Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1876-06-01
WASHINGTON.
Con ftnuatiOR of the Blaine InvestIga-
ttOn-Harney, Speaker HerE's
"main" Witsess, Fails TO
Appear.
BLAINE.

he never said that he gave Blaine onC
hundred and thirty Thousand dollars IL
bonds of the Little Rock and Fort SmitE
railroad without consideration, nor hsC
he ever said any thing Of this nature
nor had he as mstter OF fact ever giveI
Blaine one hundred and thiaty Thousand
! dollars in bonds with u. consideration;
never sold any tOnds % Colonel Ton
Scott, and never saw him but once il
his life, and that WAS in 1861; witness
never sold any bonds 10 Blaine, but solo
hin9 some stock; understood that Blaine
owned some Of the bonds, and thinks
that Blaine himself told him so; does
not know what he did with them, and
does not know that any Of them found
their way to the Union Pacific COM
paDy.
Mr.. Hunter read to witness a report
in a paper that he said he gave Mr..
Blaine one hundred and thirty thousand
| dollars in bonds without consideration,
and asked witness if he said so.
Witness replied that he never said 80,
nor anything like it.
By Mr.. Frye-As matter Of fact, did
you ever give Mr.. Blaine one hundred
and thirty thousand dollars in bonds
without consideration?
WlIu6eS-NO, ST.
Witness never was connected with the
Union Pacific company, don't know
Morton, Bliss & Co., and never had any
transactions with them. The bonds
spoken of By witness as being owned by
Blaine he understood were bought by
Blaine for other parties.
Elisha Atkins, of Boston, testifi cd
that he had been q director Of the Union
nd han
been a member Of the executive COM
mittee all the time except in 1871; first
knew about the Fort Smith and Little
Rock bonds in 1871, when an order came
to the treasurer to pay draft OF Morton,
Bliss d 20. for siXty-fOur thousand dol
lars for seventy.fve Of them owned by
Thomas A. Scott; understOOd it was in
lieu Of paying large salary to Scott;
Scott was OF immense value to the road,
and increased the market value OF its
securities; always supposed that Scott
took hold OF the Union Pacific in order
to make a connection to the Pacific
coast for the Pennsylvania Central road !;
the bonds OF the Little Rock road were
worth about sixty cents on the dollar;
think that was their general value at
that time, although 1 know that some
of them were sold as high IS seventy-one
cents. Witness would not have sold his
own at that time for sixty cents, but
made mistake by not doing so; if the
arrangements had been carried out with
the Southern security company the
bonds would have been very cheap at
sixty cents; no bonus accompanied the
sale Of Scott's bonds; witness knew
that some inquiry was made in the
board of directors about the purchase of
these bonds, and a satisfactory explana-
ton was given; never heard that an in
vestigatiOn would involve Blaine.
James Mulligsn, Of Boston, testified
that he was treasurer of the Globe
theatsr, but was formerly book. keeper
for firm in which Mr.. Fisher wss
partner; knew or sale OF Fort Smith
bonds that went into the hands OF Mr..
Blaine; knows of no particular sale OF
seventy-five bonds to Blaine; in the
transactions there were one hundred aud
thirty thousand dollars of these bonds,
and the sale Of them netted Mr.. Fisher
fOrty-five per cent. on their par value.
The witness attempted to explain this
transaction by Frye on behalf Of Blaine,
but objected to on the ground that it re-
lated to quite number of persons in
Maine for whom Blaine transacted some
business, and whenever the committee
was ready to go into that Blaine would
take the stand as q witness and explain
the whole transaction. Much time was
spent on this point, during which the
witness made some statements about
the matter not very Ineligible to the
committee.
Witness was asked whether he ever
heard that any of these bonds went
from Blaine to Thomas A Scott, and re-
piled that he understood Mr.. Atkins to
say that seventy-five bonds came from
Blaine to Scott, and that Scott got them
off on the Union Pacific company; this
remark was made to the witness at the
time when the latter was book-keeper
for Fisher; was engaged in making
settlement with Blaine of all his trans.
actions with Fisher, and about the same
time witness understOod from Blaine
himself that he took some bonds from
parties in Maine who had formerly pur-
chased them; Fisher wrote to Blaine
about the bonds, which had been nego-
tiated by Blaine, telling him of the COM
plants of the purchasers, and Blaine
wrote back that he had received DO ben.
eft from them, ard that he did not have
the money in his possession; forty.eight
hours afterward witness met Blaine at
the Parker house, in Boston, and Blaine
said he was going to settle with wit
ness, referring to the account between
Blaine and Fisher, Blaine being book
keeper; Blaine complained at that time
of mis- losses on the bond transaction,
and witness said he could not have lost
much, for he knew where he got of
seventy.tive OF them at eighty cents.
By Mr.. Lswrence-Did the settle
h 81 70
Pacific bonds or Little Rock bonds?
Ans.-To both.
By Mr.. Blaine-I have had business
transactions with the cashier for twenty
years and this settlement covered all
that time.
Witness-Some OF the transactions
settled at that time took place before
Mr.. Blaine came to congress at all.
Mr.. Blaine thOnght the COM
mittee had nothing to do with his pri-
vste business transactions which took
place years before he became member
Of congress, and Frye and Lawrence
objected to having witness go into the
items of that settlement.
The chairman said that he desiIed to
keep in the bounds Of the resolution of
inquiry, but wanted to get all the facts.
Witness said the settlement had moth
ing to do with the bonds which he had
supposed went through Colonel Scott to
the Union Pacific company.
Some members Of the committee not
understanding all the testimony given
by witness, VINO spoke In low tone Of
voice, and who repeated his statements
sometimes not very clearly, the steno-
grapher was directed to have his testi-
mony written cut for the use OF the COM
mittee, and his further examination was
postponed till tomorrow.
After the adjournment Of the commit
tee, witness said he never told Mulligan
that the sixty-five bonds were sold by
Blaine to Colonel Scott, who got them
off on the Union Pacific company, but
that in the conversation alluded to it
was Mulligsn himself that made this
assertion.
Atkins and Fisher will again take the
stand to morrow for examination on this
point.
KERR,
Harney not reappearing to-day before
the committee on expenditures in the
4lo Kerr fioY1