St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-09-01

these bonds. These $4,000 of land grant
bonds were obtained in that way. In 1871
the Union Pacific railroad company broke
doacn and these bonds fell so that they were
not worth forty cents on the dollar. She was
anxious to make herself safe and had so
much confidence in the Fort Smith land
bonds that proposed to her to make an ex-
change The six bonds were in my possess
sion and had previously advanced money
to her for certain purposes aud held part of
these bonds as security for that advance. The
bonds In that sense, and in that sense only,
were mine-that they were security for the
loan which had made. They were all liter
ally hers; they were all sold finally on her
Accountant one of them for me- | make
this statement in order to be perfectly fair.
In attempting thus to reconcile too false
hoods, one under oath, and the other in the
confidential letter to Mr. Fisher, Mr. Blaine
perpetrates third. He says that in ia uayy
1871, he left the $4,000 in land grant bonds
with MIR. Mulliken to be exchanged, etc. The
truth Is the exchange and transfer was made
on the 10th day of May, 1871, instead of in
January, 1871, and he received $4,000 of
the Little Rock and Fort Smith railroad land
grant bonds numbered 2,070 and 2,075 in
elusive on the last-named day.
'Mr. Blaine says that these bonds were all
her account-not one of them for me-giv-
ing the impression to the house of Repre-
sentatives and the country that he meant
the Union Pacific bonds. AS matter of
fact he never got the Union Pacific bonds
back from Mr.. Fisher
NOW, WHAT WAS THE OBJECT OF MR.. BLAINE
in making this transfers What was the in
aspiration of this assumed disinterested phi
in aholf Ofh ia
that in 1871 the Union Pacific railroad Com
pany broke down, and these bonds were
worth about 40 cents on the dollar.'' Now,
this is not true. We quote from the official re-
ports OF sales at the Boston Stock Exchange,
compiled by ]. G. Martin, a recognized au-
tbority that the lowest price these Union Pa
clfic land bonds were sold for in 1870 was
30. The lowest price from Jan. to April 1,
1871, was 53M the highest 1915; the lowest
| from April 1, to July l, 72L, and the high
| est S6T; and on the 10th day of May, the
very day this transaction was made, the Bos-
ton papers quoted these bonds at S2%. In
this connection 1t is proper to state that MIR.
Thomas A Scott was elected President of the
| road early in April 1871, and that all the Sc
| curities of the road then rapidly appreciated,
and the highest prices of the year were made
during the quarter that Mr.. Blaine put them
out of his hands in exchange for the COM
paratively worthless Little Rockland grant
bonds.
AN IDIoTIC BUSINESS TRANSACTION.
Mark the fact also that the Union Pacific
land bonds, which he exchanged, were pay
ing per cent. interest, netting his ward
$4,000 per annum. Mr.. William Walter
Phelps, in the defense of Mr.. Blaine in the
New York Egening Post April 20, 1884, says,
4 a.,
edge and care of his (Blaine's) money inter-
ests, which men absorbed in public affairs
are not inapt to devolve upon friends who
have had financial training and exper-
| fence.
Did Mr.. William Walter Phelps advise Mr..
Blaine, in the plentitude of his financial wis
dom, to make the exchange referred to, of
S6,OOO worth OF securities paying per cent
dividends, for $4,000 worth of the bonds
which at that time, and never since, have
risen to the Importance of quotation in the
stack market and which were of kind gen.
orally classed under the well-understood des-
ignation as''wilj cats!' As to the compar-
| alive worthlessness of these Little Rock land
grant bonds which Mr.. Blaine says he re-
| ceived in exchange for the Union Paclics
because his ward twas anxious to make it
self safe. We have only to turn to the test-
mony OF Warren Fisher, Jr. before q COM
mittee OF the the House of Representatives,
reported in House Mis- Doc. 176, part /, For
| ty Fourth congress, first session. This evil
| dence was ellcted in an endeavor by the
| committee to ascertain the market value of
$75, 600 at Little Rock and Fort Smith land
grant bonds, which were turned over by
Thomas a Scott to the Union Pacific Railroad
for S64, GOO, Dec. 10, 1871. Pages,SS 50.
TESTIMONY OF WARREN FISHER.
Q. What would those bonds have brought
in the market in December, 1871, if they had
been exposed for sale in the ordinary way
in which bonds were sold? A. A very small
price, 10 or 20 cents.
q. Were they ever worth over so cents
on the dollar!
A. Never to my knowledge were any bonds
sold much above that.
Q. Were not Immigrant bonds som etimes
givcni A. Oh, yes. If l sold SO, 900 of
these first mortgage bonds l would also give
as bonus 80, 600 of common stock and $40
900 of preferred stock.
Q. Making transfer of $40, 900 instead of
100000 A. Yes, sir.
Q. And that transfer brought S10,OOO
counting the land-grant bonds in the first
mortgagel A. Yes, sir.
In connection with this testimony, we
will take Mr.. Blaine himself as authority as
to the Uallte OF the Immigrant bonds of this
road at a time when they were at their height
and when he was turning them over to his
personal friends and neighbors as "a first class
investment, in September, 1866, when he
made the $3.50, 900 transaction with A. IL. P
Coburn and others. According TO the cele-
brated Mulligau memorandum which Mr.
Blaine produced in the House and which was
there read, and which he said he kept ''as a
protection to myself, Mr.. Mulliean figures
the net proceeds as follows:
Now calling land and first mortgage bonds
equal 6l UGl,se and stock uaiueleSs it equals A
2s-100 per cent.
This is the actual result of the sale made
through Mr. Blaine and it shows the actual
value OF the land grant bonds to have been
% 14-100 per cent. 1t was for these
GILT EDGED SECURITIES,
which at their best were worth but % or 90
cents, and which at the time of the transfer
had no market value. and yielding no in
come, that Mr.. Blaine parted with $4,000 of
Union Pacific interest-bearing bonds worth
S2$< cents on the dollar.
Mr.. Blaine says in his speech that he pro-
posed to the lady, who he claimed owned the
bonds, to make the exchange, because be
chad so much confidence in the Fort Smith
land bonds.n Granting that he spoke the
truth, then arises the question, what sort of
business manager is Mr.. Blaine TO act as
guardian or trustee of a woman's property
and advise her to make such a ruinous invest
ment as was this exchange of Union PaciIics
which had a market value on the day the
transfer was made st least four times great
er than the Immigrant bonds of the Little
Rock and Fort Smith Railroads
There is no doubt that the trade was made.
Even If It was denied, the facts given above
even to the numbers Of the bonds, would
prove it. But Mr.. Blaine has not stated the
real facts in the case; he is caught in his
own foils and stands condemned by his own