St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-10-08

| known This Is your practical application
| and illustration of civil service refotm, when.
| during the last campaign, YOU advocated as
| one of the cardinal doctrines OF the Repub-
lican party. This man HARDWOOD has already
| cost you pile OF hush money. You qesplse
| him and he despises you. Myself and many
others have heard you both say so. You
| have declared him of your own knowledge
| villainous liar, for he invented and circulated
| the meanest sand story that was ever told
| concerning your back pay, yet you are as
much slave TO his dictatiOn as the most alb
| ject employe in the district is TO yours. This
1 moral degradation of yours can be explained
! in only one way, and that is not CONSISTENT
| with your innocence. You believe that ne-ls
the only living witness of your official cor
| ruption when you were member or Inc
state commission TO adopt text books 10 be
used in the public schools of this state Tor
| the period of five years. In this you are
mistaken. But even if you were correct,
| still your secret was told long ago. Har-
wood. in his frantic mood Of curslng you at
| times. when you have failed to come down
| with the exact amount OF stamps ne de-
manded, has told the whole story over and
! over again. You too, inadvertently. admltteu
! your guilt when you told me that you put
| HARDWOOD in the way of getting TWENTY-FIVE
! HUNDRED DOLLARS out of that book concern,
| afterwards as saving clause. adding, .legit-
| imately, too ! suppose you meant just
| this; that for playing middle man betweenyou
| and certain Eastern publishing house, whose
| books the commissioners were constrained 10
| half. / too. think you treated him most gen
| erously. and il is exceedingly unkind in him
| 10 have logged and haunted you ever since
Still it is just like him. If you have at last
had final settlement with him and paid him
Off in full with the post office you certainty
ought to be permitted to die in peace: but let
me assure you that the end is not vet, unless
de dies first for if he survives he will get his
living out of your heirs with his old cry
''School Book Fraud
But little the meanest thing ever knew
of you doing, was to levy on me as postmas-
ter to help you to meet Harwood's demands,
and to intimate that condition OF my re-
manning in the postoffice was that respond
to Harwoods matchmaking exactions. How
do the following lettersslook to you after this
lapse of time?
OwAToNNA, Nov 16, 1874.
MIR. MEIGs-Dear Sir: l have seen Judge
HARDWOOD, and he complains at treatment
that he says he has received from you and
others in our party; that you nave held
meetings and resolved to starve and drive
him out of town, etc., etc. He APPEALS TO
ME FOR PROTECTION. He says the party owes
him S75. and would pay it but for the oppo-
sition of yourself and others. | want to re-
appoint you, and will do so if he can be
made To feel safe. IT is NOT POLICY TO WAGE
WAR AGAINST HIM Let me hear from you or
see you. Yours truly, M. ii; DUNNELL.
Here we have the novel and interesting
spectacle of a member of congress giving ear
to the whining complaints of professional
leach and blaekmailer, and indicating TO an
officer of the general government that he
cannot hold his position UNLESS HE SHELLS
OUT. The question would very naturally sug-
gest itself, why is HARDWOOD making his COM
plants 10 you, and why are you so prompt
In making the levy? You do not even stop
TO inquire whether the claim is just or IN
just, but say ii must be paid. Here is an
other of your letters on the same topic:
OwAToNNA. April 80, 1879.
FRIEND MEIGs-Hsrdwood says he MUST
HAVE THAT SEVENTY DOLLARS AND FIFTY
CENTS THIS WEEK. etc. Now, from what has
been said, he MUST BE PAID and so end the
row. / will return the fifty dollars if you say
so, or one-half of The seventy dollars and
fifty cents and you make up the balance and
take a receipt from him. am sorry to have
you pay MORE, but you will be let alone from
this. | have paid three hundred and fifty
dollars of campaign debts since l got home,
and have two hundred and eighty dollars to
pay out of my pocket. The fight nearly
RUINED ME. Let me hear from you by return
mail Yours NJ. ii. DUNNELL.
