Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1884-06-07
MIR. BLAINE'S RECORD.

MN. bLAlN hEOOID.
From the New York Evening Post, April al
A correspondent desires some explana-
tion of what he considers the sighting or
hostile references to Mr. James G.. Blaine
which so frequently appear in the Erening
Post, and which he suspects must be, in
some degree at least, the product OF private
malice. We think he is entitled, as are our
readers generally, to some such expla-
nation, and we shall proceed to make it
cheerfully, starting, however, with the as.
sertion that no editor or other person con-
nected with the Eucning Post in any capac-
ity has, to our knowledge, had any differ
ence, quarrel or controversy with Mr..
Blaine or has ever received any injury from
him whatever or bears him any personal
grudge. Whenever he is discussed in these
columns he is discussed either as the holder
of public Office or as a candidate fora pub
lie office. Nor do we make any reference
to his private affairs except when those az
fairs have or appear to have direct and i'm
portant relation to his character and claims
us public man. In fact, all our comments
on him and his doings are due to The TACT that
we consider his reappcarance as Il candidate
for the highest office in,the government, or
any other. as an audacious processing,
which can only be accounted for by suppos-
ing him to have an extraordinary and I'M
warrantable confidence in the popular tor
getfulness 1t is the duty Of all those who
do not wish to see the republican party
burdcned during the canvass next sum
mer with the hopeless task Of white
washing him, TO set forth briefly, now that
his boom is becoming so lively, the
charges which he will have to answer before
he can be elected to the Presidency. II
would be lamentable indeed, and certainly
disastrous, if the task prescribed for repub-
lican journalists by the convention should
he not the discussing OF great questions of
public policy, like the tariff or the civil ser
vice or the railroads Or the currency, but
laborious examinations of Mr.. James q.
BIaine's railroad transactions. We mean,
as far as we are concerned, to avoid this If
we can by taking up his railroad transac-
tons now, before the hustle and excitement
of the canvass begins.
The first of these charges is that in tie
spring session OF Congress in 1860 IL bill was
before the House Of Representatives which
sought to renew q land grant to the Little
Rock and Fort Smith Railroad OF Arkansas,
in which some of Mr.. Baine's friends were
an amendment was made aud was OF the
point OF being successful and its promoters
were in despair; that at this jluncturc, Mr..
Blaine being then Speaker Of the House.
sent a message TO General Logan To make
the point of order that the amendment was
not germanc to the purposes Of the bill that
this point of order was accordingly. raised
and promptly sustained by Mr.. Blaine rs
Speaker, and the bill was in this manner
saved that Mr. Blaine wrote at once to the
promoters calling attention to the services he
had rendered them, aud finally, after some
negotiations, secured from them, as a reward
for it, his appointment rs selling agent of
the bonds Of the road, on commission, in
Maine, and received auumhcr of such bonds
as his percentage; that tho leading features
of this transaction appeared in two letters
Of his afterward made puilic, dated respcc-
lively June 29 and October t. 1860.
Secondhand he asserted at first on the
floor of the House, with the view of cover
ing up this affair that the Little Rock and
Fort Smith road derived its life, franchise
| and value wholly from the State" and not
from Congress, whereas the evidence sub
| sequently taken by the Congressional Com
| cd the value on which these bonds were based
/
secured the passage in the manner above
described in 1860; that he asserted OH the
| floor Of the House that the bonds he received
were bought by him at precisely the same
rate as others paid, whereas the'evidence
showed that the bonds came to him as COM
| missions on sales, which he secured the OPP
portunity of making through his aid given to
| the work in Congress, and that he solicited
| this agency, basing his request on the aid so
given, and that he paid nothing whatever
| for the bonds, the consideration being>his
ruling as Speaker and his subsequent efforts
to sell them. What he did with these
bonds, seventy-live in number, is uncertain;
but strong, though not conclusive, evidence
was produced going to show that they were
| taken off his hands at good price by the
Union Pacific Railroad Through the ipstru-
mentality of one Caldwel), which then also
was in trouble. The investigation on this
point was never pushed home owing to the
sudden illness which overlook Mr.. Blaine
| in 1876.
Third-That Mr.. Blaine, in 1870, made
an offer, as appeared by his own letters to
one of his railroad friends, Mr.. Warren
Fisher, of Boston, to sell him half of one
twenty-folrth interest in the Northern
Pacific railroad Immediately after Jay
COOkcS COHtIaCO udu oeCil anu
the additional legislation had been obtain
ed" he having, be said, come Into control
| of this interest "hy strange revolution of
circumstances" that the amount OF stock
which this would represent, he said, would
be S425, 000 and the number of acres of land
''nearly 275,0O0." "The chance" he said,
twas q very rare one; he couldn't touch
it," but he offered it to Mr.. Fisher for $685.
| 600; that Mr.. Fisher accepted it and paid
the money, but for some unexplained reason
the stock was never delivered, and Mr.,
Blaine subsequently returned the amount.
This transaction was very peculiar one
for the following reasons:
1t appears from acts of Congress relating
| to the road, none of which are of older date
than July 2, 1864, that the authorized stock
was Sl00,O00,00O, with land grant est-
mated by the Commissioners of Public Lands