Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-09-19
WHO Is STEVE ELKINsq
Some Scraps from the Life of BIalne's
Campaign Boss.

Campaign Boss.
No question since the organization OF
the present Republican National Commit
tee, says the Denver, Col, Nel5s, has
been more frequently asked than the one
which we shall here attempt to answer.
The suddenness with which an apparent
entity obscure individual has leaped into
prominence, together with the flourish OF
tTumpets attending it. to say nothing OF
his representation on the committee as a
member from Territory, has naturally
caused the inquiry. The answer to it
generally is that he is the sOn-in-law OF
Senator Davis, of West Virginia, but that
is scarcely satisfactory. Our acquaint-
ance With the political history Of New
Mexico. together with certain old resi-
dents of Missouri, enables US to give a
better reply.
Mr.. Elkins is a Missourian and lived
there prior to and during a portion OF the
war. His education and associations
naturally developed in him a strong love
for the institutions and interests of the
South, and as a pro-slayery Democrat he
was in those days equaled by few and ex-
celed by none. During the entire period
of the war his sympathies were intensely
Southern, but as his abilities were not OF
the eOmbative order he failed to take up
arms for his Southern brethren. During
the year 1862 as we are informed }, in or
der to escape the Northern draft and to
ayOftk q teEcible enlistment against the
principles and the people which he loved
so well, lie underwent a voluntary exile
and fled to New Mexico. There he was
for 1naEy years an intense Confederate
sympathizer and a violent opponent of the
Lincoln regime. Up to 1870 Mr.. Elkins
"a oreIs, ,F 4 o. nd
the very last man who would have been
selected as the future leader of the great
party of moral ideas.
During these years, however, Mr.. Elkins
and his associate in the practice of the
law, Mr.. CatrOn, acquired great intlu-
enee oYef--the Mexican population, and
also acquired immense landed interests
through the nominal purchase of land
grants from the Mexican Government,
protected by the treaty Of Gaudaloupe-
Hidalgo, but not then patented by tine
United States. About the year 1870, Mr..
Elkins, despairing of an early restoration
OF the Democratic party to power, and
ssseeing various channelsv in which he
could make the Republican party useful,
experienced a change of heart, acknowl.
edged the error of his ways, was received
into full fellowship by the Republican
party, and was sent as delegate to Con-
gress, which position he occupied from
1872 to 1876. All of his little schemes, to-
gether with those of CatrOn, then assumed
shape, and the fruition of his hopes was a
matter of little time only. The govern
ment showed it's appreciation of their
neWly-exhibited loyalty by shoWering its
favors upon them. and patenting to them
without stint the public domain. Each
has thereby acquired enormous wealth,
and they have in turn faithfully served
their newly found patron, and it is but
meet that Mr.. Elkins should giVeto the
national commit e the benefit of that
rich political experience acquired during
long course OF years in New Mexico.
There elections were determined by the
count in the law office of the worthy pair
referred to, and the devices resorted to for
defeating the public will justify the state
ment made by many of his admirers, that
''Steve Elkins is as much smarter than
Steve Dorsey, when it comes to politics,
as Dorsey is superior to a ten-year-old-
boy"
1t is an open secret that in all the
schemes in which Elkins is and has been
interested Blaine is a silent partner. The
land grants of New Mexico, the mines at
Leadville, the coal and railway interests
of Pennsylvania and West Virginia-all
these and others, engineered and consum-
mated by S. b. Elkins, are matters in
which the two are jointly interested.
And this suggests the true secret of Mr..
Elkins' oYerweenIng desire for Blaine's
election. Mr.. Elkins was one of the pro.
motors of the Maxwell land grant scheme
and one of the grantOrs of the present
company. Mr.. Elkins, while in official
position, sold the claim, together with
Chaffee, Waddingham and others, for an
enormous sum to Dutch capitalists. The
boundaries of the grant were exceedingly
indefinite, but it was known that in ex-
tent it could not exceed LOCO, 600 acres.
In order to properly define and mark its
boundaries the Interior Department
required survey of the grant,
and Mr.. Elkins was fortunate in secur-
ing the job for his brother. The lines
were run to suit the owners of the grant,
and finally a Secretary of the interior
was found whose conscience was suf-
ficiently pliable to enable him to consent
to the issue of a patent according to the
survey. Its fraudulent and swindling
effect was soon apparent, for it included
1850, o00 acres of the public domain, to
which Elkins and his confederates never
had a shadow of claim, and very large
portion of which was in the actual pos
session of bona .fide settlers. A suit is
now pending in the Circuit Court of the
United States for this district, brought by
the government against the Maxwell
Company and Elkins and others, to set
aside this outrageous and infamous grant,
and that the action will result in a victory
for the government, if prosecuted, is APP
parent to every one cognizant of the facts.
Mr.. Elkins' warranty of the title to 1885,
OO0acres, therefore, becomes very serious
matter for him, since he must respond to
his grantees in the event the title fails,
and that means financial embarrassment,
If not financial ruin.
Does any man acquainted with the
facts, with Mr.. Elkins' danger and Mr..
Blaine's reputation, doubt for moment
that MIR. Blaine's election TO the Presi-
dency means a dismissal of the Maxwell
land grant suit by the governments Why
do both Chaffee and Elkins aspire to the
head of the Interior Department above all
other positions but that this and similar
frauds of their own preparation may be
spared an open investigation before jury
of honest citizens? Mr.. Elkins is I'M
doubleday anxious for the success of Mr..
Blaine, and woe TO the poor squatters on
the Maxwell grant if Mr.. Blaine should
be elected,