The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1880-08-05

GOlysr & McClelland, dated June
| 25, 1872)-'An additional amount of
| $4,000 square yards viii be awarded
you SO soon as the Board are reim-
Ibursed by the General Government
on account Of expenditures around
public buildings and grounds, or you
Wrll be allowed to lay this season If
you can wait until an appropriation
is made for this purpose, at $3.50
per square yard. What do you say
on your testimony that word 'appro-
priatlon' means in your testimony
A. Imean an appropriation by Con
gress to pay for the work
Q. Do you understand that Con
gress appropriated money to pay for
this pavement? A. I say that Con
gress did make an appropriation.
In the first place, the certificates of
The Board Of Public Works, which
are simply certificates of indebted
ness, have been assumed by subse-
qusnt legislation of Congress. That
is what understand to be the fact
20 ButI ask you if this apprO-
pristiOn referred to here is an appro-
pristiou by Congress to pay for this
pavement A. I mean to be un-
derstood as saying that the -I5O, 600
square yards awarded there has come
to be chargeable upon subsequent
appropriations, and I mean to say
also that the $4,000 square yards
was awarded upon the express con
ditiOn that the parties should wait.
until an appropriation should Be
made by Congress which would cover
the expenditures 5
''Mr. Garfeld-Mr. Chairman, I
never saw this contract before, but I
want to say a word in regard to the
word appropriation used in it. 1T.
has no more reference to Congress
than to Great Britain. The Board
of.Publie Works, under the general
law and the legislation Of the Dis
triet Government, made the appro-
priatons themselves, and taxed the
people of the District along the
streets where these improvements
we're made BY the front foot and L
in common with other prOperty-hold-
ers in the District, paid my assess
ment levied by the Board of Public
Works for the improvements made
IN front Of my property /; and the ap-
preparation here referred ta is the
appropriation BY the District Gov
ernment, either out of the funds that
it had raised by bonds issued on the
credit of the DistEieE on by assess
ments by the District authorities
upon the people whose properly was
improved
And then Mr.. Garfield told the
whole story himself. as follows
"a day or two before the adjourn
ment Of Congress. which adjourned
in the latter part of May or the first
part Of June, 1872, Richard @. Par
cons, who was a practising lawyer in
Cleveland, but was then The Marshal
Of the Supreme Court, and an old
acquaintance Of mine, came to my
house and said he was called away
summarily by important business ;
that he was retained in a case on
which he had spent a great deal Of
time, aud that there was but one
thing remaining to be done, to make
brief of the relative merits Of a
large number Of wooden -pavements !;
that the Board of Public Works had
agreed that they would put down a
ceftsin amount of wooden pavement
in the city, a certain amount Of con
crete, and q certain amount of other
kinds of pavement; that they had
fixed the price at which they would
pat down each of the different kinds,
and that the only thing remaining
was to determine which was the best
pavement of each of these several
kinds. He said he should lose his
fee unless the brief on the merits Of
these pa7ements was made, and that
be was suddenly and necessarily
called away home, and he asked me
to prepare the brief. He brought
his papers to my house and models
of the pavement. I told him I could
not look at the case until the end Of
the session. When Congress ad-
journed I sat down to the case, in
the most open manner, as I would
prepare q brief for the Supreme
Court, and worked upon this matter.
There were perhaps forty kinds OF
wood pavement, and several chemical
analyses Of the ingredients Of the diff
f6rent pavements. I went over the
whole ground carefully and thor
oughly, and prepared q brief on the
relative claims of these pavements
for the consideration of the Board
That was all I did I had nothing
to do with the terms Of the contract;
I knew nothing of its conditions, and
1 never had a word to say about the
price of the pavement. I knew no
thing about it; I simply made a
brief upon the relative merits Of the
various patent pavements; and itno
more occurred to me that the thing /
was doing had relation to a ring, OF
to a body Of men connected with any
scheme, or IN any way connected
with Congress, or related IN any way
to any of my duties In connection
with the Commit on APpropria
tions, than it occurred to me that it
was interfering with your personal
rights as a citizen: I prepared the
brief and went home Mr.. Parsons
subsequently sent me q portion Of
his own fee. A year later, when the
affairs of the District of Columbia
came to be Overhauled, Congress be- |
came satisfied that the Government
of the District had better be abol- |
ished, and this whole matter was
very thoroughly investigated by !
committee Of the two Houses. They
went into the question Of the merits |
of this pavement, some claiming that |
it was bad, and some claiming that /
the Government had paid too much |
for it. Mr.. Chittenden was called as |
a witness. 1 ought to say here that |
I never saw Mr.. Chittenden until |
about the time ] made the brief; I