The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1876-09-28
REFORM MAY BE SECURED.
(THoMAs A, HENDRICKs,)
The Truth Of the Alton and Terre Haute
Matter Clearly Settled.

These charges against Mr.. Tilden de-
serve some attention, because they affect
the character of a man who, it is not at
all unlikely, will be for four years Pres
ident of the country. They are sup
posed to go to the root of his character,
and to show him to be not merely unfit
for public life, but for decent position
of any kind. They are said, in fact, to
show his whole career to be one of Chi
cane, fraud, and robbery, and to exhibit
him as only differing from man like
Fisk, jr., or Jay Gould in not having
openly thrown off all restraint. We have
carefully examined the principal one of
these charges, in fact, the only one
brought forward I'M tangible form, which
relates to the st. Louis, Alton and Terre
Haute railroad, and find that it rests on
these facts:
In 1859, some seventeen years ago,
there was Western railroad called the
Terre Haute, Alton, and St. Louis Rail-
rood, which got into difficulties and
could not pay the interest on its bonds.
The bondholders determined to foreclose
the mortgages under which the bonds
were issued and reorganize the road.
They accordingly appointed Mr.: Tilden
and several other gentlemen, who were
selected on account Of their knowledge of
law or skill in railroad matters, to do the
business for them. These gentlemen,
forming what was called the "purchas-
ing committee" of the road, bought the
road in at foreclosure sale, and sold it
again to a new reorganized company, re-
ceiving in return new securities, which
they were to distribute among their
principals on the basis of agreement
made with them. There were at the
end of these proceedings number of Sc
curities still rndistributed, which the
purchasing committee divided among
themselves, either for their services or
for other reasons satisfactory to the par
ties concerned. 1t does not appear that
there was any concealment of these facts,
or any complaint made by anybody to
whom Mr.. TIlden and his co-purchasers
stood in the relation of trustees.
Indeed, so far from this being the case,
the purchasing committee, while having
under their agreements the right to ex-
clude any persons from the benefits of
IuC stlICI 1CO1, LUX
no advantage of this right, but admitted
claimants down to 1865, and have never
excluded anybody. Besides this, they
say that, in purchasing the road in their
own name, they assumed heavy liabili-
ties, some of which are still outstand-
ing; that they performed many services
for which they could get no remunera-
ton except from the surplus in their
hands; that the whole remuneration
arising from this surplus would not pay
each member of this committee, at the
outside, three-qua-ters of one per cent.
of the nominal amount of the securities
which passed through the hands of the
committee-a small remuneration that
the net result of the whole operation
was to greatly benefit the road, ad-
yancing the securities from twice to
eight times as much as they were worth
before. ..... ..-:.,..
The present managers of the road,
who are not the persons who employed
Mr.. Tilden, and have, so far as it ap-
pears, no relation with him of any kind,
now make claim upon him and the
members of the committee for an ac-
count, to which he and the other mem
bers reply that it is none of their bust
ness. One of the members of the COM
mittee has very frankly told the plain
tits that he does not pretend to under
stand the legal rights of the matter,
tLat he has number of the bonds, and
is perfectly willing to surrender them if
ordered to do so by any competent au-
thority. The only question apparently
involved in the case is one purely legal,
whether there is any relation Of princi-
pal and agent or trustee and beneficiary
existing between the purchasing COM
mittee and the road, as it at present ex-
lists, which authorizes an account in
between them, and the litigation is of a
kind to which any lawyer might una
Voidably become party. The road says
there is; Mr.. Tilden and the other mem
bers of the committee say there is not,
and naturally decline to give up their
books. 1t is obvious that in doing this
hey simply act so as to guard their own
rights, for it must be remembered that
they admit the existence of persons to
whom they did stand in relation of
agents; and if they have any property in
their possession for which they owe any
account, it may be to those principals
that they owe it, and if they do not want
to pay it twice over to two different sets
of people, they must resist with every
means IN their power the claim now made
upon them. There are no indicia of
fraud about the case, and, so far as ap-
pears, its use by Republicans organs, in
its present unsettled state, to prove Mr.,