The Indianapolis journal., 1884-05-01

that no editor or other person connected with
the Evening Post in any capacity has to our
knowledge, had any difference, quarrel or con,
troversy with Mr. Blaine, or has ever received
any injury from him whatever or
bears him any personal gludge. Whenever
he is discussed in these columns, he Is discussed
either as the holder of public Office, or as can
didate for public office Nor do we make any
reference to his private affairs except when those
affairs have or appear to have direct and I'M
portant relation to his character and CLAIMS as a
public man. In fact all our comments on him
and his doings are due to the fact thatwe consider
his temperance as a candidate for the highest
Office in the government, or any other, as an atl-
dacious proceeding, which can only be accounted
for by supposing him to have an extraordinary
and understandable confidence in the popular for
getfulness. 1t is the duty of all those who do
not wish to see the Republican party burdened
during the canvass next summer with the nope
less 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 Presi-
dency. 1t would be lamentable indeed, and
certainly disastrous, if the task prescribed for
Republican journalists by the convention should
be not the discussion of great questions ofpublic
policy, like the tariff civil service, or the rail-
roads, or the currency, but laborious examina-
tions of Mr.. James G. Blaine's railroad trans
actions. We mean, as far as we are con-
cerned, to avoid this, if we can, by taking up
his railroad transactions now, before the hustle
and excitement of the canvass begins.
'"rhe first of these charges is that in the
spring session of Congress in 1869 bill was be-
fore the House Of Representatives which sought
to renew a land grant to the Little Rock Il
Fort Smith railroad, of Arkansas, in which some
of Mr.. Blaine's friends were interested that an
attempt to defeat it by an amendment was made.
and was on the point of being successful a1 ana
| its promoters in despair; that
at this juncture, Mr.. Blaine, being
the Speaker Of the House, sent message to
General Logan to make the point of order that
the amendment was not germane to the purposes
of the bill; that this point of order was accord
ingly raised and promptly sustained by Mr.
Blaine as Speaker, and the bill was in this man
ner saved; that Mr.. Blaine wrote at once to the
prompters calling attention to the service he mad
rendered them, and finally, after some negotla-
| tions. secured for them, reward for it, his
appointment as selling agent of the bonds of the
road, on commission, in Maine, and received
number of such bonds as his percentage; that the
leading features of this transaction appeared in
two letters of his afterward made public, dated
respectively June 20, and October 4, 1869.
Second that he asserted at first on the floor
of the House, with the view of covering up this
affair, that the Little Rock and Fort Smith road
the State, and not from Congress;
whereas the evidence subsequently taken
by the congressional committee dis
closed the fact that the road derived the value
on which these bonds were based from the act OF
Congress of which Mr. Blaine secured the pass
age, in the manner above described in 1869; that
he asserted on the floor of the House that the
bonds he received were bought by him at pre-
cisely the same rate others pa i'd, whereas the
evidence showed that the bonds came TO him as
commissions on sales, which he secured the ep-
portunity of making through his aid given to the
workin Congress, and that he solicited this
agency, basng his request on the aid so given
and that he paid nothing whatever tor the bonds
the consideration being his ruling as Speaker
and his subsequent efforts to sell them What
he did with these bonds-seventy five in num-
ber--is uncertain; but strong, though not con-
elusive, evidence was produced going to show
that they were taken off his hands at good
price by the Union Pacific railroad Through the
instrumentalty of one Caldwelp, which then
also was in trouble. The investigation this
point was never pushed home owing to the sud
den illness which overlook Mr.. Blaine i'll 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 fourth interest
in the Northern Pacific railroad, Immediately
after Jay Cooks contract had been perfected and
the additional legislation had been obtained, he
having he said, come into control of this interest
by strange revolution OF circumstances; that
the amount of stock which this would represent,
he said would be 1926 900, and the number of
acres of land nearly 275OOO' The chance, he
said, was very rare one; he couldn't touch 1t,
but he offered it to Mr.. Fisher for $23 000 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 a very pc
culiar one for the following reasons:
''It 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
$l00, ,000 000 with land grant estimated by the
Commissioner of Public Lands at $4,000, 900
acres, or "a, 423 square miles. The line of the
road was 2 900 miles long and at the time of
Blane's letter to Fisher it was, he says being
built on bonds at $25 600 mile, which would
have made bonded debt of $50, 900. 000 Mr.
| oS1 bpr of sneaker q
the House, must be taken to have known about
the circumstances of the road, and there there
FORE seems no escape from the conclusion that
his offer was based on the expectation that he
would receive almost as gift a share in an en-
terprise dependent for its value on legislation
in which he had taken part. Mr.. Blaines
defense in the of this transaction con
sisted st first of a denial that he had
ever had any transaction with the road at all;
but he afterwards rested on the fact that he had
pecuniary interest in the transfer, and that it
was never actually made; but, though this might
be defense to suit against him for Il conspiracy
to defraud purchasers of the stock, it does not
affect in any way the nature of the offer. His
relations with Warren Fisher We're in 1870, as
appeared from the evidence, such that any favor
done the latter or gift presented to him had di-
rect pecuniary value.
'Fourth-Because he obtained certain letters,
which there is every reason to believe contained
matter gravely compromising him. from per
fectly reputable witness, Mr. Mulligan, who was
the proper and lawful custodian of them, after
having vainly tried appeals to his pity by pedg-
ing his word of honor to restore them, then
broke this pledge, retained them by force and
subsequently read such of them as he pleased to
the House in aid of his vindicaton; that this
conduct, if not legally criminal, was such
man aspiring to be the chief magistrate of
great nation ought to be even suspected of.
"Fifth-That both his short service as an ex-
ecutive officer of the Government and the var
ioHs efforts he has made during the past eight
years to keep the public in mind of him, have
been sensational and theatrical, indicating a
strong love of notoriety and an absence of the
settled convictions, the sober judgment, and the
steadiness of character which are needed to
make him safe occupant of any high or respon-
by which his booms are started and promoted of
which the manner in which his history has re-