Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1879-10-09

with the full freedom of my associate to de.
feat it at homer The question answers
itself. The thing is too absurd for belief.
1t is contradicted by your letter and your
telegram which intrusted to my care bust
ness matter OF importance, which | should
have been the most foolish OF men to uu.
dertake while leaving you free to swing
round the circle" in the way you did here
Immediately after was gone
That Mr.. Tilden was conscious that he
had not done the square thing" but had
taken mean advantage of my absence,
and done that of which he ough, /, be
ashamed, was sufficiently shown by me
pains he took to avoid me on my return. |
did not mourn his absence, but it did seem
strange that after following me up day and
night for months he dropped away so sud.
denly. He says to q reporter that she
thinks he once sent to my Office to inquire
when / would be in" No such message
was ever received. But what need of a
message? | was in my Office constantly
when in town, or at my house III Gramercy
park, few steps from Mr.. Tldens door.
He could have seen me at any time in FIVE
minutes if he wished. But he was nearer
still. At a meeting of the directors he was
IN the neat room, where he could, and proba-
bly, did, hear my voice. He had often been
present at our meetings. He had now but
TO open the door and walk in. But instead
of that he put on his hat and walked out.
l have not meet him since the day sailed
for England.
am well aware that some of my friends
think | show an undue degree of feeling in
this matter, that am more excited than the
occasion calls for and that l complain of
what is, after all, but very common form
OF sharp practice. Men shrug their shout.
ders and say, "Such things are done in
Wall street every day." Yes, but they are
not done by "a" President-elect eff the United
States" But no matter by whom they are
done, they show a low standard of CONNER
cial morality and how the greed for money
has eaten like dry-rot into the very core of
our national character. Some think il hope
less to raise the standard in this respect
Certainly it never will be raised so long as
men keep silent about it. And | must say IN
all frankness that "good men" and "hon-
orable men" have themselves partly to
blame for this shameful state of things. 1t
is their cowardice in submitting to wrong
that encourages its repetition. | think it is
time the thing was checked, and | mean to
do my small part, by Gods help, towards
checking it; and ! know of no better way
than by singing out the most conspicuous
instance of all my business experience
conspicuous alike by the position of the
/
and holding it up as a warning and an ex.
ample.
| / am sorry to have to speak again of Mr..
Pelton. There were matters which in my
letter | passed over gently or in silence,
from a wish not to wound him. But his
uncle pushes him into such prominence, to
my disparagement, that | must needs say a
few words more. Mr.. Tilden thinks that
Pelton is not appreciated; that he is man
of great ability, whose retirement from the
company was loss not to be repaired. He
said:
| Colonel Peton set in motion the enterprise He
organized it with great administrative ability, and
| carried il forward towards completion. He ena-
| bed the enterprise to survive the immense inca
pacity of Mr.. Field. After awhile he alienated the
| directors by taking upon himself to do things
| without consulting them.
| If Mr.. Pelton was so valuable to the COM
pany why did every man of the directors
insist that he should instantly resign or be
removeds He knows only too well why he
had to resign. Yet when the necessity
became imperative, Tilden still clung to
Pelton, and came to my house again and
again and begged that he might be allowed
| to remain.
Field charged in his first statement
that Tilden urged Pelton upon the
directors as trustworthy, honorable
man, yet at the same time knowing that
he had been engaged in the negotiation
for the purchase of electoral votes to
secure the presidency for his uncle.
This Tilden denies, saying that he did
not know of the cipher dispatches and
the negotiations which they covered
until they were published in the New
York Tribune, in the fall of 1878,
and that he so testified to the
investigating committee in February
last. Fields rejoinder upon this point
is crushing in its force. Hequotes from
Tilden's testimony just alluded to- and
shows from it that Tilden admitted that
Pelton went to Baltimore during the
tendency of the presidential contro-
versy; that the next day he sent back to
Cooper telegram, partly in cipher,
upon him the next day for $50, 900 or
more; that Cooper Immediately informed
him of this dispatch; that he knew that
Pelton had received an offer for the sale
of an electoral vote from South Caro-
lima, and that was what the money
wanted related to; that he and
Cooper agreed that Pelton must be i'm.
mediately recalled, and the transaction
must be stopped. This, of course, puts
an end to all pretense OF Tilden that he
did not know anything to peiton's dis
advantage when lie strongly recon-
mended him to the confidence and favor
of the directors of the elevated railway
company, for this was in June, 1877,
whereas the Baltimore episode in Pei
tons career occurred in November, 1876.
The truth is that Pelton is still in the
confidence of his uncle, and this fact
alone proves the utter hollowness of
Tilden's pretense of ignorance of the
o;pba, i;r-1uich iDipIIity " ia diff on 4