The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1899-02-09

Smith had saia thai he would not TAX,
30, 900 for his seat in the senate, to
tight the administration. AS Mr..
Smiths statement was made in a pub
lie place, and he at the time openly
expressed it, 1 wrote Mr.. Armer since
the announcement of Mr.. Smith to
speak here, to give me the language
and here it is:
jackson, Miss, Dec. 26th, 1893.
Governor A. j. McLaurin.
Dear Governor In answering your
etter | wish to say that | heard Sena-
tor Smith, of Warren county, at the
;erandah of the Edwards House, ex-
press himself that he intended to
spend his vacation in Memphis, but
De was delighted to be back for the
called session of the legislature, and
would not take $1,000 for his seat in
the senate to fight Anse McLaurin's
administration and give him hell. This
is as near as l can remember the con-
7ersation now. Yours very truly,
/. ARMER.
Mr., Smith did fight my admins
tration.
In 1896 the legislature passed a reso-
lutioh appointing SOi' O"oI, oSh'
Nash and me committee to procure
plans and specifications for capitol.
The word plans is used here in the
plural just as the word specifications
is, as an examination of the resolution
will show. Mr.. Smith speaks of our
disobeying the resolution. The legis-
lature had no power by resolution to
command US. What we did was in
courtesy to the legislature. We may
not have understood what the legisla
ture wanted, but we did our best to
accommodate them by securing what
we thought splendid plans and speciti
cations and what we thought they de-
sired US to do. In token of appreci
alton the house passed this resolution ::
Resolved, That the thanks of the
house be rendered the capitol commit
tee for the efficient service rendered
the state in the discharge of the duties
imposed on them, and for the impartial
manner they have acted toward all
competing architects. " See house
journal, 1897, p. "a.
I never knew Mr.. Weathers until
February, 1896. Mr.. Patton was born
in the same county in which | was
born. The committee was favorable to
his plans and would, l think, have
adopted them if he would have agreed
to make two changes in them which he
refused.
After we had faithfully heard the
architects present their plans most of
them, including Mr.. Gordon, wrote us,
requesting US to recommend only one
to the legislature for adoption. J"
la l. IN, "a
message in house journal of 1897.
The house adopted the Wealth rs
plan by large majority. When the
senate amended by inserting the Cor
don plans the house by large ma
jority refused to concur. After the
bill as it was finally passed was agreed
upon in committee conference the SEN
ate rejected it, and afterwards recon-
sidered and adopted it. But the SEN
ate once rejected the very bill vetoed.
After the bill was presented to me.
the business of the session was finished
except the signing of the bill, if l
should approve it, l asked Mr.. Cor
don to bring me the specifications
mentioned in the bill, and he brought
specifications and began to run
through them with me. | saw pencil
marks through parts Of the bill, and l
asked him what it meant, to which he
replied that the specifications were
drawn for capitol to be built on the
penitentiary site and he made those
changes because the legislature had
the day before changed the place to
the present capitol site. Upon exami-
nation afterwards | found that the
specifications were for court house.
They never mentioned any state office,
nor library or representatives hall, nor
senate chamber, nor any office or place
pertaining to a state house But they
specified district court room, COM
n.issioners' court roon, grand jury
room and court house square, and
many other such court house evil
dences. l found that he had struck
out, with these pencil marks, IN many
instances, first class material.
After discovering these l called Mr..
Gordon's recollection to his state
ments, and pointed out, in the specitl'
cations, the fallacy of them. lie adj
mitted that the specifications were
drawn for a court house, but did not
recollect for what one.
New York had at that time, as | was
informed, expended twenty twenty mil
lions dollars on capitol that had beer
planned to cost five millions, ard il
was not finished even then. | was
thereby admonished to be cautious
when bonds were to be issued to build
capitol, which would aggregate,
principle and interest, nearly two mil.
lions of dollars, that Mr.. Smith could
have declared was added to the balance
to the bonded debt during my admin
istration. I had heard reports detri-
mental to Mr.. Gordon's reputation as
an architect and man, as an unreliable
architect could put up an outrageous
lob upon the state, l felt that three
quarters of a million dollars, was too
much to risk without making an in
yestigation. L, therefore, before had
made the discovery of Mr.. Gordon
true character, by his misrepresenta-
tions to me, sent Hon. Theo. Me-
knight, a gentleman of unimpeachable
character and veracity, to Texas to
make the investigation. 1t is easy
enough to get certification OF character
but what you want in a business
transaction of millions of dollars are
facts This was for the state and L
paid it out of the contingent fund.
No questions of veracity ever arose