This letter means business. 1t is to the
point If l will pay bali of your blackmail-
er's demands l shall be let alone. You were
told over and over again that not cent was
due HARDWOOD by any one here. but it was Of
no avail. His skinny fingers were on your
throat and yours were on mine. He MUST BE
PAID. THE CAMPAIGN NEARLY RUINED YOU.
Yes, here are proofs positive that you bought
your way into congress. But here comes an
other still richer letter:
OwAToNNA, May l, 1875.
Mr.. MEIGs: Dear Sir-Enclosed is P. o..
order for thirty five dollars and twenty-five
cents, oue-h half OF the amount l do not
think should pay more OF this. There are
still four hundred dollars OF debts to be paid,
and for the office you hold you have NOT
PAID ONE TENTH WHAT HAVE. | mean that
have paid ten times what YOU name, aud
your office has more money IN II than mine.
There are two overdue campaign notes now
at the bank here. l do not see how can
return the thirty-five dollars ana twenty-f FIVE
hUt the 1pmA nd made tn Settle
with him, and he MUST HAVE 1T, no matter
about the nature of the claim. THE PROMISE
WAS MADE IN YOUR FAVOR, FOR YOUR BENZ.
FIT, that you could get the office in an hon
orable way and withous a row. Yours.
1t is hardly necessary to remark that hereis
proof positive that you yielded to Harwood's
groundless claims and said it must be paid,
no matter what its nature, to keep his mouth
closed. 1t is just as clear that you were levy
ing Harwoods blackmail on me because
was holding government Office which you
controlled and that you eXacted these pay
ments as condition of my retaining it.
Without further comment leave this evil
dence of your corruption for the considera-
ton of the public, and pass to the considera
ton of a graver charge. which, that there
may be no misunderstanding, put in the fol-
lowing language: You. through your COM
mittee, levied assessments upon me as post
master for political purposes, and paid the
money to you in person and you put IT into
not given me by the committee. When DIS
covered this, and was written TO by the
chairman of the committee that credit was
not given me for money paid you, wrote
You on the subject and you answered as IOl
lows:
WASHINGTON, D. c., March "a, rs.
Mr.. MEIGs: Dear Sir-No one i'll Owatonna
or anywhere has any authority to write
you on any such subject. Will you please in
form me who has written you, and for what
reason.
Here you repudiate the right of the dis
tlict committee to handle funds and assume
authority to do so yourself. While held the
office of postmaster you exacted and took
from me the full sum OF S175, which you put
in your pocket and used, no one knows how
perhaps to swell the corporation fund with
which you bought your way into congress,
| perhaps to pay your store bills it matters not
which you may think. Besides this l paid
large contributions levied by your commit
tees. as suppose, for campaign purposes. l
further charge that you have descended into
the dirty pool of local politics and, for the
purpose of packing caucuses and conven-
lions in your own interest, have ordered me-
| as postmaster, to pay men for going TO these
places and their expenses while there, and
have agreed to reimburse me, but you have
been very careful not TO do so. About the
time the county conventions were being held
to elect delegates TO the convention that re-
nominated you in 1874, under date of July
z, you wrote me as follows:
DEAR SIR--Yours received. You go pre-
pared to Grand Meadow TO meet just expec-
| tatlons and promises as to the expenses of
delegates. Keep the ball in motion. Yours,
DUNNELL.
The Mower county convention was held at
| Grand Meadow that year, and at your direc-
ton disbursed to delegates a large amount
of money. Again on the same day you wrote
me as follows:
Don't fail TO offer to MEET EXPENSES of
! going to COUNTY CONVENTIONS WHEN NECEs-
sARY AND WILL PAY BACK. Yours truly,
DUNNELL.
When you said you would pay back sup
! pose you meant ''back pay and of course
! kept il. at least have never seen it. July L.
| the same year, you wrote me as follows:
FRIEND MEIGs-I am not satisfied with the
current of affairs in your county. Cannot
! YOU organize for the townsf WILL SEE THAT