The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1884-06-26
MIR. BLAINE,s RECORfS.
A Terrible Republican Indictment of Il
Presidential Candidate.

brinted q calm aud serious review of Mr.
S1 fSs sh s
appearance as candidate for the highest Of;
nee in the Government or any other" was
can % Only be accounted for by supposing him
to have an extraordinary and unwarrantabie
confidence in the popular forgetfYlness;
The first of these charges, whfchs Up. the
opinion of the Post, Mr.. Blaine will have 20 !
answer before he can be elected to the Presi-
new the land grant to the Little Rock & Fort |
Smith Railroad of Arkansas was before the |
House Of p heprssentataiyss. Ives An attempt to De de,
point of being successful @heh MI Blains,
then Speaker, sent u message TO GeneIM
amendment was not germane to the purposes |
of the bill. This pointof order was raised. |
Sneaker Hiaine promptly SUSTAINED it and the !
wrote to the promoters sailing attention to
the service he had rendered thefh, and final-
them as a reward his appointment as selling
agent in Maine of the bonds of the road, on
commission, and received & number In n1;1 = OF such
Of this transaction appeared in two letters or
his afterward made public, dated respective
the Post contends, were amply proved by the
evidence subsequently taken by the Congress.
nn though MT sane tine boSe @
received ''were bought by him at precisely
the same rate as others paid"
Another charge repeated by the Post re-
counts that Mr.. Blaine in 1870 made an offer
y .one Of his railroad friends" MT. Warren
twenty fourth interest Id the Northern Paoinc
Railroad immediately after Jay Cookies CON:
tract .had been perfected and the additional
mao Of ass
strange revolution of circumstances" Tne
he said, would be 1925 900. and the number of
acres of land nearly 275,0o0. "The chance,
h ysf s S Ss ne sr for
e25.000. Mr.. Fisher accepted and paid the
| money. but for some unexplained reason the
stock was never delivered, and Mr.. Blaine re-
The peculiarly Of this transaction is thus
pointed out: The authorized stock Of the
| Northern Pacific Railroad was $l09, OK, 600.
| with a land grant estimated by the Commits
sioners of Public Lands at f.0oo, 900 acres;
at the time of Blaine's letter to Fisher it was,
| he says, being built on bonds at $4,000 mile,
which would have made bonded debt of $50,-
100000. As the Speaker of the House must be
taken to have known about the circumstances
of the road the conclusion is that his offer was
based on the expectation that he would re
/ ceive almost as a gift share in an enterprise
| dependent for its value on legislation in which
ne had taken part: Mr Blalne.s defense tnat tfnaf
considers, does not effect in any way the
nature of the offer.
tained certain letters which there is every
| reason to believe contained matter gravely
compromising him, from perfectly reputa-
| BILE witness, Mr.. Mulligan, who was the proper
and lawful custodian of them, after having
| vainly tried appeals to his pity, by pledglng
broken this pledge. retained them by force.
| and subsequently read such of them as he
pleased to the House in aid of his yindication:
that this conduct, if not legally criminal, was
such as no man aspiring to be the chief mag
istrate Of great Nation oughtto be even sus-
His short service as an executive officer OF
the Government and the various efforts he has
made during the past eight years to keep the
| public in mind of him, the Post emphatically
| condemned as Sensational and theatrical, in
dicating q strong love of notoriety and an alb
Judgment, and the steadiness of character
pant of any high or responsible . administrative
pooms a are started @ e and % prompted of Which the
manner in which his history has recently
pie, bear too close an approach to the adver
tising devices of a circus or other public
show. to make the candidacy of any person
| resorting to then anything but a humiliation
As rejoinder to an attempt on the part o.
charges, the Post, thre. weeks afterward
printed the following documentary evidence
The story about Mr.. Blaines connectio!
with the Little Rock 4 For; Smi Railroad
had been floating about a gooi deal id the
spring of 1876. So he met it in the House il
this fashion, April % Of that year, admitting
that he held bonds of the ro ID:
"As to the question of the propriety in
ivolved in a Member of Congress holding al
investment of this kind, it must be rcmcm
,bered the lands were granite to the State o
J iArkansas and not to the lailrcad company
and that the company derived its ife, T nn
the State the company Is amenable and an
swerab'e, and not in any sense to Congress:
Since purchased the bonds but one act o
Congre: has passed in any way touching tn
subject and that was merely to rectify pre-
ivious mistake in legislation.
