Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1880-07-22
Two Stale ISLANDERS.

ton with the Credit Mobilier and the
De GOlyer pavement. The facts can be
stated in few words; it would be need
less waste of time and space to enter on
a new analysis of the evidence or a dis
cussion of baseless accusations and sus-
picions.
The Credit Mobilier was a corpora
ton organized for the purpose of pur-
chasing and selling railroad securities.
Its avowed objects were honest; its real
aims, after it came into the hands of
Mr.. Oakes Ames and his cOparceners,
was to secure the control of and get the
profits from the Pacific Railroad Com
pany; these were dishonest. 1t was
charged against Mr.. Ames that his busi-
\ ness in Congress was to secure favora-
BILE legislation; that he was intrusted
with certain stock which he Was left to
place where it would do the most good /;
he alleging that his sole purpose was to
secure names that would give the enter
prise weight and character. Stock in
this concern was offered to Mr.. Garfield
by Cakes Ames, who was at the time a
fellow Congressman. Mr.. Garfield,
knowing only the ostensible, not the
real nature of the corporation, took
counsel with two or three business
friends and finally decided not to pur-
chase. He never held a share of the
stock. never saw q certificate, never even
went far enough to examine the charter
and acquaint himself with the real aims
and purposes of the corporation. The
only ground for the assertion that he
purchased stock is the unsupported tes-
timony of Mr.. Oakes Ames; and he con-
tradicted himself. This latter testimony
was offered in the winter of 1878. Suits
had then already been brought against
him by stockholders in the company to
compel him to account fer the dividends
which he had received on this and other
stock left in his hands, and for these
dividends it was necessary for him to
account. In support of his statement
that he had sold $1,000 of stock to Mr..
Garfield he produced memorandum in
his notebook charging the stock to him.
The dividends on this stock would have
paid for the stock and left balance of
1929 to come to the owner; and Mr..
Ames produced check on the Sergeant
alarms of the House, who is accustom-
ed to act as banker for members of the
House, in the following form:
JUNE %, 1868.
"Pay o. A. or bearer three hundred
and twenty-nine dollars and charge to
my account. OAKEs AMEs,"
This check he said he had paid to Mr..
Garfield. He admitted that he never
had made any further payment, though
the stock had earned 500 per cent. in
dividends, that he never had given GER
tifcate to Mr.. Garfield, and that he had
taken no receipt from him; the check
was not endorsed; and the Sergeant-at-
Arms testified that he paid the money to
Mr.. Ames himself, not to Mr.. Garfield.
Mr.. Garfield testified under oath that he
had never purchased any stock, nor
owned nor seen a certificate; and that
the only money transaction he had ever
had with Mr.. Ames was nine months
before the check bore date, when he bor
rowed temporarily of him $500, which
he had repaid over three years before
the investigation into the Credit Mo-
lier began.
The De Golyer contract was contract
for putting down wooden pavement in
Washington. The Beard of Public
Works, a body elected by the citizens of
Washington, at the time made all con-
tracts for public improvements; Con-
gress had nothing whatever to do with
the city administration, except to ap-
propriate to the District a certain
amount each year representing its fair
share of the public expense; the taxes,
so to speak, which the United States
owed to the city for its care of the
streets and squares. After the Beard
of Public Works had decided to put
down certain amount of wooden pave
ment at fixed price, Mr.. Garfield was
requested by the attorney of De Golyer
to act for him in his absence, and pre-
sent the advantages of the De Golyer
pavement for the purpose of securing
the contract to De Goiyer. On this state
of facts it was intimated that he was re-
tanned to secure his vote ia Congress. In
fact, Congress had nothing whatever to
do either with awarding the contract or
fixing the price.
The Credit Mobilier fraud was thor
oughly investigated at the time, and
Republicans and Democrats agreed in
acquitting Mr.. Garfield of all completely
with it. The Hon. ]. S. Black is some
what stalwart Democrat, certainly one
not prejudiced in favor of the Republi-
can leader of the House; and Mr.. Black
wrote in 1873: at is altogether unjust
to put him CMr. Garfeld) on the list of
those who knowingly and willingly join
ed the fraudulent association in ques-
ton" Both the Credit Mobilier and the
De Golyer ISLANDERS were flung at Mr..
Garfield in his subsequent canvass in
the Western Reserve, and before con-
stituency as sensitive to the honor of
their Representative as any constituen-
cy in the nation, and he was vindicated
by triumphant reelection.
A DANGEROUS EMERGENCY.-When a
child is suddenly attacked and threaten
ed with suffocation by the Group, DR..
Thomas Eclectric Oil is precisely the