Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1874-03-30
THE DISTRICT INVESTIGATION.
Proceedings Of the !oiHt Congressional Committee.
consolation Satnrday'S Proceedings

Saturday closed when Peter Mcnamara was
on the witness stand.
PETER N'NAMARA's ST yTRMEST.
Asstated in Saturday sSrAR, Mr.. McNamara
Carroll and George +. Quick, members of the
District Legislature, TO secure for him a grazing
contract. and that he advanced to Carroll al 900
partial payment. The following from the
testimony OF the witness explains the alleged
transaction more fully and the action taken by
Governor Shepherd when he heard of it:
81 believe there WAS some talk about this
thousand dollars between the Governor and me
L suppose it was about a month after the mac
adamiZiDg was abandoned that Mr.. Carroll
came TO me, upon my own pavement, when !
vas in a buggy, and asked me il had any mo-
reg. / had at that time between twenty five
and thirty dollars in one dollar bills, believe
and ! said, Yes. 4 have money WELL says
he, Il want that other thousand dollars from
YOU. L bought house over by the market.
and L want TO pay for IL this very day. "A
thousand dollars for what says L. Says he,
Pennsylvania avenue 1 said, Il see plainly
that you have not good sense He says, Il will
be darned II haven't got that much sense
have worked hard for you aud Mr.. Conner and
Mr.. Barnes; and, as hard as have worked for
ySs avn now going to work against you with
s sure enough aDa he would 60 to the Gov;
Cross, hare in the city, very respectable and
responsible mamie was big friend Of mine
and L also knew the Governor thought q great
MIR. Cross and told him what Carroll hal said.
Now" says L" MIR. Gross, believe he is going
to the Governor to speak against me, being as
would not give him the other thousand dollars,
when have no right to give in to him." Now,
did not know whether Mr.. Cross had spoken
TO the Governor or not; but from one word the
Governor said to me, thought he might have
done so, or whether the Governor might not
have found out himself-he is sharp enough to
do so-from what | said. There was another
contractor on Capitol Hill, and he told me Mr..
fNnr rnI
be thought my name was used. Then, of course,
took tt for granted that Carroll had been
speaking to the Governor to do Inc no good,
since refused him the other thousand dollars.
| thought that he had been speaking to the
Governor to do me injury. 1 went to the Gov
MIR. Merrick.-who was the Governor then
A. Oh, mean MIR. Shepherd, and | should
have said the vice president of the Board OF
Public Works. L went 70 the vice presid sut
myself. There were fifty or sixty persons in
the office the same day l went there. Il was
very delicate question. TO approach the vice
president about. | waited until the biggest
portion of them had got done there, and then
| walked over to his desk to him, AMI said to
him u" Mr.. President, has Joe Carroll been
here to talk TO you against me? He says, " No.
Peter, he has not; why do you think So 2"
" Well, l do not know" says l, (" I thought
is the reason you think so ?" Well, thought /
would get away then as quick as 1 could.
" That is all there is about it," says |. "wen,
suppose ne ulu come here 10 speak against you,
what effect would that have. 1 have known
You longer than have known Carroll" "wen,
that Is all L want to say about il, Mr.. Prssi-
dent" says L. then went toward the door.
TO see you one moment" He took me outside.
OF one Of the windows on the porch, so tn at the
clerks could not hear, suppose, and he says to
tween you and Carroll for the contract on Penn
sylvanis avenue" l says, I" Mr.. President, |
don't care about answering that question"
. Well" says he, in very emphatic manner,
- II you do not answer me will cancel the con-
tract before night" 1 then told him. Nov"
says he, they were OF no benefit to you. You
go and get your money back from Carroll, AMI
other man, a dollar, will never, as long A.
am president of the board, give YOU another
piece of work, and will do all in NY power to
keep you from getting any"
Peter also testided that he had loaned NJ,
Barney. one of the engineers of the BoarI of
Public Works, $50. The following evidence
on the point is of interest:
q. Did you mean to offer il to him as a briJe?
Was that your understanding? A. No, sir.
q. Wss it not thousand dollars? A. Ne, SIT;
1t was $50, In five dollar bills. The Governor
and gave me pretty good lecturing about it.
q Did he measure work for you afterward?
A; lie did; and am sorry he did it.
. BY mr.: .Msttingly;IQ; why are You sorry?
feet and upward, 1 believe, of grading up)n
pennsylvania avenue, and he would not give it
to me- 1t was returned by the superintendents
to the office as three feet, but he would not give
It to me, and only gave me, believe, about two
feet and a half
By Representative Bass:-Q. When was this
money returned to you?
The WitDess.-One hundred and ffry dollars?
Representative Bass.-Yes, sir.
Al believe In about three days afterward
!, ne Governor wrote me a note to come, /
DelleVe, 10 bis fhce, and L went to the
office, and he SAYS "Peter, 1 did not think You
had any money to loan out" says: "Neither
l have" He says: Haven't you loaned Mr..
l ut ave-" will state that the money / did loan
him was in yellow envelope. and Ii was stated
on the envelope, "Mr: Barney, will lend You
ing; on the envelope. L saw the Governor was
pulling that envelope out Of his pocket, and
then L knew he knew all about 1t. 1 saw the
envelope with the Writing on it, and then
from MT. Barney" "3ou dido" saws [. "Sss."
says he, 81 did. Now, P eter, }" says he, "if ever
md you again giving or lending money to any
Of Public Works, L will cancel every contract
you have"
Mr.. BARNRY's STATEMENT.
MT. Barney was then sworn, and narrated the
transaction as follows, in answer to the question,
. Be good enough to state the transaction be.
tween Mr.. McNamara and yourself?" A
hardly gave the matter attention enough to
remember 1t. i believe, though, that Mr..
Mcnamara met me on the sidewalk between Ak
and 9th streets one day as / was going to din
ner, and handed me this envelope. Whenever
ne wanted any measurements made of any
81 ading, or anything of that kind done by the
engineers, he would inclOse a little note in an
envelope and hand 1T to me. did not think
about 1t, but just put the envelope in
my POCKET. This was Saturday, and on Sunday
night found what there was in this envelope
happening TO take Ii out of my pocket. 1 saw
what was written on the face Of the envelope
to the effect that Peter McNam1ra
would loan me $50. I didn't want any of his
money, and the next day (Monday) 1 went
down and handed the money to the Governor,
explaining 70 him the circumstances under
which had received 1t.
Y. HOW much money was in that envelope?
A. don't know; i never counted it. I simply
know that on the outside Of the envelope was
written, "McNamara will lend you $50 for 90
DAYS. think, and he signed his name.
=. q. There had been no previous communica-
ton between you and him about borrowing
money? A. No, sir.
Q, You then handed the money to Governor
Shepherd? A. Yes, sir.
4. Q. What Communication did you make to
Governor Shepherd? A. 1 simply handed him
the envelope. and told him that Mcnamara had
handed me this money, and asked him to hand
Ii back to him.
Q. Did you have any communication with the
Governor with reference b the further employ
ment Of McNamsra? A. No, sir.
2. Did you mako any statement to him with
reference to the supp0silon Of this being IN at
Tempt 10 bride? A. No, sir; don't think did;
don't recol ect that; 1 can't recollect the con-
verfston. 1 simply know l handed him the
MCNAMARA; did not want 1t. g.
ma a av,u ,tot Inn 20 I'm,