The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1884-06-19
ANDERSON. c., THURSDAY 19, 1884
Blaine'S Public Record.

Blaine's Public Record.
A correspondent, whose letter we print
in another column, desires some explana-
tion of what he considers the sighting OF
hostile references to Mr.. James G. Blaine
which so frequently appear in the Even-
ing Post, and which he suspects must be,
in some degree at least, the product of
private malice. We think he is entitled,
as our readers generally, to some such
explanation, and we shall proceed to
make it cheerfully, starting, however,
with the assertion that no editor or other
person connected with the Evening Post
in any capacity has, to our knowledge,
had any difference, quarrel or controversy
with Mr.. Blaine or has ever received any
injury from him whatever or bears him
any personal grudge. Whenever he is
discussed in these columns he is discuss
ed either as the holder of a public Office
or as candidate for public office. Nor
do we make any reference to his private
affairs except when those affairs have or
appear to have direct and important re-
lation to his character and claims as
public man. In fact, all our comments
on him and his doings are due to the fact
that we consider his Temperance as q
candidate for the highest Office in the
government, or any other, as an audacious
proceeding, which can only be accounted
for by supposing him to have an extraor.
dinary and unwarrantable confidence in
the popular forgetfulness. 1t is the duty
of all those who do not wish to see the
Republican party burdened during the
canvass next summer with the hopeless
task of wbitewashing him, to set forth
briefly, now that his boom is becoming so
lively, the charges which be will have to
answer before he can be elected to the
Presidency. 1t would be lamentable
indeed, and certainly disastrous, if the
task prescribed for Republican journalists
by the Convention should be not the
discussion of great questions Of public
policy, like the tariff or the civil service
OF the railroads or the currency, but Ia
borious examinations of Mr.. James G.
Blaine's railroad transactions. Wemean,
as far as we are concerned, to avoid this
if we can by taking up his railroad trans
actions now, before the hustle and excite
ment of the canvass begins.
THE FIRST CHARGE.
The first of these charges is that in the
spring session of Congress in 1869 bill
was before the House of Representatives
which sought to renew land grant to
the Little Rock and Fort Smith Railroad
of Arkansas, in which some Of Mr..
Blaine's friends are interested; that an
attempt 10 defeat it by an amendm ent
was made, and was on the poin: of being
successful, and its promoters were in
despair that at this juncture, Mr..
Blaine, being then Speaker of the House,
sent message to Gen. Logan to make
the point of order that the amendment
was not germane to the purposes of the
bill that this point of order was accord
ingly raised and promptly sustained by
Mr.. Blaine as Speaker, ard the bill was
in this manner saved; that Mr.. Blaine
wrote at once to the promoters calling
to the service he had rendered
them, and finally, after some negotia.
tions, secured from them, as a reward for
it, his appointment as selling agent of
the bonds of the road, on commission, in
Maine, and received number of such
bonds as his percentage; that the leading
features of this transaction appeared in
two letters of his afterwards made public,
dated respectively June 90 aud October
4, 1869.
THE SECOND CHARGE.
Second. That he asserted at first on the
floor OF the House, with the view of COW
ering up this affair, that the Little Rock
and Fort Smith road derived its life,
franchise and value wholly from the
State" and not from Congress, whereas
the evidence subsequently taken by the
committee disclosed the
fact that the road derived the value on
which these bonds were based from the
Act of Congress of which Mr.. Blaine
secured the passage in the manner above
described in 1869; that he asserted on
the floor of the House that the bonds he
received ''were bought by him at precise
ly the same rate as others paid" whereas
the evidence showed that the bonds came
to him as commissions on sales, which he
secured the opportunity of making !
through his aid given to the work in
Congress, and that he solicited this agen.
cy, basing his request on the aid so given,
and that he paid nothing whatever for
the bonds, the consideration being his
ruling as Speaker and his subsequent
efforts to sell them. What he did with
these bonds, seventy.fve in pumber. is
uncertain but strong, though not con-
elusive, evidence was produced going to
show that they were taken off his hands
at a good price by the Union Pacific
Railroad Through the instrumentality of
one Caldwell,) which then also was in
trouble. The investigation on this point
was never pushed home, owing to the
sudden illness which overlook Mr. Blaine
in 1876.
THE THIRD CHARGE.
Third. That Mr.. Blaine in 1870 made |
an offer, as appeared by his own letters,
to one of his railroad friends, Mr.. War.
rem Fisher, of Boston, to sell him half
of one.twenty. fourth interest in the
Northern Pacific Railroad, Immediately |
after jay Cookies contract chad been per-
fected and the additional legislation had |
been obtained," be having, he said, come
into control of this interest "by strange |
revolution of circumstances that the
amount of stock which this would repre-
sent, he said, would be S425, 900, and the
number of acres ofland "ncarly 275,O00."
"The chance" he said, "was 9 very rare
one; he couldn't touch it," but he offer
ed it to Mr.. Fisher for S25, 900; that MIR.
Fisher accepted it ard paid the money,
but for some unexplained reason the stock
was never delivered, and Mr.. Blaine
subsequently returned the amount. This
transaction was very peculiar one, Cor
the following reasons:
IT. onnooro fropo nto of Conureaa rn.