The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1895-10-22
NAILED TO THE CROSS.
R. V. Lindabury Conviets Griggs
Of Faking Now and Dodg-
ing in 1887.

R. V. Lindabury, of Elizabeth, sent a long
letter to John w. Griggs yesterday, in
which he replies to letter to him from Mr..
Griggs, which has been widely printed. Mr..
Lindabury says
Il saw in the'newspapers of last Saturday
afternoon what purported to be copy of
letter written to me by you on the subject
of my speech in Jersey City last Wednesday
evening. You say, referring to that speech:
| was a member of the Legislature was
willing to take retainer as counsel for peo-
pie interested in legislation and you pro-
nounce such charge outrageous and utterly
false. IN reply l beg to say that 1 never
made such charge, directly or indirectly,
either in Jersey City or elsewhere. do not
believe that you were guilty of such an Of
fense, and have never said that you were.
Moreover, I have made careful examina-
tion of these reports of my speech in the
newspapers without finding that any re-
porter, however careless or imaginative, has
attributed to me language that could posi-
bly, bear such an Interpretation.
''You further say that am reported to
have said that at the time the act of 1887
passed the Senate you lodged the vote and
had a retainer from a race-track association
in your pocket. You add that this is untrue
in every sense; that you did not dodge the
vote, that while you are not recorded as hay
ing voted on the bill at the time of its first
passage, yet when il came back amended
from the Assembly the test vote was taken
which, if adverse, would have killed the
bill; that you then voted in the negative and
are so recorded; that SO far as you know
there was not then in existence any asso-
ciaued race-track association and you had no
retainer from it, or from anybody else, nor
had you ever been approached by any per-
son connected with race-track association
with reference to that bill.
I'm reply to this beg to say that my
speech on this point was not fully reported,
nor with entire accuracy, that what | did
say was that in 1887 the most infamous race
track act that had ever passed the Legisla-
ture of this State was enacted while you
were the leader of the majority; that when
this act passed the Senate you wave in your
seat, but never opened your Fps against it
nor made the slightest effor5 to defeat it;
that the end sought to be accomplished by
the act was fraudulently concealed from the
Legislature, but that you of all men under
stood it, and that you showed that you
understood it by dodging' a vote upon it.
II said that l made no complaint against
you because you accepted retainer from
the associated gamblers OF Passaic; that that
was matter of private conscience and pro-
fessional ethics into which did not propose
to enter, but that no private retainer could
absolve you from the duty which you owed
to the people of this State as their represen-
tative in the Senate to use all the powers
you possessed to defeat a t,ill SO inimical to
the public welfare, and that without the
slightest regard to whether its enactment
would be beneficial to your private clients or
otherwise.
ssAfter the most careful and conscientious
consideration of the subject am unable
either to withdraw or modify this state
ment, and I feel that fairness to you and
duty to the public make it incumbent upon
me to give my reasons