The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1884-09-27

We venture the assertion that neither in
the political history of this or any country
can an instance he found of such bold, dar-
inc and uncomfortable lying on the part Of
a public man Of the prominence of James
G. Blaine as is revealed in the following
letter of Warren Fisher, Jr., to Blaine, and
the letter also given below which the latter
wrote for Fisher TO sign:
FISHER TO BLAINE.
BosToN, April 1G, 1876,
To MY DEAR BLAINE | have
placed you in position whereby you have
received very large sums of money without
one dollar of expense toyou, and you ought
not to forget the act on my part. OF all the
parties connected with the Little Rock and
Fort Smith Railroad no one has been so
fortunate as Yourself In obtaining money
out of it. You obtained subscriptions from
your friends in Maine for the building Of
the Little Rock and Fort Smith railroad
Out of their subscriptions you obtained a
large amount both of bonds and money tree
of cost to you. | have your own figures and
| know the amount. Owing 70 your political
position you were able to work off all your
bonds at a very high price, and the fact is
well known to others as we'll as myself
Would your friends in Maine be satisfied if
they knew the facts;
That every word here stated by Fisher is
true is not only admitted by Blaine in sub
sequent letters to Fisher, but is proved be
yond all possible dispute by the whole tenor
of the Mulligan correspondence. The sim
ole explanation is this: Under the contract
of Sept. 5, 1869, between Blaine and Fisher
Blaine sold to number of parties in Maine
stock and bonds Of the Little Rock and Fl
Smith Railroad to the amount of $39O,O0O,
receiving therefor $4,000 in cash, of
which Up. of Fishers memorandum book
Blaine pocketed $l5,150 as commissions,
besides which, under the same contract, he
received 100000 land grant and $32500
first mortgage bonds of the road as pure
gratuity for lending his support to the en-.
terprise; and these bonds Mr. Blaine, COW
ing to his political position was able to
work off at very high price-for exam
pie, $4,000 to the Union Pacific Railroad
for $4,000.
Yet with full consciousness of these in
disputable facts, on the 10Th Of April, 1876,
after Blaine had made substantially the
same statement TO the House contained in
the letter below, but while he was under
the full impression that all his correspond
ence with Fisher establishing the above
| facts had been delivered to himself and de-
| stroyed, and he was utterly ignorant of the
| fact that Mulligan had carefully preserved
letter press copies OF the whole correspond,
once, he writes and asks Fisher to copy,
sign and return to him at Washington for
use before the investigating committee, the
following letter, "as great personal favor"
but with the Injunction " burn this letter"
asking the favor:
The enterprise of building the Little
Rock and Fort Smith railroad was underta-
ken in 1869 by company of Boston gentle
men, of whom | was myself one. The
bonds of the road were put upon the mar
ket in this city on what was deemed very
advantageous terms TO the purchaser They
were sold largely through myself. You be
came the purchaser of about 10000 of the
bonds on precisely the same terms that eve
ry other buyer received, paying for them in
, installments running over considerable
period, just as others did. The transaction
was perfectly open, and there was no more
secresy in regard to it than If you had been
buying flour or sugar. | am sure you never
owned a bond oi1the road that you did not
pay for at the market rate. Indeed am
sure that no one received bonds on any
other terms
Had Fisher signed this paper Blaine
knew very well, and SO probably did Fisher,
that the very next day he would be sum.
moned to Washington and asked to swear
to 1t. But Fisher knew, what Blaine didn't
know, that at that moment Mulligan had in
his possession letter. press copies of the
Blaine Fisher correspondence sufficient to
prove every statement in the above draft a
shameful and wicked falsehood, and be
wasn't green enough to be caught in that
trap. But contemplate for moment the
dastardly meanness of the scoundrel who
could conceive such lie and was villain
enough to plan the ENHANCEMENT of his
dear friend" In its meshes.