The Portland daily press., 1884-04-28

Blaine did not know that there was any such
person as Caldwell and Fisher. who was Mr..
Blaine's friend, did not know that there was
any such enterprise as the Little Rock Railroad
III the world. The evidence of these assertions
was before Congress, was uncontradicted and
is Within your reach, On the Doth of June,
nearly eighty days after Congress had ad-
lourned, Mr.. Blaine from his home in Maine
wrote to Fisher and spoke of Fishers ''offer to
admit him 70 share in the new railroad en-
terprise." Fisher had introduced the subject
tof the first time week before at the great
musical festival in Boston. He told him there
that Mr. Caldwell, whom Mr.. Blaine had not
yet seen, had now obtained control OF the en-
| terprlse and had invited Fisher TO Join him. At
that time Fisher was a sugar refner of consid@
SIaoIe wealth. 10 Boston, had been partner of
Mr. Biaines brother in-aw, and through him
nad made Mr. Blaine's acquaintance The of
| fer Mr.. Blaine refers 60 in his letter was Fish
eEs otter to induce Caldwell if he could, to let
| df' Blame have share in the bed rock OF the
enterprise. Mr.. Fisher failed TO do this and
Mr; blame never secured any interest in the
Dulldlng OF the Fort Smith and Little Rock
| What interest, then, did Mr.. Blaine secure?
| An interest in the securities of the company.
| do"E BY purchase, on the same terms as they
were sold on the Boston market to all appli-
cants, to Josiah Bardwell, to Elisha Atkins
| and to other reputable merchants He negoti,
ated for a block of the securities. which we're
dlVlded, as is usual in such enterprises, into
Vhree KINDS, first mortgage bonds, second mort
| gage bonds and stock. The price / think was
three Tor one. That is; the purchaser got first
lnortgage eohos Ior his money and an equal
/ amount OF second mortgage bonds and of stock
thrown III as the basis of possible profit. l NAV
oe mistaken as to the price, but think not
| went myself at this time into several adven-
lures OF the kind at that rate, and have ALWAYS
understood that Senator Grimes and his friends
/ got their infnrnrfa in Rr,.l
souri, Road, afterward the Union Pacific on the
same tnree-to-one basis. II was the common
rule III that era of speculation. Having made
ms purchase Mr.. Blaine conceived the idea
tnas De might retain bis second mortgage bonds
as proht and sell the first mortgage bonds with
.he stock as bonus TO attract purchasers. He
believed the first mortgage bonds were good.
ana disposed of them to his neighbors in that
,alen ana with the determination 20 shield
them from loss in cass of disaster Disasrar
came. The bonds proved worthless. ard Mr.
blaine redeemed them all. In one or two
cases only was there any guarantee. In none
otner vas there any legal obligation, but he
recognized moral claim and he obeyed it to
nls OVID pecuniary loss. cannot but feel that
tne purchasers OF these bonds would have far4d
worse had they had to look to many of those
VINO nave sought to give an odious interpreta-
ZION TO Mr. Blaine's honorable conduct The
arrangement for the purchase of the block of
securities was made in June. The sales of the
nrst mortgage bonds out of the block were con-
tinued through the months OF Julv August
aud September. 1869. SO the transaction vas
closed when in the letter of October Mr..
biaine wrote to Fisher and told him the story
VI sne n - OF April. Mr.. Blaine had come
across IT while looking over The Globe with a
natural curiosity to see what had been His de-
clsions during the first six weeks of his Sneak
ersnip, and wrote of it to Fisher as an item in
tne legislative history of the enterprise into
which they had both subsequently, entered n
concerned a hill Iou
long before the war to the Little Rock and Fort
olnltn hallroad. The bill bau passed the SEN
aGe without opposition, and there was no one
opJectlng to it in the House. But The advo-
G pNs OF tne Memphis, Ell Paso and Pacific
halfway bill sought to attach their bill to IL as
an amendment. This El Paso scheme vas
known at the time as General Fremont's
scneme and bad been urged upon Congress be-
lore. Ii was generally unpopular and was hot
~ opposed by General Logan, Welded to the
Little Rock bill it would gain strength Int the
Llttle kock bill would lose it. and lust meas
ure, universally approved, would be killed in
lts effort to pull through with il this unjust
measure universally disapproyed.
