Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-10-09
MARSHALL AROUSED.

A Response to LAUNDERING" Gordon's
Charges-The Bald Headed Charger of
the Prairies Thinks Gordon Has Changed
His Mind About Lying.
To the Editor of the st. Paul Globe.
You are disposed to allow Mr.. Gordon
to appeal his case from the United States
district court to the newspapers. l might
justly refuse to be party to such trans
fer of the case, and might object to the
logic involved, that if / am guilty Mr..
Gordon and Mr.. Mitchell are innocent, yet
will waive their objections so far as to
reply to the only two allegations in Mr..
Gordon's columns of vituperation, that
have the sembIance of charges. One is
that l, "at the request of interested par
ties" made an examination in township 90
north, range "a west, and falsely reported
OF lands, afterwards entered and sold to
Macauley and others.
The enclosed letter of instructions from
the commissioner of the general land
Office was my authoritw for making this
examination:
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR J
GENERAL LAND OFFICE,
WASHINGTON. D. c.. Dec. 2, 1882. }
VIM. R. MARSHALL, Esq, Duluth, MINI.
Sir: Herewith l enclose copgof a petition
received at this Office AID Request that you will
proceed at once to examine the townships
named therein and report the result of your ex-
animation TO this Office. Very respectfully,
n. G. MCFARLAND, Commissioner.
I made the examination IN December,
1882, assisted by MIR. Preston T. Jackson,
81 oh q
reputable citizen and government land
| surveyo and reported fully and accurately
the result of that examination 10 the com
| missioner of the general land Office, cop
les of which report we're forwarded TO The
local land Offices at st. Cloud and at Du-
luth. where the lands were subject TO entry.
TIL re my duty and responsibility ended.
L may aou that III these towns did lind
msn with habitable Improvements living
on their claims, where meals and lodging
we o obtained for Mr.. Jackson and myself.
The only other allegation worthy of no
ii ,e is that in February, 1882, I made ex-
aninations at and about Vermillion lake,
o. which there were no adequate improve
m ants, and that I falsely reported favora-
biz upon said claims in the interest
of the Minnesota Iron company. Mr..
w q. Ell. Bassett is given as authority. I
submit the following certificate Of Mr..
Bassett in answer 10 this:
ST. PAUL, Oct. 3, 1888 i have read the
art Gle in the GLOBE of this date, IN which
ref renee is made to me as authority for
the statement that VIM. r. Marshall failed
to report the Srue character OF pre- emp tion
claims examined by him at Vermiliion
lake in February, 1882. The statement is
not true. Mr.. Marshall did correctly re-
port the absence Of Improvements on all
the claims that had knowledge of in that
vic nifty and elsewhere, where the law had
not been complied with, and the entries
were Cancelled. In no case did Mr.. Mar
shall, within my knowledge, suppress any
facts or favor any one il his examination
or reports.
Signed W. Fl. BAssETT.
A final word in regard to Mr.. Gordon'5
asseveration of innocence. At the time be
was arrested and gave $4,000 bonds
waving an examination, ne openly admit
ted that he was guilty as charged. He
said he knew the government had the evi-
enee against him and that there was NO
use in lying; ne said he was able to pay
his fire. Manifestly he has now changed
his mind about the lying.
VIM. r. MARSHALL.
St.. Paul, Oct. 8. 1888.