Rock Fort Smith bonds we're placed upo
the market know few Investments that hav
/, mot been more affected by the le,islat on @
Congress. But this clse does not require u
he shielded by any such comparisons or cita
, tions; for repeat that the Little Rock Roa
isaS, and not from Congress. 1T was in the di
cretion of Congress to give or withhold fror
the State. but it was solely within the discr'
;tion of the State to give or withhold from tn
Little Rock Railroad Company.
= conclusive answer to the charge till June
: flS76, when'the inves igation and the public;
ton of his letters revealed the amazing fa'
g securities of the Little Rock & Fort Smit
Railroad had no value unless the land-gran
! We're NJ f1 renewed by act of Congress-. Mr. Blair
| not only knew this in 1876 but knew it in lo6
II In that year Mr. Warren Fisher took CO..
land grant, of course. That he was direct
interested in getting the act passed whie
}: WAS vast to provide Ps the , money to pay the cost St,
date on which he made the offer to Mr.. Blair
. kof a share in the enterprise does not appe'
jim the evidence, but it must have been mat
10 very soon after the passage of the bill tAprIl
. iand the making of the contract, as appears
. '' AuGUsrA. june %, 1Sso.-My DEAR NJ
FISHER: l thank you for the article from NJ
: Lewis. 1t is good in itself and will do goo
v He writes like man of large intelligence al
"a comprehension. Your offer to admit me to
10 participation in the new railroad enterpri
It ,pect or desire 1 thank you very sincere
:, for it, and in this connection wish to make
suggestion Of somewhat selfish characte
)f 1t is this: You spoke of Mr.. Caldwell S of
n, to dispose of a share of his interest to me.
!, he really desires to do 60 / wish he wou
know just what to depend on. Perhaps if
,e waits till the full Developments of the ente
prise he may grow reluctant M I to part With +
10 of him. do not feel that shall prove dea
"A head in the enterprise if once embark in
be useful. Very hastily and sincerely yol
I'd friend. JAMES G. BLAINE
s' He recurs to the subject few days later
~ FISHER: You ask me if j am satisfied with t
road road enterprisea prise p OF course @ I 1 am MI more ore th
q. satisfied with the terms of the offer; think
a most liberal proposition. If l hesita
- the otter. Your liberal mode of deali
Of 9th the pa past eight years has not passed vii
a out my full appreciation. What l wrote "
: on the 27th was intended to bring Caldw
at | go to Boston by the same train that CARR
this letter, and will call at your Office to mt
" row at twelve m. IT you don't happen to
in, no matter; don't put yourself to a
as trouble about it. Yours. j. G. b
= Mr.. Fisher, Jr.
Is Fisher was then proposing to assign his &C
n tract to Caldwell, but did not actually do
- till September following. Mr.. Blaine wait
y" all summer for a definite proposition" fro
n, Caldwell, but none came. So he procee ied
refresh his memory and Fisher s as follows
AUGUSTA, Me-, Oct. 4, 1Sd9.-My Dear S
1g spoke to you a short time ago about Il poi
It, | Of interest to your railroad company tha5
~, | Cured at the last session of Congress. 1t W
Ao on the last night of the sess on. when the
renewing the land grant to the State of Ark.
al | sas for the Little Rock Road was reached
~ Julian, of Indiana, Chairman of the Pub
Lands Committee, and by right entitled to
floor, attempting to put in the bill as
as amendment TO the Fremont Ell Paso scheme
IN a scheme probably well known to Mr.. Ca
va well. The House was thin, and the lobby
1t. the Fremont interest had the the thing all
up, and Julian's amendment was likely
| prevail if brought to vote. Root and