M. blalne's letter to Fisher will tell the
rest OF the story. He wrote: SIN this dilem-
ma, Roots, the Arkansas member, came to me
TO know what on earth he could do under the
rules, for he SAID it was vital to his constitu-
ents tnat the bill should pass. I told him that
Ine amendment was entirely out of order be-
confidence in his knowledge of the rules to
MAKE the point. But he said Gen LOGAN was
opposed to the Fremont scheme, and would
probably make the point. sent nv page to
zen Logan with the suggestion, and he at
once made tho point. / could not do other
wise than sustain it, and so the bill was freed
from TINS mlschievous amendment and at onca
passed without objection" Mr.. Blaine added
THESE significant words: 'sAt that time Ihod
neOer seen Dir. CALDWELL but gto1 oq3s ten rim
that 2BIfhO2Lt T,1t,J
Jd0or. Thought the point Mould IN
tereSt both you and Mr.. CdIdaUeH, tboatqh before
esteer o. you aoere engaged IN the eYterprise"
Lnis seems, Mr.. Editor, to dispose of yonr first
GpnaIge; Lhe Oil was just one, and Mr.
bIalne's friends had no interest ia il when it
passed the House. Eighty days after the
House adjourned Mr.. Blaine asked his friends
VINO had in the meantime gotten hold of the
enterprise and had offered him some interest
10 70 iet nm IN as partner. They refused
lhey dld, however, sell him block Of securi-
ues on the sauna terms they sold them to 9th
srs, ana u proved an unfortunate purchase,
ieving them valuable, and took them all back
whea he found that they were worthless. The
letter of Mr.. Blaine, written months after,
contains his Yindication, and SO clearly that
Judge Black, after an investigation of the
whole subject, declared in his characteristic
style that Mr.. Blaine's letters proved that tho
charge which you repeat against him twas not
only untrue, but impossible, aud would contin-
ne SO to prove until the Gregorian calendar
could be turned around and October made TO
precede April in the stately procession Of the
year."
Your second charge consists of two rarts
The first part is that Mr.. Blaine wrongfuliy as.
serted that THE Little Rock and Fort Smith
hoad derives its life and value and franchise
wholly from the State OF Arkansas" whereas
the evidence subsequently taken discloses the
fact that the road derived the value on which
these bonds were based from the act of Con-
gress OF which Mr.. Blaine secured the passage"
1t will DO found that you have inaecurately
quoted Mr.. Blaine's language, or rather that
YOU have put language into his mouth which
he never used. What Mr.. Blaine did say was
The railroad company derived its life, value,
franchises from the State of Arkansas" And
Mr.. Blaine stated the precise truth. What are
the facts? More than thirty years ago Con-
gress granted to the States of Missouri and Ar
kansas a certain quantity of public lands to aid
IN the construction of certain lines of railway.
The franchises that should be granted to the
companies that should build the road were ex-
pressly left by Congress to the Legislatures of
the States. Mr.. Blaine spoke, therefore. with
absolute precision of language, as he usually
doss, when he stated that "the Little Rock
Company derives its life, value and franchises
wholly from the State of Arkansas''-just as
the Illinois Central Railroad Company derives
its life, value and franchises from the State of
Illinois, though enriched by land grant from
the United States, just as the Little Rock read
was.
The second part of your second charge is that
Mr.. Blaine did not speak truthfully when he
asserted that he ''bought the bonds at precisely
the same rates as others paid" There is no
evidence anywhere to sustain this accusation.
have already said any person could negotiate
for them on the one-for three basis just as Mr..
Blaine did, and many availed themselves of
the opportunity. The price paid was not in the
least affected by the fact that Mr.. Blaine had
already arranged to sell some of the securities
afterward at higher price than he paid for
them. He did this with the determination,
honorably maintained, that he would make
good any loss which might accrue. These
sales did not change the price to Fisher, and
the proof that it did not is found in the fact
that Mr.. Blaine paidit to him in full. You
speak in connection with this of Mr.. Blaine's
being appointed an agent to sell the bonds OF
the company. No such appointment was ever
made and no evidence suggested it. Mr..
Blaine bought his securities ut given price
and paid it for them.
Your third formal charge relates to an al
legged connection Of Mr.. Blaine with share in
the Northern Pacific enterprise. You charge
this in the face of tho fact that in Mr.. Blaine's
letter in which you find the subject referred to
was his distinct observation that he could not
himself touch the share" Have yo1 seen any
auidanca that he did2 haVo not, The North