The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1884-08-14
The Mulligan Lattars

The Mulligan Letters.
Murat Halstead editor of the Cincin-
natl Commercial Gazette, has been writing
some very interesting letters from New
York to his paper. Under date of July
81, he says
READERS OF the old stories about blaine
VIII remember that the famous Mulligan
letters were read by Blaine himself in the
House OF, Representatives They were his
| private letters in his personal possession.
but he was accused of many misdemeauors
IN taking them into his own hands. when
a man who had no right to use them
threatened to publish them if he-that is
10 say, Mulllgan-was attacked. The Com
mlttee OF Investigation then sitting had
no right TO call Tor the letters. There had
1een noise about them, however, and
famed phrase or two capable, as private
letters are apt.to do, Of perversion. The
! question Was raised by those who Sought
excuse for- antagonizing Blaine, whether
he had read all the letters. The New York
Times has been displaying it's misdirected
IalenI IN an article on the missing Null
| llgan Letters, " and this morning the New
I DIRK Sun examines the question. whether
Blaine read all the letters, and declares it
an act OF justice to him to say that he did
read them all-that there are no missing
letters in the sense in which the phase
has been maliciously manufactured and
misused. The Sun says
1.-The Times has been led into false
position by carelessness, hardly less ex-
cuSable than deliberate dishonesty. The
discrepancies which it detects are SUPER
fetal. A careful analysis of the two lists
would have shown our Republican CO.
temporary that it had no ground for this
grave charge which it brings against the
Republican candidate
The Sun further remarks
when Mr.. Blaine took from Mulligan
the letters which were afterward read by
the hard-preSsed statesman in the House
OF Representatives, he took, also, a memo
randum which Mulligan had made of the
dates OF the letters in the package, with a
synopsis OF their contents. This schedule
called for fifteen letters, or, to be exact,
fourteen letters and one paper, entered as
Contract with Northern Pacific
The Congress ional Record for June 5,
1876, shows that Mr.. Blaine read just fif-
teen letters on the floor of the House. He
said at the time THANK God Almighty, /
am not afraid to show them! There they
are. There is the very original package
Again, just before sending to the clerk
oA1s ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS, OCtlu Il
have now read those fifteen letters, the
whole of them. The House and the coun-
try now know all there is in them. They
are dated, and they correspond precisely
with Mulligan'S memorandum. which /
have here. | keep this memorandum as q
protection to myself, for it is very valuable
as showing the identity of the letters in
every respect.
The Sun makes this summary of the
case
''Of the fifteen letters described in the
memorandum, ten appear in the list Of
those read by Blaine. In the case of two
others there is slight discrepancy in the
date. The letter marked June 20, 1859, in
the Record is evidently that which is
marked June 81, 1869, in the memorandum,
for it is the famous No Dead-head' epistle.
The Identity Of the memorandum letter
July 25, 1869, and the Record letter of
July 2, 1859, is established by the fact that
the letter answers exactly to Mulligan's
synopsis Of the former These discrep-
ancies are obviously the result of trifing
clerical errors on his part in transcribing
the dates. This disposes Of one of the
four letters which the Times thinks were
suppressed by Blaine. The second in its
list is number five of the memorandum,
September 5, '69, contract with different
parties This was omitted by Blaine
because it was written by Fisher to him,
not by him to Fisher. The Times will
find it printed on page 5000, in vol. 4, part
4, of the Record. as Exhibit X The third
document supposed to have been suppressed
by Blaine is the contract with Northern
Pacific of the memorandum. The Times
will find the missing paper on page 360S of
the same volume Of the Record, marked
Exhibit ]
1.-THE fourth of the suppressed letters
was that of October "a, 1871. 1t was not
one of Blaine letters. 1t was written by
Mr.. Fisher, and Mr.. Blaine explained at
the time that he failed to find it in the
package We do not think that anybody
who has followed our analysis Of the list
will doubt the truth of his assertion"
Mr. Blaine read three letters which were
not included IN the index. The dates are
April %, April 26, and July 2, 1872. For
some reason Mulligan had failed to note
their existence in the list which he pre-
pared for his convenience on the witness
stand. Blaine certainly gained no adj
vantage by confding their contents to the
public. AS they merely added to the evil
dence of his connection with railroad spec
ulations, and as they were really not needed
in order to fill out the number called for
by the accompanying memorandum, their
production by Mr.. Blaine seems to us to
strengthen the presumption that he went
straight through the package wrested
from Mulligan in the famous interview of
May 81 !, 1876, at the Riggs House.
LET us have all the truth about Blaine,
but let Blaine have the benefit Of strict
and impartial justice III the development
of the case against him. We-do not believe
that the Times has Intentionally misrep-
resented the case. 1t has hurried to con-
illusions without verifying its facts"
1t will be observed that this article is
not friendly to Blaine in its tone, but it is
notable for disposing of the accusation
against Blaine that has been more relied
on by the enemies of Blaine than any
other.