Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1884-05-01
THE TATT00ED CANDIDATE
a REPUBLICAN, BI09RAPHY OF
JAMES q. BLAINE.

I
JAMES q, BLAINE.
The little Rock d Fort Smith Rail-
road Land Grants - Northern
Pacific and Warren Fisher-Peru-
Wan Policy.
New York Daily Evening Post, April 7th.
A correspondent (whose letter We
print in another oolumD) desires some
explanation Of what he considers the
sighting or hostile references to
James Ct. Blaine which 80 frequently
appear in the Evening Post, and which he
suspects must be, in some degree at least,
the product Of private malice. We think
he is entitled, as are 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
Eoentng Fost 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 COL
umns he is discussed either as the holder
OF public office, or as a candidate for a
public office. Nor do we make any refer.
ence to his private affairs except when
| those affairs have or appear to have q
direct and important relation to his char
| aoter and claims as public man. In
TACT, all our comments on nim aud his
| d0ipgs are due to the fact that We con-
slider his reappearanoe as a candidate for
the highest office in the government, or
or any other, as an sudaoious proceeding,
which Can only be accounted for by sup
| posing him to have an extraordinary and |
| unwarantable confidence in the popular
| forgetfulness. 1t is the the duty of all |
those who do not wish to see the Rspubli- |
can party burdsned during the canvass
| next summer with the
HOPELESS TASK OF wHITEwAsHINa
him, to set forth briefly, now that his |
boom Is becoming 30 lively, the charges
which he will have to answer before he |
can be elected TO the Presidency. 1t |
would be lamentable indeed, aud GER
tainly disastrous. if the task prescribed
for Republican journalists by the oonven-
tiOn should be not the discussion of great
Questions of public policy, like the tariff,
or the civil servioe,or the railroads, or the
currency, but laborious examinations Of
James g. Blaine's railroad transactions.
We mean, as far as We are concerned, to
avoid this, IL We can, by taking up his
railroad transactions now, before the
hustle and excitement of the canvass
Jegins.
LITTLR RooK FORT SMITH.
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 & Fort Smith railroad OF
Arkansas, in which some of Mr.. Blaine's
friends were interested that an attempt
to defeat it by an amendment was made,
and was on the point Of being successful,
and its promoters were in despair that
at this junc,ure, Mr.. Blaine, being then
speaker of the House, sent a message to
General Logan to make the point of
order that the amendment was not ger
mane to the purposes of the bill /; that
this point OF order was accordingly raised
and promptly sustained by Mr.. Blaine as
speaker, and the bill was in this tanner
saved that Mr.. Blaine wrote at once to
the promoters calling attention t. the
service he had rendered them, and finally,
after some negotiations, secured from
them IS reward for it, his appointment
ss selling agent of the bonds of the road,
on commission, in Maine, and received e
number of such bonds as his percentage;
that the leading features OF this trans
action appeared in two letters OF his
sfterwatd made public, dated res oectiveiy
June 18th and October 4th, 1869.
sPARISe OF THE TRUTH.
Second, that he asserted at first on the
floor of the Honse, with the view of COW
eriug up this aifsir, that the Little Rock
x Fort Smith road derived its life,
franchise, and value wholly from the
state" and not from Congress; whereas
the evidence subsequently, taken by the
congressional committee disclosed the
fact that the road derived the value on
which these bonds were based from the
set of Congress Of which Mr.. Blaine
secured the pse sage, in the manner above
desoribed, in 1863; that he asserted on
the floor OF the House that the bonds he
received "were bought by him at pre-
cisely the same rate as others paid"
whereas the evidence showed that the
bonds came to him as commits.
sions on sales, which he secured
the opportunity OF making through his
aid given to tho work in Congress, and
that hs solic!ted this agency, basing his
request on the aid 30 given, ard that he
paid nothing Whatever for the bonds, the
consideration being his ruling as speaker
and his subsequent efforts to sell them.
What his did with these bonds-seventy-
five ir number-is uncertain; but strong,
though not conclusive, evidence was pro-
duoed going to show that they were taken
off his hands at good price by the Union
Pacific railroad (.hrough the in ,rumen-
pylt tn1N Iar, oil
WAS in trouble. The investigation on
this point was never pushed home owing
to the sudden illness which overlook Mr..
Blaine in 1876
THE NORTHERN PACIFIC BUSINESS.
Third, that Mr., Blaine in 1870 made an
offer, as appeared by his own letters, to
one OF his railroad friends, Warren
Fisher OF Bostop, to sell him a half of
one twenty fourth interest in the Northern
Pacific railroad, Immediately after Jay
Cookies contract "had been perfected,
aud the additional legislation had been
obtained" he having, he said, come into
control OF the interest "by a strange
revolution OF circumstances" that the
amount Of stock which this would repre-
sent, he said, would be $3.50, 900, and the
number of acres OF land "nesrly 275, 600"
"The ohanos," he said, "was a very
rare one he couldn't touch it," but he
offered i; 10 Mr.. Fisher for $25 900 that
Mr.. Fisher accepted it, and 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
for the following reasons
IT appears from acts of Congress re-
lsting TO the road, pope of which are OF
older date than July I'd, 1864, that the
authorized stock was 800, 900, 600, with
land grant, estimated by the commits
sioners ct public lands at $4,000, 900
acres, or "a, ,42S square miles. The line
of the road was 1000 miles long aud at
the time OF Blsine's letter to Fisher, 1t
was, he says, being built on bonds at
$4,000 per mile, which would have
made bonded debt of $50, 900, 900. Mr..
Blaine, as member of Congress and
speaker Of the House, must be- taken to
have known about the circumstances Of
the road, and there therefore seems no
escape from the conclusion that his
offer was based on the expecta-
tion that ha wnuld raoaiua almoat |