The Indianapolis journal., 1890-02-13
FORAKER AND GROSvENOR
Warm Tilts Between the Distinguished
Gentlemen from Ohio Yesterday.
Ballot-Box stigatiOn-Interestin State.
ments Made by the Ex-Governor.


of Dayton O., and c. H. Pryn. of Cincin-
natl, were the first witnesses examined be-
fore the ballot-box-forgery committee this
morning. Then. at the request of ex-Gov.
Foraker, Mr.. Grosvenor was sworn. Mr..
Foraker asked the witness if he had any OBJ
lection to the publicatlonof of letter. writ
ten by himself, from which Mr.. Halstead
read extracts while on the stand. General
Grosvenor replied that be had no objection
to allowing the letter to be printed in full,
and proceeded to read It, The letter stated
that General Grosvenor (the writer) had
made up his mind. at the beginning of the
campaign, to contribute more votes to For
aker than any other man, and that no man
was more anxious to help Foraker than
himself. From here on,n the letter said,
81 shall make it more agreeable for Forak-
er, and more disagreeable for the crowd
that surrounds Campbell" The letter also
stated that if Mr. Campbell had not intro
duced the bill, a very distinguished Ohio
Republican would have introduced it. A
postscript, appended to the letter, stated
that Mr. Jennings editor of the Athens
(Ohio) Messenger. had told the writer that
Campbell had $1,000 In the ballot-bOx
scheme "If this is So" said General Gros-
venor. "the scheme is corrupt one."
Governor Foraker asked General Gros-
venor whom he meant by very distin-
guished Ohio Republican, and the witness
sa1sed Sad l11gn ~ sahyng sh Me- ne
stead called himself IAN able editor"
Governor Foraker-There never was any
kind of an allusion made in Ohio to the bal
lot-bOx matter until made my Music Hall
speech the night of the 2Sth, W as theref
General Grosvenor-I never heard of it
until then.
Witness thought it probable that he had
written the letter produced before Governor
Foraker's speech. but had not mailed it
until subsequently,, aud he had prob
ably written the postscript the Mon
day following the Music Hall speech.
Governor Foraker closely examined the
witness upon expressions contained In the
letter written by him and General Gros-
venor said that in the hurry of his corre-
spondence be had made some inadvertent
statements which might have been better
expressed. He had no recollection of
to dsy 5Sgs shs
Governor Foraker-DO you remember
getting dispatch in October, reading like
this: Trust in me, Charley. and l will
stand by yous"
Governor FOraker-Neyer mind who
from.
General Grosvenor-No, SIT; l have no
recollection of anything of the sort 1t is
not very fair way to treat a witness.
either: 1t you have any information You
should say who from. l think you get
your information from some constitutional
liar.
Governor Foraker-I have got most of
my information from you.
Charles l.. Kurtz. secretary to Governor
Foraker. testified that Sept 80. the morning
after the Music Hall speech. he had con-
versation of q surprising nature with Col.
A G. Sands, of Cincinnati, in the Govern
.-J, <f3t4 Aa<ka q kl,.nAC Coxx Il
knew about the ballot-box contract and
preferred to believe that the persons named
in connection with 1t were really Interested
in the passage of the bill and that they re-
lied on the Presidents help to carry out the
scheme.
When Mr.. Kurtz had finished Governor
Foraker resumed the stand for the purpose
of making an explanation of various mat
ters which had been spoken of In the course
of the investigation. He again went over
the thingsth that had impressed him with the
genuineness of the forged paper. said that
his delay in mentioning Hadden was on ac-
count of a promise not to use his name unless
he had to, and recOunted again his surprise
upon finding out the full purport of the
paper. He had never said he would use the
paper on Butterworth. The truth was that
no man was ever more particular than him.
self not to say anything about Butterworth.
They had been friends for years, and wit
ness had always supported Mr.. Butterworth
for nomination and election. About the
time of witnesses nomination Mr.. Butter
worth, in an interview, said some harsh
and unkind things of him. That made
witness even more careful than he other
wise would have been, for he imag gned that
there must be some emisapprehensiOn, and he
was only looking for an opportunity to see
Butterworth find out the trouble, and heal
up the breach. He thought some one must
have been falsifying him to Butterworth
Governor Foraker denounced Wood as q
notorious forger and perjurer, and declared
that he had counted seventy-nine unquali-
fled ands unmitigated falsehOOds in his
printed testimony. Continuing, he said
| that the affair had been to him very bitter
experience. mortifying aud Illuminating to
| the last degree; but that from the begin
ming to the last there had never been q
moment when all the world might not have
had all the information he had. He would
| think to the day of his death that behind
| all this there was some sort of paper: but
he did not want any man to imagine that
he asserted that any one whose name was
on that forged paper was on the paper he
believed to have existed. He would hunt
for that paper until his death. He did not
believe that Wood could have conceived
the heading and the collateral security on
! the paper out Of his own imagination and
must have received aid from some other
paper of some other person.
Wood again went on the stand and de-
| clared that the whole scheme originated
with Hadden, and it's details were impressed
upon his mind by Hadden and Foraker.
| These gentlemen both denounced this state
ment as unqualifiedly false.
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