The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1894-10-24
Upon Charges of Bribery in the
Senatorial Caucus for United
States Senator for State of
Mimi. sofa in 1889.
WASHBURN AGAIN INVOLVED.
Evidence Taken B. fore the House
Investigating Committee.
A TERRIBLE RECORD.

connection with the nomination of
United States Senator, met in the
railroad committee room at the CAPT.
tol. Jan. n, 1889, at 5p. M, the follow
ing members of the committee being
present.: Sevatson, Hompe, Smith,
Diment, Stcbbins, Stevens and Searle.
Mr.. Searle was elected secretary. Mr.
smith offered the following resolution:
Resolved, That in the course of this
investigation if any person is accused
Of having used or endeavored to use,
corrupt means to influence members
to vote for or against any of the can
1dates balloted for at the caucus for
nomination of United States Senator
on the Eth inst, such person SO ac-
cused shall be summoned beftre the
committee to testify
f. L. Hoppin sworn, testified-l am
member of the present House of
Representatives.. l know of an at
tempt to corrupt a member of the leg
iSlature. to secure his vote for one of
the candidates for United States SEN
ator before the late caucus-the day
before. | was that member. 1t occur
red at room 152, Merchants hotel in
this city. | was approached by man
who was introduced to me by the name
of Thompson. He was introduced to
me by a stranger, but l have since
learned that his name was Brintnell
He claimed to be on the force Of the
Minneapolis Tribune. 1t was about 2
o'clock Of that day. There was con-
siderable previous talk of not much
account. He requested private in
terview and asked where we could GO
and | said if there were no other place
we could go to my room. We went
there. He said to me, if you will go
into the caucus tomorrow night and
cast secret ballot for W. d. Wash
burn IWW gre you s., 500 spot cash and
$500 after tie caucus is Orer. He said
he had no authority from anyone to
make that offer He did not state how
he was interested. | told him he had
struck the wrong man and had made
bad mistake. He did not intimate
where the money was coming from and
did not show any money. WOuld not
tell what Thompson it was; do not
know his first name. He was intro
duced as being man from St. Paul. |
can give dcscription-he is tall,
slim man-wears heavy mustache, [
think, without whskerS-was lit
tie lamc-wOre SLOUGH hat and a
mink coat-was in the room about five
minutes. At the time we broke up he
asked me not to sell out before he had
Il chance to see me again. He said he
wanted a little time to confer with
the boys. | met him about couple of
hours afterat the corner of Jackson and
Fourth streets, the same day | think.
Subject was again taken uD. He took
hold of my shoulder and pulled me
one side He said, II have been dis
pensing Doodle here in every election
for years and | was never so let down
as | have been today by Mower coun-
ty man" l said, ''is that so, what is
the matter nOw?" He said, "a Mower
county man came to me day or two
ago and said that he was acquainted
with that man Hoppin, Of Mower
county, and he could be induced to
vote for Washburn and can be handled
all right for 500. Thompson says II
gave him 800. He came back a second
time and told NE he could not quite
fetch him HIoppin) for 800, but for
5000 he could get him to vote for
Washburn. | gave him another $780,
He came again and said Il have got
him all right He has promised to
vote for Washburn.'" THOMPSON said
he then gave him $25 for working me.
| said to Mr.. Thompson, "You are
badly let down: he never said senator
was and he said he did not wish to
give names. ] said, "Perhaps I can
guess. Did he have long black whsk-
ers:" He said, "Yes. sir" I said,
are the initials of his name Clarence
Warren" and he said "You are good
at guessing | declined to answer for
whom | voted. At the time of these
interviews ] had never told any man
that he could have my vote.
Otto Hanson. being sworn, says:
I am member of the house Of represent
ltves.
O. DO You know of any attempt to cor
'uptly influence the vote of any member of
ne legislature for United States senator
prior to the late caucus?
A. / do About o'clock Of the evening
Of the caucus. at the Merchants Hotel, I
Mas asked by a man if l would do as L
agreed. | asked him what it was and he
said to vote for Sabin. I told him l had
made no promise to anyone, whom I should
DR. should not vote for, but should vote as
my constituents wanted me TO. He and
some others kept pressing, and said
agreed to DO SO and So I told him to bring
the man there. Then they said they had
given another party, NJ. w. Ryan, $500 to
give me If ! would vote for D. NJ. Sabin.
got a little excited over the matter, and
told them TO get Mr.. Ryan in there. 1t
took them long 1 did not get to the
caucus in time. They produced Mr.. Ryan
1t in Room 119, l think, Merchants
Hotel There were four of us present Mr.
Ryan admitted that he received the money
and stated that l got it; that he had gveG
it to He admitted to that lie had
kept it. lie had received the money some
where along the 9th or 10th of January.
The man who approached ma was intro
duced to NE as ex-senator Christensen;
the other man was a stranger 1 mad seen
before. and would know him. 1 think his
name was Crosby. 1 think I have been
introduced to him. I money, and
received no money. Christensen and Cros-
by said they were satisfied 1 had not re-
1t so. You may have another $500 now, and
If Sabin is elected $500 more. and clerk
ship for a friend if you vote for Sabin."
But no money was shown ME or handed
me. Was not approached by anyone else.
had "o~v.~eatinn with RYAN befnra this