Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1907-05-19

The Blaine-Muligan incident wa: one of the most dramatic which ever took place in the national cap ital. 1t was near the closing day of the Forty-fourth congress. On the 9th day of June, 1878, 1t was that the continuation came. James c. Blaine, member ot the le">r house of congress. a former ,'peak- CT of that body, one of me aDiese and most brilliant men of his time, and one of the most popular, was his partv's idol with a clear path, if was thought, to the presidency. On the floor of the house he arose to a question of personal p,;s:i g }, and performed that famous act TOT which he was dubbed by Robert h. gersoll the "Plummed knight. lie had the letters, the nGSed Mulll- gan letters,' and he placed them in evidence Himself. The house o1 representatives was crowded both floor and gallery, anl so excited grew the members and the spec tators that several times the speak CT called in the sergeant-at-arms and ordered him to clear the floor. For outsiders were on the floor, hundreds of men, Blaine sym pathizers and friends of Proctor Knott, who led the opposition against Blaine. They had rushed bv the doorkeepers and flooded the floor.
 In consequence of frequent charges in the newspapers of i'm proper influence over certain mem- bers of congress by certain rail- roads and especially of the favors done the Pacific railroads by con- gress, through the speaker, while Blaine was in that position, the house passed resolution to ln- yestigate. Mir. Blaine's name was not mentioned in the resolution at all. but it was evident to all, or almost all, that the investigation was to be practically directed toward him.
 Shortly after the committee be- gan it's investigation, Warren Fisher of Boston, who had had charge of the construction of the Little Rock and Fort Smith road for some New England capitalists, was summoned to Washington to testify. It was known that MT. Fisher had the disposition of all the bonds and stocks of the com pany, and it was also known that congress had been asked to make certain land grants to this raiload, and that it made one while MT. Blaine was speaker. MT. Blaine had made certain ruling which ia vored this railroad. Mir. Fishers coming down to Washington to testify, therefore, created an air or expectancy. especially since it was rumored that he had broken with MT. Blaine.
 Now, along with MT. Fisher came little Boston Irishman by tEe name of James Mulligan. Before the committee the next day Mulli- gan testified that Blaine, while speaker of the house, had acted as broker for Warren Fisher in dis posing of the securities of the Little Rock and Fort Smith railroad. He said that Blaine had sold to certain of his wealthy friends in Maine about $52O,OOO worth of these SC curities, for which he received s162.5OO in bonds and stocks as commission. It was just prior to that that the Union Pacific railroad had got hold of something like $75,OOO of the securities of the Little Rock and Fort Smith.
 Mulligan one day was. being prodded very closely by one of the members of the committee, Law renee of Ohio, a friend of Blaine. Wincing under the fire, the little lrishman grew excited. and reach ing into his pocket he pulled out a small packet of letters and other papers. Haunting this in the faces of his cross-examiner and of Mir Blaine, he exclaimed with heat Here I have the proof of every word I have said. These are Mir
 Blaine's own letters telling about it."
 After the meeting was over, Mir Blaine went to Mulligan and be sought him to give him the letters Mulligan says that he went to his room and got on his knees before him, begging him to spare his wilt and six children from disgrace and to prevent his everlasting ruin