Witness. might have been mistaken
in it. ...--
The Chairman. You mentioning q grea
number of names. it is very natural you ma
have omitted one of them.
The Witness. This is, / think, all.
By the Chairman: Q. These are all the cor
rections you desire to makel A. Yes, sir.
@. You signed, Mr.. Cluss, the report of tn
board for 1873, did you notl A. Well, sir,
have told the Governor that as q courtesy u
him / signed his report when 1t was pre-
sented to me. ! signed it as . matter o
courtesy, without looking close into It. No
as closely as ought to have done, and tol(
the Governor also, when the Governors an
swer was printed, and he laid certain state
ments as Government claims before me re
fused to sign them, because in this very repor
of 1878, careless figures were laid before me
/ was good enough to sign them withou
closely looking over them. This report In tn
Governors answer, therefore, came before thi
committee without my signature. It is
claim for about two and quarter millions 70
main sewerage, &c. To the best of my recol
lection this paper was in the handwriting O
either Mr.. Forsyth or Mr.. 0ertly. refused I
sign 1t. 1t is here without my signature.
Q. Did you sign this report of 1871 A. / d
not know even for sure that signed 1t. Tn
reports of the Board of Public Works are no
such as have been accustomed to before
was member of the board.
Q. You have seen the report purporting +
have your name appended therel A. hay
seen many reports where my name was adde'
without my consent and without my knowl
edge.
/ Q. What reports Of the board have you eve
seen, where your name appeared when yo1
had not signedi A. Papers In the Governor
answer-documents in the Governors an
swer-presented to this honorable committee.
Q. What papersl
The Witness. VIII you give me the Gov
ernor's answer.
"a copy of the Governors answer wa
QanQeQ 10 WITNESS.
A. If you will turn to page 33S you will finG
there are some papers there that never saw
I never saw these papers before it was printed
to the best Of my recollection.
BY Governor Shepherd: Q. Do you say yol
did not sign tha:i A. To the best of my reeol
lection, 1 did not.
@. Swear one way or the other !; did you sig.
Il, or did you moth ! want q direct answer
When you make charges of forgery we have
right to demand that you shall answer it, yeI
or no.
By Mr.. Mattingly: Q. Did you sign IL or not
A. To the best of my recollection. did no
sign it. / desire the papers to be presentet
here.
@. You stated not moment ago that Their
are papers in the Governors answer purport
ing to be signed BY you which you had no
signedi A. Yes, sir; did.
Q. Now, is there any doubt In your mind e
to whether you did sign that paper or not A
will tell you in one minute. am almos
positive you know that this other paper on pGg'
337 was not presented to me. That Is the sec
ond.
O. Hold on minute; let US see what thai
is7 You are almost certain you did not sign
that7 A. am pretty certain did not sigr
that signature on page 831. l demand the
papers to be brought here.
Mr.. Mattingly. We will have them here.
The Witness. There seems to be another pa
per which i did not sign then.
Q. What is that; let u know? A. 1t Is SOME
estimates, you know.
Q. Estimates for what A. Contracts, o.
oo,-Sa dt1 yof corna hare Y,ranar rod vor