St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-11-30
THAT LIBEL SUIT.
Col. BlantOn Duncan Writes 9
VindicatiOn for DOnneiIy.

The celebrated Col. Blanton Duncan,
of Kentucky, now residing at Los An
geles, Cal, having read in the papers
report of the suit of Hon. Ignatius Don
nelly against the Pioneer Press, of st.
Paul, for libel. and that one of the
charges made against Mr.. Donnelly by
that paper was that he had been bribed
by the Memphis & Ell Paso Railroad
company in 1869, writes a voluntary let
ter to that gentleman, in which he says:
Los ANGELES, Cal, Nov. 9, 1S91-Ny
Dear Donneily: If you had informed
Inc that you required anybody to bear
testimony that you had passed through
! the times with clean hands and a clear
conscience, when dishonest men could
make fortunes under the syndlcateS
which ruled at Washington in 1869,
could have said emphaticaily, as l do
now, that you were one of the clean
handed. You had opportunities from
your great influence and the warm
friendship entertained for you by many
prominent men, to have amassed a
million easily by simply turning rascal.
And instead of that you have lived as
poor as church mouse for twenty
years, expressing your fearless indie
pendence on all occasions, and, as |
understand, making bare living from
your literary efforts.
h If all the slanderoJs charges brought
against you have no greater foundation
than those in connection with FL Paso,
you are as white as an angel.
1t so happened that caused the pas
sage of the right of way bill in congress
on Feb. p, 1SS9-the unfortunate bill
which Fremont and his associates after
wards represented to French people as
payment Of 8 per cent interest on mill
ions of bonds, which were then fraudu-
IDENTIFY sold to thousands of deceived
.Frenchmen. Fremont was in New
York, and had given up hope of OBJ
tanning an act-and that day was the
last In the session upon which a reSolu-
ton could be passed by twO-thirdS
vote to suspend the rules. But legal
minds gave the opinion that the Ell
PaSO charter would be dead if congress
did not resurrect it by fresh recogDi-
} ton. 1 obtained from the speaker,
upon assurance that there was no sub
sidy and nothing wrong, the recogni-
ton OF a member from Ohio to make
the motion, and then l went among the
Democrats and asked them to support it
as one of the methods to help the South.
1t passed by 12l to 81, and, that any
body may see the character of the men
who voted tor it, give you the names:
Allison (now senator), Anderson, ID. Ash
ley, j. NJ. Ashley, Banks, Barnum, Beck Qate
senator), Benjamin, Benton, Blackburn (sen-
ator), Blair (senator), Boyden, Cromwell,
Buckiand, Buckley, Benz. f. Butler, r. X.
Butler, Cake. Calls. Chanler, r. w. Clarke,
Sidney Clarke, Cliff, Coburn, Corley, CullOm
(seuator), Dawes (senator), Delano Deweese
Dockery. Donnelly. briggs, Eckley, Edwards
j. T., Elliott, Ferris. Ferry (senator), Fields,
French. Geiz, GIossbrenner, Golladay, Goss,
Cove, Griswold, Grover. Halsey HougheY.
Hawkins, Heston, Highly, Hill, Holman,
Hooper, Hotehkiss, c. D. Hubbard,
Hunter, Ingersoll, A. H. Jones, t.
L. Jones, Judd, Proctor Knott. Kountz, LAT
lin, Lash, Lawrence, Lincoln, Mallory, Mar
vim, Maynard, Mccormick, Mckee, Mercur,
Miller Moore, Moorhead, Morrell Mullins,
Mungen, Myers, Newsham, Nibl6ck, NiehoI-
SON, Norris, Num-. O'Neil Pettis, Pierce,
Plants. Poland, Price, Prince, Pruyne, Raum,
Robertson, Robinson, Roots, Schenck,
Shanks, Shellabarger, Starkweather, Stevens,
Stokes, Styver, Tabor, Taylor, Twchell, Van
Aernam, b. Nanhorn, II. D. Washburne,
Welker Whittemore. Thomas Williams, w.
Williams, John Il. Wilson. Window, Wood
ward, Young.
Cakes Ames, James Brooks and 9TH
ers. who were afterwards charged with
corruption, fought this resolution. and
not one man of national reputation
voted against it. Blaine was speaker,
and did not vote; Garfield was absent,
and John Logan also.
/ was one OF the directors in that
company. and was to have been the
vice president OIL honest basis, and to
begin building the road from San Diego.
There was not dollar in the hands of
Fremont and his associates at the time
| was enlisted in the undertaking, and
paid my own expenses and worked for
two years, and did not get cent re-
turned. l even bought and paid for two
cases of champagne for Fremont to use
at the hotel when any friends came
there and were dry. after long mutual
admiration sessions. ! gave you the
date of the selection of the directory
that my status may be uuquestioDably
known = 9TH January, 1869. Gov.
Throckmorton, w. NJ. Harrison,
b. w. Gray, NJ. l.. Armstrong, E. j,
Hamilton. of Texas; Fred Butterfield.
William Butler Duncan, John Van
Nest, James T. Sanford, New York;
Senator Robertson, South Carolina;
BlantOn Duncan, Kentucky.
In accepting, | wrote that | would be
tie first to deDOunce anything improper.
When full proof of the wrong came to
me wrote to the treasurer the Goth of
March, 1870, after peremptOrily refus-
ing TO go 10 Washington on any terms:
have the present duty of enclosing to you
the certificate (stock). with authority to can
eel it. aud to consider that am not stock
holder. Ny connection with it has been
matter of publicity. anc though declining
months since to act for the corporation any
longer this is the only method of publicly
announcing that l have neither interest in it
nor responsibility for It's acts.
IsAnd thereafter tothe press, and to the
senators and congressman, l denounced
the robbery that had been committed,
and the company was placed in bank
ruptcy mainly by my efforts.
/ presume that nobody will doubt that
knew fully who were the corrupt men