National Republican., 1880-03-02
lei PuHO DOunplly

In order that the country may know what
kind of q man this Donnely, who is trying to
steal Congressman Washburn's seat, is, and
what kind of IL legislator he was when In Con-
gress attention is called to the fact that he
was one of the chief figures In the famous
Fremont-El Paso scheme that had its birth in
the Credit Mobiller times, SO fruitful of all
schemes of corruption. A bill TO incorporate
the Memphis g. FL Paso Railroad Company, of
which John q. Fremont was the president and
parent, passed the United States House of
Representatives In 1869, that being the last
year of Donnelly's service in Congress, and
was pending in the Senate when Congress ad-
journed on March Of that year. During
that year agents of the company were in
Washington distributing freely what pur-
ported TO be stock aud bonds of this corpora
tion, which never could have any value un-
less Congress should pass tho bill aud give the
company tho land grant therein provided for.
On the strength Of this legislation Fremont
and his friends put their securities afloat
oil the Paris bourse and received subscriptions
to the amount of nearly four million dollars
Some OF the perpetrators of this monstrous
fraud died in French prisons for their crinle
but the money thus obtained was largely spent
in corrupting American ConPressmen. The
FL Paso Company voted 500 900. 900 to be issued
in certificates of stock and due bills of the
company for this purpose. Among those to
whom the company extended its muniicence
was lgnatius Donnelly, to whom was issued
| 100000 of the company's stock and $500 900 of
its certificates, which were to be paid from
the proceeds of the bonds sold In Paris The
following extract from the proceedings of the
executive committee of tho company, had
after the transaction, shows that the transac-
tion In which Mr.. Donnelly was interested
was distinctly approved and the certificate and
due bill properly issued
The committee also approve of transfer of e90O,
900 stock made by W. Schmole TO Ignatius DON
nelly, and authorize said Schmole to pay said Dom
nelly due bill of $4,000 out of the proceeds of a
loan In Paris as fast as convenient, said due bill
being signed by j. @. Fremont and B. III. Epperson.
| and dated February, 1862 and TO be considered as
n retaining fee for the said Donuely rs counsel for
| this company.
| The Now York Sun, which made these reve-
lations at the time, commented thereupon in
the following strain;
If these documents do not starte tho country,
| like an explosion in the night We NAV safely cor.
clude that all moral sense Is dead IN the public breast
aud the experiment of republican institutions near
It's final catastrophe. We are sure that no honest
man will rise from the perusal of this shameful
page t?rn from the secret history of Congress and
the lobby, without an impulse to seize the scourge
and drive the there's from pOlOer.
Tho Democratic New York World, of the
same date, commented as follows:
one thing the people can do. They can pt a
stigma on Ne rdscdS thus exposed and make their po-
litical banishment deserved social ban For this
reason, and this only, they ought now TO be made.
Mr.. Donnelly was member of the Mime
sofa State Senate when this scandal came out,
and the Democracy of Minnesota had just had
him in nomination for the United States Senate,
but they were so scandalized by the revelations
that they ceased voting for him from that
time, and he has been spewed out by the De-
mocracy of that state ever since.