St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-09-01
CHAPTER VII.

SHOWS Something of What the MulI;gan
Letters Contained and How They Gave
the Lie to Mr.. Blaines Assertions Con-
corning His Purchase of Little Rock and
Fort Smith Securities
Any careful review Of the case gives strong
ground for the universal opinion that the
Mulligan letters demon strated that Mr.. Blaine
lied in regard to his tran sactions in the stock
Of corporations whose prospects were iuflu-
enced by the legislation Of congress, and the
most polite political writers in the country
must agree that Mr. Blaine used the utmost
economy and even absolute parsimony in his
use of what is known as truth.
On the oath Of April, 1876, Mr.. Blaine
arose in the house to "question Of privi-
lege," saying that for some months past
charge against him had been circulated in
private, and was recently made public, de-
signing to show that he had in some Indirect
manner received the large sum of S64. 900
from the Union Pacific Railroad Company in
lS7l-for what services or for what purpose
has never been stated. He then read in his
defence, letters from Z. H. Rollins, Morton.
Bliss q Co., Sidney Dillon and Thomas A.
Scott, TO show that he had had no transaction
with either of those gentlemen in the Little
Rock " Fort Smith securities. He then
ton and some facts in its early history
He says (see p. 2725 Congressional Record,
vol. 4, part 3,44th Congrcss):
Toward the close of 1853 company of
Boston gentlemen representing considerable
capital undertook its construction. In rails
ing the requisite means they placed the bonds
OF the road on the New England market in
the summer OF 1869, Offering them on terms
which seemed very favorable to the purchas-
er, and Offering them at a time when invest
ments of this kind were fatally popular In
common with hundreds of other people in
New England and other parts of the country.
/ bought some Of these bonds-not a very
large amount-paying for them at precisely
the same rate that others paid. never heard,
and do not believe that the Little Rock COM
pany-which ! know is controlled by highly
honorable men-ever parted with a
bond to any person except at the regular
price fixed for their sales All the
bonds which | ever purchased l continue to
hold. Instead of receiving bonds
of the Little Rock " Fort Smith as a gratui-
ity. l never had one except at the regular
price"
Mr.. Blaine closed his statement in the SOL
emn words following: ~ have never done
anything in my public career for which |
science, and the
THE GREAT SEARCHER OF HEARTS,
Particular attention is called to the fact
that this statement was made April "a, 1876.
Mr.. Blaine evidently supposed that this
would put quietus upon the whole matter,
but It would not down at his bidding.n On
the I'd of May following Mr.. Tarbox of Mass
achusetts introducduced resolution instruc-
ting the judiciary committee to investigate
the reported sale to the Union Pacific Rail-
road Company of certain bonds of the Little
Rock " Fort Smith company. After the tes-
timony of Messrs Fisher and Mulligan had
been given, which showed that sales of Lit
Tie Rock and Fort Smith securities had been
made by Mr.. Blaine to parties in Maine, Mr..
Blaine endeavored to make it appear that the
bonds which went to the parties in Maine
were first mortgage bonds and not land
grants. He says, p. 36OS:
Ii is iuevidence that, with the exception of
a small fraction, the bonds which were sold to
parties in Maine were first mortgage bonds
1t is in evidence, over and over again, that
the bonds which weht to the Union Pacific
road were land grant bonds Therefore it is
a moral impossibility that the bonds tazen
up to Maine should have gone to the Union
Pacific railroad. They were of different Sc
ries, different kinds, different color-every-
thing different as different as If not issued
within q thous and miles Of each other. So
on its face is shown it could not be so {"
Pages 1902 1903 of the evidence printed in
House Mis-. Doc. 116, part /, shows that be-
fore the production of the memorandum
book by Mr.. Mulligan Mr.. 2laine en-
deavored 10 show that the bonds sold to Main
parties were first mortgage, and not land
grants. On p. 10l Mr.. Blaine, in question
ing Mr.. Elisha Atkins, says;
Mr.. Mulligan testities that the great mass
of the bonds that we're
SOLD TO THE MAINE PEOPLE
were first mortgage bonds, and entirely diff
ferent bonds from the land grant bonds.
What wanted to get from his testimony is
that it was impossible that the land grant
bonds that went into the Union Pacific rail-
road could have been the same land grant
bonds that had been taken back from the
Maine people" On p. 121 same evidence)
Mr. Blaine says: Il desire to call attention
to the fact that there are but SIS, 900 land
bonds sold TO the state of Maine people, &C
cor,iing to the evidence in the memorandum
book The memorandum book produced
BY Mr.. Mulhgan.
The object of Mr.. Blaine In all these state
ments and interrogatories to the witnesses
was to conceal his own transactions in the
land grant bonds.
Mr. William Walter Phelps, in his defense
of Mr. Blaine in the New York Ess1siIlg Post,
also studously avoids the land grant bonds,
saving second mortgage bonds, and three
for one. instead OF four for oue.'' There
were no second mortgage bonds issued.
The real facts are, then, that Mr.. Blaine
had made sales TO Colburn and Others in
Maine of certain bonds aud stock for which