Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-05-27

such officer shall be deemed guilty Of the en-
/ bezzlement of the sum of money so lost to
! the bank, and on conviction shall be i'm
/ prisoned not less than one year or more than
! five years, and fined in a sum equal to the
amount Of money embeZZled
Mr.. BelfOrd, of Colorado, introduced a bill
apprOpriating S500,o00 for the erection of
home Tor disabled soldiers Of the Confederate
army at Fredericksburg, Va. 1t was re-
ferred and the House adjourned.
WASHINGTON, May 26.-W, W. Ker, of
Philadelphia, one of the counsel in the
prosecution of the star route cases, was
examined by the Springer Committee to-
day He said that he was employed Jan
uary 81, 1882, by the Attorney General to
prepare Indictments. Il told the Attor-
ney General he continued, "that | was
a Democrat. The Attorney General re-
piled that it was not a question of politics
but Of the administration Of justice, and
he asked me to undertake the work.
About two days after l received my COM
mission | met Col. Bliss. He told me that
I must not converse with w. A. Cook, and
that | must not allow him to see
the indictments. He also said that |
should not converse with Mr.. Gibson nor
with Mr.. COrkhill. Col. Bliss gave me
| abstracts of papers prepared by Mr..
! Woodward, and said that the indictment
must be prepared before March or the
parties would escape" Mr.. Ker referred
to the indicting of two of the defendants
! by their initials. He said: II wanted
the full Ra1Tlas- eE Messrs. Rertell and
SanderSOn. Col. Bliss said that he did
not know what they were and that it was
impossible to get them. Mr.. Woodward
could not give them nor could the
other Post Office Inspectors. / told
Col. Bliss that there might be
Ia nj hot ha
Christian names cOuldnot be found on the
books in the Post Office Department. The
initials alone appeared, and those were
taken.
THE INDICTMENTS QUASHED IN CON
> SEQUENCE.
When the indictments came up in court
they were quashed for this reason. There
were also indictments for perjury against
Charles II. Dixon, who is now holding
confidential position in the Department of
the Interior. He swore falsely as to the
value of property. The indictments for
perjury still stand.'
"Could those persons against whom
indictments have been filed be convicted?'
asked Representative Stewart.
"They ought to be, and they undoubtedly
would be, on a fair trial. All of these in
dictments were prepared by March "
why were no other cases than those
of Messrs. Dorsey and Brady taken to
trial?' asked member of the committee.
81 could not tell without drawing onmy
Imagination"
Mr.. Ker then entered into a history of
the trial of the cases. He said that the
Attorney General told him to go into the
trial; that it would last a month or six
weeks. He continued: ''The Attorney
General wanted me to examine witnesses
privately and prepare brief of their tes-
fInnnV fn no fn fnI
l went to Col. Bliss and told him what
the Attorney General said. He replied
never mind, and that he would look after
them. 1t IS his nature to shoulder more
than he can carry. / had nothing to do
then with witnesses. After the court
quashed the Indictment against Messrs.
Vale, keerdell and Sanderson, because of
the Christian name of Mr.. Vale being
wrong, and because we didn't have the
christian names of Messrs. Rerdell and
SandersOn, we determined to make a new
Indictment. Col. Bliss said that Mr.. San
dersOn's name ought to be dropped out.
The matter was left with me. Mr.. San
dersOn had previously said to Col. Bliss
that he didn't care so much about the in
dictment as he did about being mixed up
with such a crowd as that. l left his
name out because the evidence was in
sufficient. He had only been connected
with one route.
sANDERsON PAID NO MONEY.
81 think that it was right that his name
should have been left out. 1t has been
charged that he paid money to have his
named omitted. Not one cent was paid to
me. About this time Messrs. Walsh and
Moore were spoken Of as witnesses. Col.
Bliss told me that Mr.. Walsh was a man
of bad character and not worth while
having anything to do with. He also said
the same thing of Mr.. Moore. Mr.. Merrick,
who had previously been appointed one OF
the counsel, afterwards found out that
both men were valuable witnesses,
and he vas very angry that neither
had been Subpmnaed. One day,
about the middle of the first
trial,th other counsel and myself were at
the Post Office Department / was wait
ing outside Of one room for Mr.. Merrick.
He came, and as we walked towards the
door said, in an excited manner: what do
you suppose Col. Bliss wants? he wants
us to let Dorsey gO.' l suggested that
he might have thrown that out as an eX-
pertinent. 'Oh, no. he replied, 'he meant
it. He wants to let Dorsey go. He also
wanted me to 90 to the Attorney General
and say that three lawyers were too many
in the case and to advise the Attorney
General to dismiss you and let himself
and me remain / told him to 90 and tell
the Attorney General that l was anxious
piled that he would 20 out if left. He
said that he wanted me to stay and help
him Mr.. Walsh and Col. Bliss. The At
tOrney General was not told of this in
terview until l told him myself. When l
did tell him he got up, walked the floor,
and accused me of derelictiOn. In clos
ing the first trial the Attorney General
made an argument. There had been
desperate effort to save Mr.. Dorsey by
showing that he was not in as deep as the
rest. The Attorney General showed that
Mr.. DOrsey's name appeared ninety-six
times in the cases. At the beginning of
the second trial
BLISS FAILED TO BRING ALL OUT.
81 was told to take charge of the wit
nesses and examine them before they ap-
peared on the stand. Col Bliss acqui-
esced. / took them, and found that Col.
Bliss, on the first trial, had not brought
out half that they knew then. We had
new witnesses. The testimony of all was
so strong against Mr. Dorsey that there
was no doubt of conviction"
''Its strength does not appear in the re-
suit" interposed Mr.. Stewart.
81 had nothing to do with the result.
The first jury would have convicted if it
had not been for the foreman. On the
second jury there were men who
could not read or write. In the
2,300 papers and 3,2S6 pages of printed
testimony. In the second trial we had
$50 witnesses. 2,761 papers and 4, ,4s1 pages
of testimony"
''NO wonder the jury did not convict"
said Mr.. Stewart.
''There was no disagreement among the
counsel in the second trialD the witness
continued. "COl. Bliss made up his mind
to go for Mr.. Dorsey, and he did go for
him as vigorously and viciously as any of
u.s."
HEWIT1vS TARIFF BILL.
Secretary FOlger Gives it the Benefit of