National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1874-05-26

the measurements were to be made In sxcaya-
ton only, and addressed myself TO that.
BY Mr.. Stanton: q. How did Mr.. Henry g..
paws happen to accompany you at that timei
a. he called my attention 70 that street,
among others and desired that look at ft.
Y. Did you notify Mr.. Forsyth ct that time
that you intended 10 go there In company with
Mr.. Henry 8. Day1si A. do not think did
notify Mr.. Forsyth personally. generally
considered that when Invent to the head Of the
engineer department and asked for informa
ton, and told them that / was going to look at
q thing, that they would take care Of their side
Of the question.
Q. What other streets did Mr.. Henry 8.
Davis call your attention toll A. cannot re-
member.
Q. Gan you remember whether any other Of
the measurements which you made were made
on the suggestion of Mr.. Henry 8. Davis except
Second street, A. No, sir; think not But
will say In regard to Nj. Davis accompanying
me, that he seemed 10 have desire to know
the amount Of iron fencing on that street;
great desire; and he wanted me TO measure It
with him, which l did. have paid no atteu-
ton to It in my testimony, because ID was not
part Of It. / gave him that result. Then
asked him In reference to the grading, and he
pointed 1t out to me. But, with all due defer
ence 70 Mr.. Davis, found that had to rely
upon my own judgment much more than I
could rely upon his, or anybody else in regard
to the quantities.
Mr.. Mat;ingiy. We do no. doubt that, sir.
Mr.. Christy. Mr. Chairman, you will find
In the charges that we made that we have In
dictated 10 the COMMITTEES several OF the matters
that we wish TO inquire into. For instaRe,
P-street circle, Scott square, Rawlins' square,
and East Capitol street, for which measure
ments have been made, and estimates made BY
Mr.. Blickensderfer. The inquiry was sug-
gestcd why he had made certain measurements.
| am only explaining the fact that attention
was early called to our desire to have these
measurements made.
The Chairman. Perhaps ought TO say in the
beginning that the committee instructed Mr..
Blickensderfer With reference to several Of
these streets. and so far as know, they were
taken rather at random. In the charges there
are perhaps twelve or more streets indicated.
Il was not thought worth while TO measure all
of them, as that would take too much time,
therefore we indicated several streets; and
afterward Mr.. Blickensderfer being here,
think the committee stated to him that he
might take two or three other streets and look
them over and select them for himself.
BY Mr.. Stewart: Q. This voucher Is signed
by Mr.. Forsyth as assistant engineer, and ap-
proved by Mr.. Phillips, who was then engineer
in-chief. Now, you say, Mr.. Barney made
this survey A. He furnished me the notes.
cannot say that he made the survey. have
ants did.
Q. He did not furnish you the notes of the
survey, he merely furnished you the notes Of
the cross-sectionsl A. Both.
Q. The notes of the cross-sections and the
notes of the measurements of the work after
It was done-I want to see how they did 1t %
A. Permit me, then, to explain. They went
over the ground with an instrument, took the
levels at different portions for the purpose of
being able to plot, II you please, or for the
purpose of ascertaining the actual elevation of
the surface on different parts of the street all
the way along. Then the measurement Is
sometimes made months before the calcula-
ton is made, because the measurement consti-
tutes the taking Of these notes and the reduc-
ton of them. The calculation maybe made i've
years sfterward, and 1t wont affect 1t any at all.
Then these notes were in part plotted upon
those cross-section papers and In part caicu-
lated. So far as they were here plotted and
calculated, | took all the original notes on to
the ground, but these cross-sections, to save
me the necessity of two comparisons, and
noted the heights as nearly as l could estimate
to make up my mind as to their credibility and
correctness. / made up my mind they were
right. Then went to work to examine his
calculations to see whether he had reduced
them right, and made the amount the same
thing, with trihing exceptions, l noted one or
two slight errors. Then for portion Of the
street that he did not have plotted on these
crosssection papers, he furnished me here q
copy of the notes, although I had the original
notes with this. took this, however, upon
the ground, and compared this with the ground,
and made up my mind 1t was credible, and then
reduced these myself without plotting.
| Q. Then your measurement, If nothing wa
included In the work besides what was origin
ally measured or plotted, you we've absolutely
| correct; but suppose, now, that there been an
intersection, or piece of ground that had been
included in the work, as you have found in sew
eral instances, then that would change the re-
suit, would Il notl A. If there was something
that was outside of those notes 1t would.
| Q. Well, you have found several instances
where there was something outside of the notes
orw here that was the explanation; for instance
- A. do not remember such q case.
O. On Virginia atenuel A. Yes, sir; so far
as the claims against the Government were
concerned, but not with reference to the con
| tractors. do not remember any case Of that
kind with reference to the contractors; but
will jsst say that liz this quantity there is In
cluded here a small amount, IA yards, II re
/ collect Alright, that is not. included In thest
notes for work at the intersection of Massacbu
sets avenue that this man did outside of thu
notes as was explained to me; that Is, tina
statement was stated to me. did not go z
have them show me where these IA yard
4
about ". The amount being so small / re
ceiyed their statement and put that In.
Q. Then you put something In besides what
was in this original measurement A. did.
O. Do you not think that the quickest way
would have been to have had Forsyth there To
close the whole case and make It absolute, and
ascertain If there was anything else outside,
and then we would have had everything with
out calling witnesses to have further eXamin-
alton. There is no doubt about your calcula-
ton, determining with certainty 80 far as you
| went, aud probably IL Is accurate throug bout
but then, II you had called on Mr.. Forsyth,
you would have known whether he had any
further explanation, whether he had put any
thing else in besides that 700 yardsf A. sup
pose If had called on Mr.. Forsyth, and he
had made an explanation Of that kind, It would
have made It unneeessaryto examine me. Per
haps It would, and perhaps not do not know
about that. -..F.. .-...
Q. You cannot sayi A. cannot say about
that; but certainly thought when had COM
inundated with the engineers Of the board
without knowing that Mr.. Forsyth was con-
cerned in that matter until after was done,
that they would send to me the man who was
interested In the subject. will just say one
thing further, 50 far as am concerned, indi-
| vidually, without rejecting, with all due defer
encs to the committee and everybody else, that
| II were expected, when called upon to make
examinations Of this kind, to hunt up every
subordinate engineer that was interested In
the matter, should beg leave to be excused.
Mr.. Mattingly. Mr.. Clephane, who was a
contractor on Twelfth street, desires to make
an explanation of that, to show that he did
not profit by the mistake.
LEWIS CLEPHANE RECALLED.
simply desire to state, as q matter of fact,
do not know whether there Is any error OF
not in that measurement. / wish simply 10
state that gave that work out to Gleason t o
do, and paid him precisely what was paid me
by the board. If there Is any error, I do not
know anything about it. That was Mr.. Albert
Gleason,
By Mr.. Wilson: Q. Did you do the pavingi
A. Yes, sir.
@. You got the contract for the grading and
paving, and let cut the grading to Mr.. Gles-
soai A. Yes, sir. The grading was given
previously.
By Mr. Cbristy: Q. Do you know who COM
posed the finance committee Of the Freed
mans Bank in the fall Of 1871 A. was one
of them.
Q. Was not Henry D. Cooke anotheri A.
Yes, sir.
Q. And William 8. Huntingdon A. Yes,
sir.
The committee here adjourned to 2p. m.
and, upon reassembling, adjourned, without
taking any additional testimony, until to-mor-
row morning, May %, 1874.