The semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1882-1886, 1884-07-23
THE MULLIqAN LETTERS.

transactions Of several prominen,
Congressman was i~naugarated by
Democratic Congress. Some of them
fell under the investigation and
others retired with their characters
so badly smlrched that their mesl
! intimate friends hardly knew them.
Among those who saw the danger
flag ahead was James G.. Blame
He had mixed himself up with Ger
tain railroad transactions and he
well knew the committee of investi.
cation had scented his trail.
Intimately connected with these
frauds and railroad transactions was
one Warren Fisher, a wealthy Bos-
ton capitalist. His private and con
idential secretary was James
MulIigan. Through his relations
with Mr.. Fisher, MI. Mulligxn came
into possession Of the formers pri.
vate correspondence. Among these
were letters compromising MI.
Blaine with other public men.
Mulligan Was the man wanted by
the Congressional committee and he
was s%ubpenaed and ordered to pro-
duce these letters. Before, however,
he had an opportunity to lay them
before the committee be was visited
BY Mr.. Blaine who asked, demanded,
begged, and finally upon his knees
plead tor possession VI the tell-tale
papers. After much persuasion, MI.
Mulligan gave the letters into the
hands o. MI. Blaine upon the solemn
promise of the latter to return them
intact within a few hours. This Mr..
Blaine failed to do, and answered the
demand for their return with a firm
and persistent refusal. The next day
Mr.. Mulligan went before the COM
mittee and swore to the circum-
stances as We have related them.
The contents of .hese letters, fifteen
in Number, were exceedingly damag-
ing to Mr.. Blaine. For the benefit
Of the readers of the MINER we ap-
pend several of them, with the re-
minder that the land grant to the
Little Rock and Fort Smith railroad
was, at that time, in imminent daL-
ger of forfeiture, and that the reward
received by Mr.. Blaine was in pay
ment for his services as Speaker of
the House Of Representatives in pre-
serving intact the gigantic steal.
Here is the first Of those interesting
papers:
AUGUSTA, June 20, 1869.
my DEAR Mr.. FISHER Your
offer 10 admit ME to q partnership in
the new railroad enterprise is In
every respect as generous as I could
expect or desire. [ thank YOU very
sincerely for it, and in this conuec-
lion l wish to make q suggestion Of
a somewhat selfish character. You
spoke of MI. Caldwell dispOsing Of u
share of his interest to me IT he
really designs 10 do so, [ wish he
would make The proposition defiui.e,
SO that l could know just what 10 de-
pend on. Perhaps IT he waits till the
Iull development OF the enterprise he
might grow reluctant To part with
hi, share and | DO not by this mean
any dlstrust of him. l do not feel
that l shall prove u deadhead in the
ii l once embark IN 1t l
cpA. yx , / m, al, q n s,.1S in xui,inh + ro,,
[ Tan be useful.
VERY hastily and sincerely, your
Trend, -. u. BLAINE." .
MR.. FISHER, India street, Boston. :
The reader'wi note the dellcacy
with which in the subsequent letters +,
the Maine statesman drew the atteu.
ton of capitalists to his valuable
services as Speaker. He took care to
impress Mr.. Fisher with the TACT that ,
be would not prove a "dead- =,
head in the enterprise" =,
AUGUSTA, July 9 1869.
MY DEAR Nh. FISHER You ask +,
me If [ am satisfied with the offer
you made of share in your new rail Z
road enterprise. OF course, I am
more than satisfied with the terms of
The offer. L think it a most liberal i,
proposition. 1t [ hesltated at all. it !.
IS from considerations in IL way con- l
nected with the character of the Of '
Your liberal mode of dealing
with me in all our businest transac> +,
Ions OF the past eight years has not :,
passed without my fall appreciation. {
What l wrote to you on the 18th was E
Intended to bring Caldwell to a def y
lite srOpositiOn, that was all. I 20 =
o Boston by the same train that car .
les this letter, and will Call at your a
'ffice Tomorrow at II m. If you e
lOn't happen to he in, no matter. o
Don't put yourself to any trouble =
bout it. Yours,
w. FISHER, JR. ]. G. B. a
AUGUSTA, Me, Oct. 4, 1869. :
MY DEAR SIR:-I spoke to you q a
hort time ago about a point of inter- t
st to your railroad company that oc- :,
urTed at the last session of congress-. y
t was Oh the last night OF the session II
When the bill renewing the land fl
to the State of Arkansas for the I,
>'Se1O VIZ Ic0u was IcdCuCu, duU ~
ulian, of Indiana, chairman of The y
'ublic Lands committee, and, by
light, entitled to the floor, attempted n
D put on the bill as an amendment, q,
he Fremont Ell Paso scheme, a =
probably well known to Mr.. ~
'aldwe'l. The House was thin, aud Il
he lobby in the Fremont inter> tt
st had the thing all set up, and JUL oil
ans amendment was likely to pre- -,
all If brought to a vote. Roots and VI
ne other members from Arkansas. d
tho were doing their best for their st
bill Ito which there seemed to q,
no Objection), were in despair. for =.
was we'll known that the Senate "
as hostile to the Fremont scheme, hi
nd if the Arkansas bill had gone m
ack 10 the Senate with Julian's III
nendment, the whole thing would
ave gone Oh the table aud slept the
eep OF death. In this dilemma
cots came to me to know what on
nth he could do under the rules, for
said it Was vital to his cnnstitut-
ITS that the bill should pass. [ told en-
i'm that Julian's amendment was hs
OFT OF order, because not ger D