Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1882-08-29

sibly do him. Being thus pressed I
reluctantly consented to take an i'm
terest, and induced Mr.. Sage and
Mr.. Dillon also to take in interest in
it, Gould, continuing, said that,
according to common report, the
Governor had made some hundreds
of thousands of dollars out OF the
pool, but had not rendered an &C
counting. The Governor way of
acting, he said, had been to let the
fact leak out that he had the authori
ty of Gould, Sage and Dillon to buy
the stock and so raise its price, while
he went the other way and sold at the
high prices thus made
The so-called ''Tillotson charge
which has been extensively circulated
by the Gould Conkling combination
goes back for it's date to the year
1873. The accusation first saw the
light on the 22d of the present
month, when it appeared as a part
of an interview telegraphed from
Saratoga to the Herald. The ac-
cuser is Mr. l.. e. Tillotson, a maker
OF and dealer in telegraph and rail
road supplies-of the kind that Mr..
Gould needs doing business at Nos.
and Dey street, in this city. He
WAS formerly a director of the Ameri
can District Telegraph Company.
Mr.. Cornell controlled $4,000 of the
$4,000 shares OF the company's
stock, and, according to Tillotson,
chat gave him almost absolute con
troll OF the company, which he exer-
| cised with the air of a director.
The company had at this time cash
surplus of $4,000 or 100000. Some
directors wished to have a dividend
| declared, but Mr., Cornell opposed it
and it was deferred In October,
1878, says Mr.. Tillotson, Mr. Cornell
made board of directors to suit
himself, consisting mostly OF his pc
itical friends, but leaving in the
directory the president-E. ". An
drews-and Til'otson Mr.. Cornell
was at this time pecuniarily en-
baTassed. Tillotson suggested he
/ ought -'to avail himself of the OPP
portunity to make some money out
of the District Telegraph stock,
Next day Mr.. Cornell went to Tillot-
son and told the latter, according to
his account, "that he had concluded,
if he could get any money, to go into
/ pool to buy 10000 shares of the
! stock | offered to furnish the
money if he could buy at price that
would be advisable. He then gave
me to understand that he would see
me on the following afternoon.
The. next day, Tillotson says, he
was informed by President Andrews
that Mr. Cornell had been to see the
latter and had obtained $4,000 of
the company money on mis- Cor
nell's) sons note. TlllotsOn asked
Andrews whether there was any col
lateral. and was informed that Mr..
/ Cornell, senior, had put up stock of
the company as collateral, but was
himself the custodian of the stock
III his capacity of treasurer and vice.
president of the company. Andrews
| told IiIlotson that Mr.. Cornell's pur-
pose in getting the money was "un-
douJtedly for specializing in the
stock of the company" Andrews
added that he felt very bad about it,
and had acted as he had simply be-
cause he feared that ne would other>
wise have lost his position. Tillot-
son says he then forwarded his
resignation as a director OF the
company, and sent written commu-
cations to the remaining directors,
''reciting the affair and warning them
of the danger of such transaction
Besides these heinous offenses, Mr.
Tiilotsou added: 1T is notorio rs
that Mr. Cornell used that money t.
speculate III the stock OF the com
pany; that he SO manipulated it as
to cause an advance to between 70
and so per cent, realizing to himself
large profit, which enabled him to
pay eff large amount OF judgments
filed against him in the county clerk s
office of New York The payments
were made a few days before his
nomination for Governor.
Gov. Cornell says in an interview
with correspondent of the New
York Times:
Several times during the years
1879 and 1880, Mr.. johnson consult>
ed me about the American District
Company, knowing that my father s
estate and my own family were the
largest holders of the stock. The
company was very prosperous, and
seemed to have promising future
Mr.. johnson was fully and accurate
ly informed of the condition of the
company. He made, as [ was H.
formed, considerable investment in
its stock. In October, 1880, one oil
the piratical Wall street papers,
which was supposed to be inspired
by Gould, commenced a villianous
attack on the company, which it kept
up from day to day, for several
weeks. The purpose of the attack
was supposed 10 De TO depfess the
price of the stock, in order that Mr..
Gould might buy up controlling
in atest at panic prices, and thus at-
tach it to his TELEGRAM interests. He
was then at the head of the Amer
can Union, fighting the Western
Union. We were attached to the
Western Union, occupying the same
office with that company at various
points about the city, and having
contracts with it for the receipt and
delivery of messages. When this
attack was made on our little cOmpa-
ny, a consultation of prominent
holders of the stock resulted in de
termination to protect themselves