The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1909-01-27
THE TILLMAN CASE.


speech in the Senate about his rela-
tions to certain land syndicate, will
put aside as irrelevant the invective
and abuse directed toward the Presi-
dent for having made public the facts.
They will then agree that Mr.. Till
man has committed no crime for which
he should be tried or which makes his
presence in the United States Senate
impossible. But they will further
conclude that Mr.. Tillman's dealings
in this matter were discre6itable be-
cause they involved a plan to make
personal, pecuniary gain out of a
matter which he had to consider and
legislate upon as a Senator. The
feeling has become practically uni
versal that National legislators should
not merely keep their skirts clean
from illegal transactions, but should
avoid any connection with financial
transactions which have a lcgisla-
tive interest. III this case it was pro-
posed by certain timber and land
syndicate that the Government should
institute action against a railway to
compel it to comply with the condi-
lions on which it had obtained public
land (namely. to open part Of this
land for sale to Individually, or else
to procure the restoration of these
lands to the public domain-when,
Of course. they would be open to
entry by individuals as other public
lands are. Senator Tillman was asked
to introduce a law to this effect, and
did so: and his correspondence with
his attorneys for the syndicate shows
that there was an understanding that
these attorneys (acting at special ad-
vantage because of their knowledge
of the facts and readiness to make
land entries immediately should. as
Mr.. Tillman puts it in one of his
letters. locate quartersfor the seven
members of my family who are of
age, and one for my private secretary,
j. B. Knight, whom l desire to let
into the deal.'' and also one for Mr..
TilNnaan's agent, Mr.. Lee. This Mr..
Lee. who is spoken of in the cores
pondence by MIR. Tillman as his agent,
wrote to the attorneys: In case
Senator Tillman gets in on this deal
with some good land in the eight
quarters we want, / am satisfied that
he can be of great help in getting
matters started from Washington.
and cause the Government to get busy
and do something along the line you
desire. ZEE will set up such howl
that it wills be impossible to do other
wise. 1t is fair to add, however,.
that Mr.. Gilman denies that this
letter by Mr.. Lee was written by
his authority or with his knowledge.
1t soon became known to Mr.. Tillman
that the syndicate or its agents were
inducing other people to go into the
scheme by using his name as one con-
cerned in it. He thereupon denounced
the syndicate's agent in the Senate.
stated that the use of his name was
unauthorized. denied that he had
bought any land anywhere in the
West, and declared further that he
had not undertaken" to buy any.
Furthermore, Mr. Tillman called
the attention Of the Post Office De-
partment to the acts of the agent of
the syndicate Zone Doyrl and suggest
ed that fraud order should be issued
against hims This was done, and
lsinguIarly enough, one result was that
the correspondence Of Senator Till,
man with the syndieate's attorneys
came to light, presumably through
the anger of the syndicate's attorneys
lat Senator Tillman's opposition.
The President properly went over the
history of the whole transaction in {
letter written to Senator Hale. VIII,
had made q general request to tbs
Government for Information with, re.
gard to the conduct of the Secret
Service. The story with others wa
told in tho Presidents letter to illus
, trate the Importance of responsible
and adequate detective work in al
the Departments. and that the GO
ordination of such work was neces
sary, as. pointed out by Mr.: Root
because the detection of fraud in on
Department often has close relation
with th& existence of fraud I'M anuthe
j, Department. Senator Tillman ad
mitted the accuracy of the publishes
( correspondence, and, we. believe
woula call in question no fact aboy
stated. He denied. however, that b
had violated the law in any respect
? or that he had improperly MADE US
of his official position. He admitte
that he had been "dieingenuous.
and whether that word exactly eS
presses the relation of the two state
f ments in his letter and in the Senat
we leave our readers to judge afte
seeing them side by side: