The Portland daily press., 1880-07-07

| lue HOle Ilal referred 10 as pelng nanQeQ q
to me was that should explain how it was
that |, Republican and a Representative,
gave my voice and whatever ability l pos
sessed as a lawyer to save Rebel conspira-
tors from punishment. My answer was,
Hang them, but hang them according to
| law. Applause If you do it otherwise
you commit murder" Now, if any one has
any question to ask upon this subject l shall
be glad to hear it.
THE speaker here paused, but there came
from the audience no response to the re-
| quest.
THE CREDIT MoBILIER.
There is large number of people in the
United States who use the words without
| any adequate idea of what they mean. l
have no doubt that a great many people feel
about it very much as the fisherwoman at
| Billingsgate Market did when Sidney Smith,
| the great humorist of England, came along
and began to talk with her. She answered
back in very saucy way, and he finally be-
| gan to call her mathematical names. He
| called her parallelogram, hypothenuse, a
parallelopipedon, and other such terms, and
she stood back aghast and said she never
heard such nasty talking man in her life,
never was so abused before. Now people
think they have said an enormous thing
| when they say that somebody had something
| to do with the Credit Mobier l ask your
| attention just for a few moments to what
that thing is, and, in the next place to un-
| derstand precisely what it is that l am sup
posed to have to do with it.
| The Credit Mobilier was a corporation
chartered in 1859 by the State of Pennsyl-
vania and authorized to build houses, buy
| lands, loan money, etc. Nothing of conse-
| quence was done with that company until
| the year 1867, when a number of men
bought up whatever stock there was in it,
and commenced to do very large business.
| In the Winter of 1867, Mr.. Train came to
| me and showed me a list of names and sub
| scribers to the stock of the Credit Mobiler
| Company, and asked me to subscribe 81 600
| | should say there were fifteen or twenty
members of Congress on the list, and many
more prominent business men. He said that
the Company was going to buy lands along
the line of the Pacific railroad at places
where they thought there would cities and
villages grow up and develop, and he had no
doubt that the growth of the country would
make that investment double itself in very
short time.
That was the alleged scheme that the Gre
dit Mobilier Company had undertaken--a
thing that if there is any gentleman in War
rem who would feel any hesitancy in buying
it, would be because he did not believe in
the growth OF the country where the busi-
ness was TO be done. That stock was offered
to me as plain business proposition, with
no 1ntlnat1on whatever that it was offered
because the subscribers were members of
Congr ess, for it was offered to many other
people, and no better men live than at least
large number of the gentlemen to whom it
was offered. Some of them took it at once
Some men are cautious about making an in
vestment; others are quick to determine. To
none OF these men was any explanation
made that this Credit Mobilier Company
in nINry tod @F
seven men who owned the principal portion
of the stock, and who had contract with
the directors of the Union Pacific road for
building 900 or 700 miles at an eXtravagant
plice-argely above what the stock was
worth. That was secret held only by those
seven men who owned The principal portion
of the stock. 1t is now understood that Mr..
Oakes Ames, who was the centre of that
company OF seven men, sought to gain the
friendship of fifteen or twenty prominent
congressman, with the view of protecting
himself and the Pacific railroad against any
investigation which might be made; but it
was necessary part of his plan not to di-
vulge that purpose, or in any way intimate
to them that he might draw upon them for
favors. -
Long before any such purpose was real
lied, long before any pressure came upon
Mr.. Ames, most of the men who had been
invited to purchase that stock had either
declined to purchase or had purchased and
realized, or had purchased and sold out.
But, in 1872, in the midst of the Presiden-
tlal campaign, an article was published in
the public journals charging that sixteen
prominent members of Congress-Senators
and Representatives--had sold their votes
for money or stock; that they had accepted
bribes. You remember that was running
for Congress in this district at that time
When the news came / was away in the
Rocky Mountains. / came home, and the
first day after my arrival at Washington /
authorized to be published statement con-
tenaing amnsn GSanSl Df What | knew about the Oakes
pose now and say, and it has been repeattaaRd
hundreds of times in this district, and es-
pecially in this town during the last two
weeks, that Mr. Garfield hedged and denied d
any knowledge of the Credit Mobilier busi-
ness until finally the investigation brought
it out. repeat that on my arrival in Wash
ington / made statement to the correspond
ent of the Cincinnati Gazette, of which the
following is copy;
WASHINGTON, Sept. 15, 1S72-Gen. Gar
field, who has just arrived here from the
Indian country, has to-day had the first
opportunity of seeing the charges connecting
his name with receiving shares of the Credit
Mobiier from Oalles Ames. He authorizes
the statement that he never subscribed for
share Of the stock, and that he never re-
! ceived or saw a share of it. When the
company was first formed George Francis
| Train, then active in it, came to Washirg
| on and exhibited a list of subscribers, of
| leading capitalists, and some members of
| Congress to the stock of the Company. The
| subscription was described as popular one
| of $1,000 cash. Train urged Gen. Garfield
| to subscribe on two occasions, and each
| time he declined. Subsequently he was
tloff f1,o1 1et
| pleted but that chance remained for him
| to subscribe, when he again declined; and
| to this day he has not subscribed for or re-
| ceived any share of stock or bond of the
| company.
| Now, / want my audience to understand
| that in the midst of that storm, and tempest,
| and accusation, and only little while be-
| fore the election, I stated it and let it go
| broadcast to the daily press, that did know
something about the Credit Mobilier; that
had been invited to subscribe to it; that
| had on two occasions discussed the matter;
| that had taken it into considerations and
| that finally had declined to subscribe; that
| never had owned or held a share; had
| never seen a certificate of the stock. Now,
| am not asking you at this moment to dis
cuss the truth of this statement, but only to
| say that | stated it long before there was
| any investigation talked of; that | never
lodged, or evaded, or denied having any
| knowledge of the subject, but at the first
declared plainly and fully what l did know
| about it.
When Congress met, Speaker Blaine and
the rest of us whose names were concerned
| in it at once, on the first morning of the
session, demanded committee of investiga-
ton to go through with the whole subject
from beginning to end. l want those gem
tlemen who talk about Mr.. Garfield being
got after by committees of investigation to
know that no investigation into any pnblic
affair has been held in the last three years
in Washington that have not helped to or
ganize and bring about. Applause.
THE COMMITTEE OF INVESTIGATION.
Now, what was the investigation? You
will remember that before the investigation
had gone far feeling of alarm and excite
ment swept over the wide country that has
hardly been paralleled in American history.
Some men whose names were connected
with the charges of the Credit Mobiller mat
ter, shocked at the terrible charge of bri-
berry thrown at them, in the hurry of the
moment so far forgot themselves as to give
| equivocal answers as to whether they knew