The true northerner., 1876-03-10

wanted TO examine me they would ap-
| point subcommittee and come over
to New York to do SO. lie came TO my bedroom
and / told him to go into the sitting room and
draw sketch OF the proposed letter, and that
when dressed would join him, and | would
write such letter as he wanted il l could
wrote letter from the sketch OF Tomlinson.
| The endeavor was to exculpate the Secretary.
There was nothing in IL untrue To the best OF
my recollection, but il did not state the whole
truth. 1t was a very short letter. He took it
with the contract inclosed. He said he would
take the letter and contract to Blackburn, who
would show it to the committee, and that would
| be the end of il. He left my house at o'clock
Friday morning. At midnight Friday uight
was reused up and had the subpoena of the
committee served on me. Saturday morning
about o'clock, DIR. Tomlinson again APP
peared. He said he had been to Washing
ington. He wanted to know, the first thing,
| II had been subpenaed. L told him L had.
He began talking the whole thing over
again, still wanting me to say before the COM
mittee what was suggested at the Secretary's at
the interview OH Thursday night. He wanted
me to telegraph to the committee before whom
l mad been subpDnaed by telegraph to appear
the next morning friday that my wife was
SICK and that / could not attend. My wife
being sick, / consented, and did 20 telegraph.
Recurring to the interview again on Saturday
| morning / said could not make the statement
he desired. He said he had seen Mr.. Black
burn in the interval, and had shown him the
letter of Thursday night. lie then returned
| il and the contract tome. i said: =" DR.. Tom
linson, / have thought of this thing 40 much
that it has nearly made me crazy. am not
going to talk about it any more. We will go
down to my lawyer and consult him about 1t
my object being to have u lawyer to tell him
how ridiculous the story he wanted me TO tel
would appear before the committee We
went down and called on Bartlett, and
/ told him the whole truth in the presence of
Tomlinson. Bartlett said | could not manu-
facture any story if 1 wanted and must not if
/ could. DR.. Tomlinson still insisted that il
could swear that Gen. Belknap knew nothing
OF the arrangement with his sister or Mrs.
Belknap (deceased), and could swear that at
the time l was at her funeral L made an AZ
rsngement with Mrs. Bowers, the present Mrs.
Belknap, by which L was TO send her all this
money through the Secretary that the whole
thing would still be settled. replied, " can
not state it, for il is not true, my impression
then being that at that funeral had said some-
| thing about the matter to Gen. Belknap. Mr..
Tominson said, "lf you cannot swear to that
you had better leave the country" Mr.. Bart
lett said, This is bad business. 1t is not
a legal question you have submitted to
me, and in the position OF affairs the
Secretary of War should decide il you
should so to Washington or leave the coun-
try" DIR. Tomlinson said he would return
lO NhSnliblOn. Ue prepared TWO 1OTfnulhs OF
kilograms which | would understand. One
WAS, Il hope your wife is well" and was TO be
. interpreted Leave the country. The other
was, Il hope your wife is better" which
meant Come to Washington" We then
parted going homo in the street cars, think
ing the whole thing over. About the conversa-
ton at time of the funeral, | made up my mind
that although l had stated to Mr. Bartlett that
/ thought l had had some conversation at the
| time of the funeral with the Secretary of War
about sending this money, yet | was 80 unde-
cided about it that / was certainly willing TO
give the Secretary the benefit of the doubt
thought would sec Tomlinson and tell him.
He was to leave for Washington at O'clock.
| went to the depot and met him. and told him
that on thinking over the matter ! was 80 un-
. decided about the conversation with the Sec
retary at the time of the funeral that /
would give him the benefit of the doubt.
He said, Il am very glad to hear this, because
my sister, Mrs Belknap, said this was the
TACT. That Saturday evening L got a tele-
graphic dispatch from Mrs. Beknap which
said; Come to Washington tonight. 1t is
necessary. L received IL III the evening. The
hext morning (last Sunday j received dis
patch from DIR. Tomlinson. :" hope your wife
is better which, according to our agreement,
meant, Come to Washington. In the after
noon l got dispatch from DIR. Tominson, al
follows: Come without fail. Answer" /
answered, 81 shall come tonight, without
fail. was very glad not to have to leave the
country. the conviction having grown on my
mind that it would do no good. / reached
Washington yesterday morning at $3.50. and
stopped at the Arlington, my wife being with
me, and was shown to temporary room.
About o'clock / laid down, being greatly
fatigued, and about 8 o'clock DR.. Tomlinson
called me TO the door Of his room. He said he
had seen Blackburn, and that he still thought
this matter could be fixed up without any
trOuDlp Ha QakpI m IL had tho lattar baH
written to the committee on Thursday night. /
said had not. He said Blackburn says Won
had better write another Of the same purport,
and send ii up to the committee with a note ex-
planning why it did not come sooner" / did
80. The note and letter were marked b. c.
Shortly before 2 p. III. yesterday / came 10 the
Capitol TO meet tue committee, and DR.. Tom
Hnson found me III the corridor near the COM
mittee-room door, He said You are Ding
before the committee, and want you toreL en-
Der that there was no arrangement with YOU
and the Secretary of War at the time of the
funeral. and that the money you have always
paid to Gen. Belknap was for Mrs. Belknap and
by her directions i told him / was going be-
fore the committee 10 tell the whole story 80
far as could recollect it said II had thought
OF leaving the country, but was overruled, and
now shall ,ell the truth, the whole truth
and nothing but the truth He said, - don't
want you to tell any lies. i only want YOU
to tell the truth and that was the truth"
said, The truth shall certainly tell and if it
does not hurt Gen. Belknap, no one will be
more rejoiced than myself | entered the
commttee-room about 2 o'clock yesterday, and,
without being sworn l made statement to
certain members of the committee of the facts
in the case, more briefly hut substantially as |
have now answered in reply to your interroga-
tories. When / returned to the hotel yester-
day afternoon DIR. Tomlinson was waiting at
my room at the Arlington to see me. He asked
me how | got along with the committee. /
told him / had told the story from beginning to
end, and. at the request Of gentlemen present
was going to reduce 1t to writing, and appear
before the committee to-day at 1890 with II.
lie wanted to know how had stated the fact
that all these payments to tho Secre-
tary had been made in consequence
of the original agreement with Mrs.
Belknap. l said / had stated the
facts AZ they were, according to my best recol-
lection and belief. told him / would furnish
him copy of the statement was to make be-
fore the committee. l prepared the statement
iast night, and gave him a copy about O'Clock
this mornings copy of that
submitted as an answer to your chief inteirog-
atorles. say that have filled up the blanks.
Mr.. Tominson came back to my room about z
O'Clock last evening, and j asked him whether
he had seen Mr. Blackburn since l had made |
my statement in the afternoon and what inn |
preston IT had made upon tho gentlemen who |
heard it. Tie said he dii not like to say he had !
seen Mr.. Blackburn, but lie said he had soen
Que OF the committee, who expressed the opinion |