St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-10-23
VILE CALUMNY.
Centinued From First Page.

knows to be false. He could have known the
truth by inquiry, and he would not dare 10
pay it is so, because the record shows that II
Is not so. He goes on then to speak of
CERTAIN IMAGINARY CONVERSATION
Wh CHI may have taken place a number OF
years ago in my back Office. Let me read
you little of what he says to show you now
shrewd and devilish his purpose is, inslnnat-
ing to the ordinary reader, who does NOT IooA
Rt ii, that he is stating a conversation thsiI
actually occurred. When. you come 10
read it carefully. he is only inslnuatlng an
imaginary conversation that he does not pre-
tend did occur. Let me read:
Il want to show you how ms love IoE tne
people and hatred of monopolies have Deen
bhghted Imagine an interview In the back
Office of this gentleman in Winona some
years ago. when the representatives OF lne
great Chicago & Northwestern Railway com
pauy, the owners of the WnonR u ST. Peter
railroad called upon him to secure MS val
uable services. When approached by Them
as 70 whether he could place himself as a
shield between that corporation and the peo-
pie. and bring his legal acumen and know-
edge of legal technicalities to bear in its SER
vice, | fancy hear him
And then he goes on and makes up sian
eied' statement of what 1 said, for the pur-
pose of influencing the people Of this district
to believe that did say that Again, l call
your attention TO an alleged quotation from
my speech by Window. He read 1t as follows:
Another point TO which call your atten-
ton is his extreme unseltishness. After re-
citing in his speech the wonderful things he
has done for Winona and Lake City and other
places; that he has recovered for Lake City
Sl25, 900, and obtained damages for Wnoua
TO the amount of S1S0. 600, he saws: i be-
lieve that | can truthfully assert. and prove
by the record, that l have collected very
much more from the railroad companies OF
the state than any attorney in the state. And
the record shows, TOO, that in all these mat
tiers my acts have been unselfsh and without
fee or reward, except such reward as / got as
member Of the community and by feeling
that have done my duty fearleSsly."
He quotes this as part of my speech. Let
me read to you what did say, and then COM
pare it with what the senator says, aud see if
he intended to truthfully state what l said,
or TO miSrepreSent me. He miSStateS in say
ing that | had referred to the Lake City suit
and the Winona suit implying that had re-
ferred to no other. In the speech to which
he refers had gone on to state my action on
the bond bill that was in the legislature, and
of the
EFFORTS WHICH I HAD MADE
to defeat the passage Of that bill, and I had
stated that, for the purpose of carrying
through that bond bill, there had been at
tached to it a rider, in which it was provided
that S150000 should be given for the purpose
of paying debts due for construction, etc,
and that when that was introduced the own
ers of those claims, many Of them residing
in the city of Winona, came to me and de-
sired me to take them for collection. 1 stated
that refused to take them because being
a member of the legislature, it would place
my interests in opposition to my duty. and
that they were given to others, who made
several thousand dollars in fees out Of them;
that refused because deemed it my duty
49, bal
end. Applause. I stated, also, in that
speech, that when these suits came
up on the taxation OF these lands
in the supreme court of the
state, had acted without fee or reward and
not only that but that had returned a fee
which was sent me by the attorney general to
aid him. By the way, should here state
too as to another matter, as 10 the cutting
down of the interest on the state railroad
lands. | was actuated merely by desire to
perform nv duty, and there was no compen-
satiou or advantage that could possibly come
to me. In those matters
WAS ARRAYED AGAINST
the leading and prominent and wealthy men
of the railroad companies. After stating
these things referred to the suit for the city
of Winoua and the suit for Lake City; and
now let me read you what 1 said, further
use the exact words so that you may see
how honestly and truthfully the senator rep
resents me. I said:
Il believe that can truthfully assert and
prove by the record that l have collected
very much more from the railroad companies
of the state than any other attorney in the
state. And the record shows, too, that in the
most important matters my acts have been
unselfish and without fee or reward"
Window says Il have done all this without
fee or reward and goes on to cite case in
the city of Winona, where in private suit I
got fee, and then says: Here, this man
has lied, for he says he did all this without
fee or reward" Does he, or does he not
misrepresent me? And when he quotes from
my printed speech is there any excuse for
such Misrepresentation, except for
the purpose of eliminating me?
Farther he says let me read: There is on
file in the Office of the city recorder of this
city (Winona) a contract between Thomas
Wilson and the city, dated Feb. II. 1873,
whereby, on consideration of the payment by
the city to him OF a fee of $4,000, and all
necessary disbursements, he agreed to on
duct that case. After it was concluded he
brought in bill of $4,000 against the city Of
Winona, instead of $4,000, as agreed,
and it was paid. What do you think of the
truthfulness of a man who will say he did
without fee or reward, when it is proven by
the records that he got $4,000 for his
services
Now as have shown, I never said that /
tried private suits without fee or reward; l
never pretended such thing. But l will
show you, farther, that when William Win
dom says I agreed to try this private suit for
$4,000, and then charged $4,000 for it, be
deliberately and Intentionally misrepresents
me.
THIS IS MATTER OF IMPORTANCE.
have the records here and will show you
what the truth is in that matter In the year
1872 the city of Winona agreed to give to the
Minnesota Railway Construction company, a
nh, Of hn
men of the Chicago s Northwestern company
and the Milwaukee St. Paul company, such
men as Alexander Mitchell, Russell Sage,
Mr.. Keep (the older one) and John W. Burke
$780, 900 in case it would build the road to the
city of Winona in given time and in q given
manner and we very foolishly put our bonds
into the hands of Horace Thompson, in the
city of St. Paul, in escrow, he signing an
agreement that he would re-deliver them to
us if the conditions were not performed, and
deliver them to the construction company if
the conditions were performed. Before the
conditions were performed Horace Thomp-
son delivered these bonds over to the con-
struction company, taking from them a bond
to hold him harmless and letting US go. The
bonds had been taken to the city of New
York. / was called in as an attorney and my
opinion asked, and l said the city had a
remedy. was employed to bring suit, and 1
brought It. We had certain weaklings IN
said mo, my friends, don't compromise;
you will appear hereafter as having re-
pu6iated 40 per cent. of your debt if you Set
tie with these men, who are
NOT ENTITLED TO ONE FARTHING.
Go on with your suit And to induce them
to go on, 1 said 1 would agree to conduct
these two suits, and if / didn't win against
that company, would charge nothing, but if
did win they should pay me 100000 1 have
here the original contract, which was signed
by the mayor of the city of Winona and
Thomas Wilson. Now. let me read that con-
tract. so you will see just what l did agree
to do. The contract is given without the
legal serbiage.-Ed. GLOBE. The memoran-
dunn of agreement was dated Feb. II, 1875,
and was signed by A. f. Hodgins as mayor,
and Thomas WILSON,:
A suit was commenced in the United States
circuit court in favor of n. A. Cowdry,
against Winona, for sum claimed to be due
on the coupons of certain bonds of Winona.
payable to Russell Sage, or bearer, for the
benefit of the Minnesota Railway Construc-
ton company, and suit had also been COM
menced by the city of Winona, and was pend
ing in the district court of Minnesota for
Steele county ION change of venue from WI
mona county, against Horace Thompson, as
custodian of the bonds, and the Minnesota