Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-08-17

| DIANE was sharer IN the profits of the
paper credits-a statement which Mr..
Blaine has always vigorously denied
MIR. Blaine had an ambition to go to
Congress as early as 1859, and was talked
I OF as candidate in 1860. But Arson p.
/ Morrill, was nominated, Mr.. Blame not
| having strength enough to obtain the
/ honor, and served from March 4, 1861, to
/ March 4, 1868. In 1862 Mr.. Blaine was
elected TO the Office, although he was not
| then so DESTROYS of it as two years before.
/ He freely told his friends that he could
/ make more money in Washington by stay
/ ing out of Congress, and asserted that his
/ pronts Tor one year amounted to $780, 900.
1t Will be seen, therefore, that he was a
| rich man before he entered Congress at
| all, and that his fortune would have been
large in any event. But when elected
to Congress, in the midst of the
war, and while the opportunities for
profitable contracts and business ventures
continued, it was natural that he should
| continue to make money. When impor-
| tant changes were made in the tariff and
internal revenue laws in 1864, Mr. Blaine
as member of Congress, had the eal Hest
Information of prospective changes in
| values, and this field was found to be a
very rich one. Mr.. Blaine's brothers-in-
law and other relatives here and in Bos-
ton were commission merchants, and had
the best facilities for speculations in goods
which were sometimes doubled in value
in single day by the action of Congress.
Mr.. Blaine was a liberal speculator in
alcoholic liquors, which fuctuated so
widely in 1864. Some of his operations
were done through his brother-in-Iaw,
Stanwood, in Boston. James Mulligan
was at this time the private bookkeeper
OF Mr.. StanwOOd, and it is understood that
Mr.. Mulligan's memoranda concerning
Blaine's whisky speculations are quite as
valuable and interesting as those which
he gave to the world concerning the Little
Rock and Fort Smith Railway transac-
tons in 1876. In the year 1864 Mr..
Blalne's profits had become so large that
he was obliged to seek good permanent in
Yestments for his money, and it was at
that stage of his career that he purchased
the large coal properties near Pittsburg,
Pa, which have never been worked, and
which are certain to become enormously
valuable in the future.
Comparatively little is known here In
regard to Mr.. Blaine's larger operations
since the close of the war. That he has
always been a heavy speculator is a fact
which neither he himself nor his friends
attempt to keep secret. He bought $76,-
600 in Maine State bonds in 1871, but his
investments have been, for the most part,
outside of the State. He has usually been
fortunate IN his speculatiOns, but not ami
f0rmly so. His friends say that he has
lost hundreds of thousands, as we'll as
made hundreds of thousands. The spec
ulation in the securities of the Little
Rock and Fort Smith Railway, in
which Mr.. Blaine persuaded a large
number of his Maine friends to join
him, would have been a very Sc.
rious matter for him but for the
fact that Scott and other railroad men hav-
ing measures pending in Congress, when
Blaine was Speaker OF the House, helped
him out of the disaster. There are very
keen memories of this Little Rock and
| Fort Smith affair in these parts. Mr..
Blaine himself never refers to it. The
matter was never understood by the par
| ties interested here until after the publ
cation in 1876 of Mr.. Blaira's own memo
randa of his transactions. The facts We're
that Mr.. Blaine induced She Coburns of
Skowhegan, the Morrills, Sanhorn of All
gusta, the Hazeltines and Johnsons of
Belfast, Alanson B. FarWelI and some
others, to purchase Though him of War
rem Fisher, Jr., of Boston, securities of
| the Little Rock and Fort Smith Railroad,
for which they paid in gross the sum of
| 100000. Mr.. Blaine went to each Of these
! gentlemen and told him it was a very
| good thing; that ne had himself
invested large amount of
money, and that he recommended it to
/ them because he wanted to put them into
1 ga good thing" The business was to be
4 done entirely through him. Each one
| was to receive for every 81, 009in cash put
/ in $1,000 in first-mnrtgage bonds, $1,000 in
4 preferred stock and $1,000 in common
4 stock. Mr.. Blame assured them that
/ they were son the ground floor'' with
] himself. Subsequently Warren Fisher,
/ Jr., failed, and the enterprise broke down.
! Mr.. Blaine astonished all his friends by
! promptly handing over the $4,000 and
! taking all of the securities back. They
70 I1Ds,,
again, and asked no questions; but it
/ surprised them when Mr.. Blaine's account
/ book was produced and published in
/ 1876 TO find that Mr.. Blame had never in
/ vested a cent in the enterprise, but
| had received from Warren Fisher,
! DR., 100000 in land-grant bonds,
/ and an agreement to deliver $50, 800 first
mortgage bonds in addition, as a COM
| mission on the sale of the other securities
| to his Maine friends, while had they gone
! direct to Mr.. Fisher, they would have OBJ
/ tanned not only what Mr.. Blaine gave
them, but the land grant bonds in addi-
ton. This publication created a vast
| amount of establishment here, and some
] of the gentlemen interested have not re-
/ covered from ii yet. They say that Mr..
Blaine's intimate friends promised that
he would explain the matter, but that he
] has never done so. Some OF them get to-
gether once in while and talk the matter
| over, and it is not difficult for them to
understand why it was that Mr.. Blaine
was willing to get down on his knees to
Mr.. Mulligan to impl0re HIM not to
| make this secret agreement with Fisher
| public. 1t may not be remembered that
previous to this public statement in 1876
| Mr.. Blaine had made a statement to the
! House of Representatives, in which he
said; SIN common with hundreds of other
! people in New England and other parts of
| the country, Thought some of these bonds
! not a very large amount-paying for
| them precisely at the rate others paid"
| The evidence satisfied his Maine friends
that he had actually not paid any money
or agreed to Fay any. In conversation
one of the parties induced to purchase
| these securities by Mr.. Blaine said to the
writer; ''He has never opened his mouth
about the matter since. He lied to me,
| and he OIL ght not to be President"