Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1884-09-25
MORE CR00KEDNESS.

A second 1nStallmenC OF the SO-calleu
"Mulligan Letters" has come to light, the
said letters having been written by James
G. Blaine in the years running from 1867 to
1876. These letters are published by War
rem Fisher and James Mulligan, of Boston,
under their own certificates of genuineness,
and they all concern Blaine's crooked rail-
road transactions. One Of these letters is q
very remarkable one. tits addressed to Mr..
Fisher under date of April 1G, 1876, and con-
tains draft of another letter prepared by
Blaine, which he asks Fisher to sign and
return to him. This letter is intended as a
certificate exonerating Blaine from the
charge of having become, by corrupt means,
the possessor of a large amount of Little
Rock and Fort Smith Railroad bonds. Fish
er was requested to say in the proposed letter
that Blaine had purchased about $50, 900 of
Little Rock and Fort Smith Railroad bonds
son precisely the same terms that every
other buyer received, paying for them in in
stallments running over considerable pc
RODS" &c. And Fisher was requested fur
ther to say that "the transaction was per-
fectly open and that there was no more Sc
cresy about it than if you had never owned
a bond of the road that you did not pay for
at the market rate" A postscript request
ed Fisher to 'burn the letter." Fisher did
neither burn the letter or send a copy in his
own handwriting from the draft furnished
by Blaine.
A few days after this letter was written
to Fisher, Blaine went into the House of
Representatives and defended himself from
the charge of having obtained, as member
of the House, the said bonds as a g.atuity,
and denied that he had done SO, declaring
that he had never received bond o. the
road except at the regular market price.
Commenting upon this transaction, the
New York ,S,ua, which is opposed to the
election of Cleveland, says:
Why did not Mr.. Fisher accede to Mr..
Blaine's urgent appeal to support him in .lis
statement? The answer is afforded in Fish
er's own letter to Blaine, written four years
to day before: "Of all the parties connect
ed with the Little Rock and Fort Smith
Railroad, no one has been so fortunate as
yourself in obtaining money ont of it. You
obtained subscriptions from your friends in
Maine for the building of the Little Rock
and Fort Smith Railroad. Out of their sub
scriptions you obtained large amount both
of bonds and money, free of cost to you. |
have your own figures, and know the
amount. Owing to your political position,
you were able to work off all of your bonds
at very high price. Would your friends
in Maine be Satisfied if they knew the facts"
OF this last batch Of letters the New York
Post, Republican, says:
The tone and character are the same in
ALL They show that the Republican candi-
date for the Presidency used the Speakers
gain, that he told falsehoods about his trans
actions whenever it was necessary to do so
to conceal them, and that he was smart
enough to make fortune out of the bust
ness. For all persons who like that kind
of a candidate Mr.. Blaine is just the sort Of
a candidate they have liked from the first,
and will continue to the end, no matter how
many more letters Mulligan and Fisher
may haye in reserve.
The Springfield, Mass, Repu6tican, one
of staunchest Republican papers in the
Union, says:
The additional correspondence given to
the public by Warren Fisher and James
Mulligan, this morning, stamps the Repub-
lican candidate for President Of the United
States anew as corrupt jObber on a mag
nifcent scale. 1t accumulates conclusive
proof that he lied unblushingly in his SOL
emn declaration to the House of Represen-
tatives Of April 81, 1876, regarding his rela-
tions to the Little Rock enterprise and to
the Union Pacific, and it exposes him in the
effort to obtain at that time Warren Fish
er's signature to letter Of deceitful exon
Grafton, drawn up by Mr.. Blaine himself.
Mr.. Blaine appears in no new character in
these letters, but there is simply more Of
him in role with which candid men have
long identified him, until the croWning act
Of self-aggrandizement, audacious falsehood
and hypocritical double-dealing is reached
in the attempt to secure from his partner a
letter of vindication dictated by himself,
such as he had secured from Rollins, Dillon
and Scott, probably by the same process,
and such as had already been cabled over to
Caldwell, to be cabled back to the commit
tee of investigation.
And among other Republican comment,
we find the following in the New York
Times:
In sense it is true that there is nothing
new in the latest letters. The rascality
which they establish on the part of Mr..
Blaine was already disclosed by the letters
previously published. The disgusting job
berry which they show him to have been en-
gagged in was fastened on him before, so that
a careful and candid examination of the ev-
idence left no choice as to the verdict. The
offer to use the power which he claimed to
have to secure official "favoritism" in be-
half of men from whom he was then seek
inc share in what he thought would be O.