Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1884-06-26

Cookies contract chad been perfected and
the additional legislation had been obtain
ed" 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 $425, 900, and the number of acres of land
"nearly 275,OOO." sThe chance" he said,
twas very rare one he could't touch it,"
but he offered it to Mr.. Fisher for s25, 900;
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 $100,O 900, with land grant esti-
mated by the commissioners of public lands
at a, 100000 acres, Or u, ,423 square miles.
The line of the road was 1000 miles long,
and at the time of Blaine's letter to Fisher
it was, he says, being built on bonds at
$25,0OO mile, which would have made a
bonded debt of $50,0O0,O00. Mr.. Blaine, as
a member of Congress and Speaker of the
House, must be taken to have known about
the circumstances of the road, and there
therefore seems no escape from the conclu-
sion that his offer was based on the expec-
tation that he would receive almost as a
gift share in an enterprise dependent for
its value on legislation in which he had
taken part. Mr.. Blaines defence in the
case of this transaction consisted at first OF
a denial that he had ever had any transac-
tion with the road at all, but he afterWard
rested on the fact that he had no pecuni-
ary interest in the transfer, and that it
was never actually made; but though this
might be a defence to suit against him for
q conspiracy to defraud purchasers of the
stock, it does not affect in any way the
nature of the offer. His relations with
Warren Fisher were in 1870, as appeared
from the evidence, such that any favor done
the latter, or gift presented to him, had a
direct pucuniary value. ..:.
THE FOURTH CHARGE. .....
Fourth Because he obtained certain let
tiers, which there is every reason to believe
contained matter gravely compromising
him, from perfectly reputable witness,
Mr.. Mulligan, who was the proper and law
full custodian of them, after having vainly
tried appeals to his pity, by pledging his
word of honor to restore them broke this
pledge, retained them by force, and subse-
quently read such of them as he pleased to
the House in aid of his vindication; that
this conduct, if not legally criminal, was
such as no man aspiring to be the Chief
Magistrate of great nation ought to be
even suspected of. n
THE FIFTH CHARGE. ....s
Fifth. That both his short service as an
executive officer of the government and the
various efforts he has made during the past
eight years to keep the public in mind of
him, have been sensational and theatrical,
indicating strong love of notoriety and an
absence Of the settled convictions, the sober
judgment and the steadiness of character
pant Of any high or responsible administra-
tive office and that the means by which
his "booms" are started and promoted
which the manner in which his 'history"
has recently been heralded and produced is
a good eXample-bear too close an approach
to the advertising devices of circus or
other public show to make the candidacy
of any person resorting to them anything
but humiliation for the party producing
him.
A PACKER OF CONVENTIONS.
LASTLY, it seems to us emphatically the
duty of the independent voters to repress
in some signal way the rapidly growing
practice of packing conventions under the
personal superintendent Of candidates for
the Presidency. 1t is of comparatively
recent date. 1t is only few years since Mr..
Tilden excited the horror of the Republican
press by taking charge of his own canvass
and starting literary bureau" to supply
pufs of himself to the newspapers. Since
then it has grown apace, and it now ex-
cites no surprise to hear that any candidate
is actively engaged in using all his powers
of intrigue, chicanery and corruption to
secure the election of delegates all over the
Union, pledged either openly or secretly to
act under his orders at the Convention, and,
if casting votes for him will do no good, to
cast them in such way as to enable him
to carry out any bargain or IDEAL" with
any other candidate which it may please
him to make The Nominating Conven-
ton has already, through its size, as well
as for other reasons, lost nearly all sem
blance of deliberative body, but it has
not yet become wholly the product of "sub-
soiling" carried on by the various candidates
themselves. In this art of packing Con-
ventions Mr.. Blaine is now the greatest
master in the country. His success would
make this art almost the only one which
American statesmen would hereafter culti-
vate or would appearantly need to cultivate.
1t is high time, therefore, that he and his
disciples were made to understand that it
is not by such little games that the Presi-
dency is to be wOn.-NeU York Euenlng
Post,