Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1884-04-23

deed, and certainly disastrous, ii the task
prescribed for Republican journalists By
the convention should be not the discus
sion OF great Questions of public policy;
like the tariff, or the civil service, or the
railroads. or the Currently, But lhborio6s
examinations of Mr.. James G.. Blaine's
railroad transactions. We mean, as far as
we are concerned, to avoid this, If we can,
Ps taking up his railroad transact ions now,
before the hustle and excitement of the
canvass begins.
.rHE FIRST 81 THESE CHARGES
is that in the spring .session.of Congress-
in 1859 bill was; before the Hou5e of
Representatives which sought to renew a
land grant to the Little Rock and Fort
Smith railroad, of Arkansas, in which
some of Mr.. Blaine's friends were inter-
ested; that an attempt to defeat it by an
amendment was made, and was on the
point of being successful and its prompters
were in despair; that at this juncture Mr..
Blaine, being then Speaker of the House,
sent message to Gen. 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 accordingly
raised and promptly sustained by Mr..
Blaine as Speaker, and the bill was in this
manner saved; that Mr.. Blaine wrote at
once to the promoters calling attention to
the service he had rendered them, and
finally, after some negotiations, secured
from them as a reward for it, his appoint
ment as selling agent of the bonds of the
yoad, on commission, in Maine and re-
ceived number of such bonds as his per-
centage; that the leading features of this
Transaction appeared in two letters of his
afterward made public, dated respectively
June 20 and October 4, 1869.
THE LITTLE ROCK AND FORT SMITH RAIL-
ROAD
Second, thai he asserted at first on the
floor of the House, with the view of cov-
ering 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 subsequently taken by the
Congressional committee disclosed the
fact that the road derived the value on
which these bonds were based from the
act OF Congress on which Mr.. Blaine Sc
cured the passage, in the manner above
described, in 1869; that he asserted on the
floor of the House that the bonds he re-
ceived were bought by him at precisely
the same rate as others paid, whereas the
evidence showed that the bonds came to
him as commissions on sales, which he
secured the opportunity of making through
his aid given to the work in Congress, and
that he solicited this agency, basIng his re-
quest on the aid so given, and that he paid
nothing whatever for the bonds, the con-
sideration being his ruling as Speaker and
his subsequent efforts to sell them. What
he did with these bonds-seventy-five in
numbers 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 instrumentality of
one Caldwell), which then also was in
trouble. The investigation on this point
was never pushed home owing to the sud-
den illness which overlook Mr.. Blaine in
1876.
THE NORTHERN PACIFIC TRANSACTION.
Third, that Mr.. Blaine in 1870 made an
offer, as appeared by one of his own let
ters to one of his railroad friends, Mr.
Warren Fisher, of Boston, to sell him a
half of one twenty-fourth interest in the
Northern Pacific railroad, Immediately
after Jay Cookies contract "had been per-
fected, and the additional legislation had
been obtained" he having, he said, come
to control this interest "by a strange revo-
luton 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 275,00O." 1.-THE
chance" he said, twas a very rare one /;
he couldn't touch it." but he offered it to
Mr.. Fisher for $4,000; that Mr.. Fisher
accepted it, and paid the money, but for
some unexplained reason the stock was
never delivered, and Mr.. Blaine subse-
quently returned the amount. This trans
lowing reasons: 1t ap pears from acts of
Congress relating to the road, none of
| which are of older date than July 2, 1854,
| that the authorized stock was 800, 600, 600,
| with land grant estimated by the Com
missioners of Public Lands at AZ 900, 900
acres, or "a, ,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 $4,000 per mile,
| which would have made bonded debt Of
| S5O,000,000. Mr.. Blaine, as member oi
| Congress and Speaker of the House, must
| be taken to have known about the circum-
| stances of the road, and therefore there
| seems no escape from the conclusion that
| his offer was based On the expectation that
| he would receive almost as gift share
| in an enterprise dependent for its value on
legislation in which he had taken part
| Mr. Blaine's defense in the case Of this
transaction consisted at first of a denia
that he had ever had any transaction
with the road at all, but he afterward
rested on the fact that he had no pecuniary
interest in the transfer, and that it was
never actually made; but though this
might be defense to suit against him fol
a 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 favo
done the latter, or gift presented to him
had direct pecuniary value.
THE MULLIGAN LETTERS.
Fourth, because he obtained certain let
tiers, which there is every reason to be
lieve contained matter gravely compro
missing him, from a perfectly reputable
witness, Mr.. Mulligan, who was the prope
and lawful custodian of them, after hav
pledging his word of honor to restor,
them, then broke his pledge, retained
them by force, and subsequently reat
such of them as he pleased to the Hous
in aid OF his vindication; that this con
duct, if not legally criminal, was such a
no man aspiring to be the chief magis
trate of great nation ought to be evel
suspected of.
MERE CIRCUS CLOWN.
Fifth, that both his short service as al
executive officer of the government an,
the various efforts he has made durin
the past eight years to keep the public il
I
theatrical, indicating strong love of noto
riety and an absence of the settled con
victions, the sober judgment and th
steadiness of character which are needle,
to make him safe occupant of any higl
or responsible administrative office; an
| that the means by which his booms ar
started and promoted, of which the man
ner in which his "history" has recent
been heralded and produced is good eS
ample, bear too close an approach to tn
advertising devices of circus or othe
public show to make the candidacy Of an
person resorting to them anything but
humiliation to the party producing hin
Il MERE PUFFER, NOT A BooK-MAKER.
1 Lastly, it seems to US emphatically tn
duty of the independent voters to repres
in some signal way the rapidly CROWN
practice of packing conventions under tn
personal superintendent of candidate
for the Presidency. 1t is of comparativel
recent date. 1t is only very few veal
since Mr.. Tilden excited the horror of th
J Republican press by taking charge of h
own canvass, and starting Literary b.
reau" to supply putfs of himself to-
newspapers. Since then it has
apace, and it now excites no SURPRISE
hear that any candidate is actively er
I gagged in using all his powers of intrigu,
/ chicane, and corruption to secure tn
! election of delegates all over the UnioI
pledged either openly or secretly to AZ
\ under his order at the convention, and
, casting votes for him will do no good,
! cast them in such a way as to enable hil
/ to carry out any bargain or "deal'' wit
: any other candidate which it may hay
: pleased him to make. The nominatin
: convention has already, through its siz
as well as for other reasons, lost nearly a
: semblance of deliberative body, but
: has not yet become wholly the product
"subsoiing" carried on by the variot
: candidates themselves. In this art