Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1880-06-18
CREDIT MOBILIER.

GarHeld's Answer to his Constituents.
From Garfield's Address to his district, 1876.
neither purchased nor agreed to purchase
the Credit Mobilier stock which Mr.. Ames
offered to sell me, nor did l receive any
dividend arising from it. Thisappears not
only from my own testimony, but from
that first given by Mr.. Ames, which is not
overthrown by his subsequent statements,
and is strongly confirmed by the fact that in
the case of each of those who did purchase
the stock there was produced as evidence
of the sale eithera certificate of stock, re-
ceipt of payment, a check drawn in the
name of the payee, or entries in MIR. .Ames's
diary of a stock account marked adjusted
and closed, but that no one of these evil
dences existed in reference to me. This pO-
sition bis further confirmed by the sub
sequent testimony of Mr.. Ames, who,
though he claimed that did receive 1929
from him on account of stock, yet he re-
peatedly testified that beyond that amount
1 never received or demanded any
dividend that none was ever offered to
me, nor was the subject alluded to in con-
versation. Mr.. Ames admitted in his
testimony that after December, 1867, the
various stock and bond dividends amounted
to on aggregate of more than 800 pei
cent, and that between January, 1865, and
May, 1871, all these dividends were paid to
several of those who purchased stock. My
conduct was wholly inconsistent with the
supposition of such ownership, for dur
ing the year 1869 l was borrowing money
to build house in Washington and secur-
ing my creditors by mortgages on my
property, and all this time it is admitted
that l received no dividends and claimed
none. The attempt to prove sale of the
stock to me is wholly inconclusive, for il
rests first on check payable to Mr.. Ames
himself, concerning which he said severa
times in his testimony he did not know tc
whom it was paid, and, second, upon loose
undated entries in his diaries, which
neither prove sale of the stock or any
payment on it. The only fact from which
it is possible for Mr.. Ames to have inferred
an agreement to buy the stock was the
loan to me of $500. But that loan was
made months before the check of June 90,
| 1868, and was repaid in the winter of 1869,
and after that date there were no transac
tions Of any sort between us, and before
the investigation was ended Mr.. Ames ad
mitted that on the chief point of difference
between us he might be mistaken.
That the offer which Mr.. Ames made tt
me, as l understood it, was one which in
volved no wrong or impropriety. hat
no means of knowing and had no reasol
for supposing that behind this offer to sci
me a small amount Of stock lay hidden :
scheme to defraud the Pacific railroad ant
imperil the interest of the United States
and on the first intimation of the real ma
ture of the case Ideclined any further con
sideration of the subject. That whatever
may have been the facts in the case
stated them in my testimony as l have al
ways understood them, and there has beel
no contradiction, prevarication nor eva
sion on my part.
If there be citizen of the United State!
who is willing to believe that for 1929
have betrayed away my good name and t.
falsehood have added purjury, these word
are not addressed to him. II there be on
who thinks that any part of my public lif'
has been gagged on so low level as thes
charges would place it, l do not addres
him. I address those who are willing t.
believe that it is possible for a man t.
serve the public without personal dishonor
have endeavored in this review to poin
out the means by which the managers o
corporation wearing garb of honorable
industry have robbed and defrauded a grea
national enterprise, and attempted by Gun
ming and deception, for selfish ends, to en-
list in it's interests those who would hav
been the first to crush the attempt hat
their objects been known.