St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-08-15


foreign consulship, but Mr.. Mulligan did
not bite at that bait. The upshot of the in
terview was that Mr.. Blaine pocketed the let
tiers, together with Mr.. Mulligan's private
synopsis of their contents, and refused to
give them up on Mr.. Mulligan making az
excited demand for their restitution.
MIR. BLAINE CoNFIDEs IN THE HOUSE.
On the 9Th of June, Mr.. Blaine With char
acteristic audacity, addressed the house, and
read what he said were the self-same letters
wrested by him from Mr.. Mulligan. A re-
cent defender of Mr.. Blaine, Mr.. Edwin D.
Mead, says in his phamplet that Mr.. Mulligan
was not the proper custodian Of Mr.. Blane's
letters. "No man, says Mr.. Mead, ''had
any right to them except Mr.. Blaine and Mr..
Fisher. Norman Of honor, but only Demo-
cratic investigating committee, would have
received letters so offered, or bave any words
about it, But Mr.. Mulligan's statement
that Blaine retained the letters after having
given his word to return them has never
been successfully controverted. Mr.. Multi
gan held these letters for his own protection
as a witness, coming into possession of them
through his business association with Mr..
Fisher. ''Thank God Almighty, said Mr..
Blaine to congress, holding up the package
of letters, 81 am not ashamed to show them.
There is the very original package. And
with some sense of humiliation, with a
modification l do not pretend to conceal,
with a sense of outrage which, l think, any
man in my position would feel, invite the
confidence of 40, 900. 600 of my countrymen
while read these letters from this desk.''
But did Mr.. Blaine read all the letters and
papers he had secured by a strategem!
In his speech to the house, Mr.. Blaine said:
81 have now read those Is letters, the whole
of them. The house and the country know
all there is in them. They are dated, aid
they correspond precisely with Mulligan s
memorandum, which I have here. keep
this memorandum as protection to myself,
for it is very valuable as showing the identi-
ty of the letters in every respect"
''EvERY SCRAP AND sCRIMPTION.
Congressman Eugene Hale of Maine, a
personal and political friend of Mr.. Blaine,
desiring the most positive and solemn de-
claration from him on this point, asked:
'Does the exhibit the gentleman has
made cover every paper of every kind that
came from Mulligana"
Mr. Blaine replied: ''Every solitary
scrap and scrimpton, as the children say"
The memorandum was then read by the
clerk. But a comparison of the Mulligan
memorandum with the letters as given in
the congressional record shows that Mr..
Blaine read four letters that were not named
in the Mulligan memorandum, and omitted
to read four other letters or papers which are
on the memorandum, and which he declared
before the whole house that he had read.
The documents that he failed to read were:
One from Blaine to Fisher. dated July %,
1863; one from Fisher to Blaine, dated Oct.
81, 1871; receipt of Sept 81, 1872, ac-
knowledging the receipt of S40,0 900, and one
of Dec. 3; 1872, with receipt of SCI, 600,
and was to look to Caldwell for the balance. -
every solitary scrap and scrimptiou, as
the children say" Mr. Blaine had remarked
to Mr.. Hale.
The superb audacity of Blaine's perform
ance in the house will never be surpassed.
After reading the letters, he turned to the
Republican side of the house, and said: 81
ask you, gentlemen, if any of you could
stand q closer scrutiny, more rigid investi-
cation of your correspondence"'
The house and The galleries cheered the
bold defender of his honor, and Blaine dra-
matically striding down the aisles, accused
Proctor Knott of suppressing cablegram
from Josiah Caldwell which eXhonerated him
from Mulligan's charges. Knott, taking the
floor, declared it his belief that the Caldwell
cabegram was s'fxed up job" This mes
sage from across the sea seems to have
dropped out Of the controversy OF late years.
THE UNION PACIEIC's BOND PURCHASE.
The investigation started by Mr.. Tarbox' s
resolution, which brought to light the Multi
gan letters" so called, was primarily intend
ed to develop Mr.. Blaine's true relations to
the Union Pacific railway company. The
famous ''letters" disclosed the intimate con-
nection of Speaker Blaine and certain Bos-
ton capitalists whose favor he was seeking,
and by whom he wanted it understood that
he had been useful in helping on the for
tunes of the Little Rock 81 Fort Smith rail-
way company through one of his rulings as
speaker of the house.
The developments of the investigation
were two scandals, which have never been
satisfactorily explained, are the charges,
first, that the Union Pacific railway company,
DESTROYS to propitiate so powerful a person
age as the speaker of the house, relieved him
of a pecuniary embarrassment by taking off
his hands, IS $1,000 bonds OF the Little Rock
d Fort Smith railway for S64, 900 cash in
1871, the real value OF the bonds being less
than S25 900; also that, as speaker of the
house, Mr.. Blaine was engaged in improper
business transactions with Messrs. Caldwell
and Fisher, capitalists of this city. There
are minor scandals of the Spencer rifle and
Northern Pacific, which will be touched on
later.
VERY SHADY TRANSACTION.
Regarding the Union Pacific scandal, it
may be said that attention was first called to
the transactions mentioned by Government
Director Harrison, who found out that the
company had been buying Little Rock Sc
Fort Smith bonds at an eXtravagant price.
Mr.. Harrison failed to see any reason for
their purchase. Mr.. Harrison went to e. II.
Rollins, the Union Pacific treasurer, who as
Harrison averred, told him that the transac-
ton concerned Speaker Blaine, and must
not be investigated too closely. 1t seems
that subsequently, that the cautious Harrison
took another government director in the
road, Mr. Willard, into Rollins presence, and
to them Rollins said, with more reserve, that
any investigator Of the purchase of the bonds
would involve "a prominent Republican. :"
When Mr.. Rollins was on the witness stand,
he swore that although he might have men
toned Blaiue's name, yet he knew nothing
in the matter OF his own knowledge. Mr..
Mulligan testified also that another director,
Mr. Elisha Atkins, told him (Mulligan) that
Blaine gave Tom Scott the Little Rock and
FortSmith bonds, aud that Scott made the
Union Pacific take them. This is the direct
evidence bearing on this very shady and
suspicious transaction About the time this
transfer OF bonds to the Union Pacific took
place it was common gossip in railway cir
cles that Mr.. Blaine had made very sdvan-
tageous trade with the Union Pacific COM
pany. Four years later Mr.. Blaine, finding
that the matter was threatening tn assume
the dimensions of a public scandal, made a
speech on the floor of the House april "a,
1871 In, the nn1rse of whinh he Rad lnftars