The Brookhaven ledger. (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1875-1883, 1881-06-02
DorsaY'S Gllilt.

!
the Inter Ocean from Little Roc
saws the frauds Of the Star Rout
ring which are attracting the after
ltion of the country, are no news /
Arkansas. Ex Senator Dorsey
connection with them has long bee
suspected. He procured the. a.
lpointmcnt of Ex Gov. 0. A. Hadle
rs Postmaster at Little Rock, sup
posing he could count on his assis
lance in forwarding his schemes ol
the Treasury in connection witt
star routes. Knowing this in Janu
ary, 1878, he sent to Hadley abou
six hundred blank proposals anc
bonds which the ring had printed
for their own use, and which wer'
different in some respects from thos'
printed by the Government and for
warded to bidders with instruction,
to Hadley to get securities on the
bonds, have them signed in blank
approve them as Postmaster and re
turn them to him. This was done
and bonds to the number of four OF
five hundred We've fixed up in this
we.y. The number of routes, ter
minal points. amount of bid and
name of bidders were not inserted
as required by law before being ap-
proved by the Postmaster. These
bonds were then approved by Post
master Hadley. in direct violation
of law, and then sent by express to
Dorsey, then Senator of the Uni
ted States, for such use as he might
make of them. They were not even
straw bonds. Blank bonds were APP
proved on the 10Th of January, 1878,
shipped by Postmaster Hadley per
Southern express, January Goth, to
S. w. Dorsey, and delivered at his
committee room in the Capitol,
January 23rd. The number OF
routes, terminal points, amounts of
bids and bidders names, were then
filled in, and the bidders signatures
attached and acknowledgements ia
ken by Notary Public, one A. T.
Boone, who was a member of the
ring, and dated Washington, Jan.
5th, and other days prior to those
upon which the bonds were dated
and approved. To most of these
bids the name of John NJ. Peck,
Dorsey's brother in-law, was at
tached, and an acknowledgment was
taken by Boone, as Notary Public
but it was afterward discovered that
Peck had not been in Washington
for over o year, and that the sigma
lures were not Peck's, but that he
believed it was written by Joseph
Richards, who, he said, had been
Dorsey's clerk, and he presumed
was authorized to sign his name.
Parties who know Dorsey's hand
writing say the signature resembled
his more than Richards and Peck
suddenly put in an appearance here
day or two since, and it is thought
for the purpose of covering up some
of the operations of the ring. They
have been in close consultation with
Postmaster Hadley and others, but
their plans are not known.
About the time Dorsey sent blank
bonds here to Hadley he sent blanks
to J. H. Clendenning, Postmaster
at Fort Smith, and requested hlm to
procure sureties, approve IN blank,
and return to him. This Clenden-
ming refused to do, and so wrote
Dorsey, and quoted the law making
it penal otfense, punishable in the
Penitentiary for one year or more for
Postmastcrs to approve bonds before
the number and description of route,
amount of bid, and bidders name
was inserted, and bidders had sign.
ed the proposal and made acknowl-
edgment before an officer qualified
to administer oaths. Dorsey has
ever since been an enemy of Clend-
enning. The latter has preserved
Dorsey's letter and his reply there
to. Now it is said by knowing ones
here that Jack Kcrrot, Assistant
Postmaster, who left here suddenly
few days ago, and is charged with
being dcfaulter, did not leave on
that account, and is not a defaulter,
but because he was in possession OF
a great many facts which the Star
Route ring did not care to have
made public. and that they induced
him to leave the country, and then
started the story that he was 4 de
faultcr,