Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1909-01-13
Attorney General Bonaparte
Makes Revelations on Sen
ator's Acts
SOUGHT INSIDE INFORMATION
TiIman Procured Information From
Legal Department. to Aid Him in
Furtherins His Personal Schemes
Senator Convicted of Double Deal
ing.

| Washington Jan. 13.-Attorney Cen
statement replying to that part of the
speech of Senator Tillman, delivered
Monday. in which he declared that
the resolution in regard to the Ore
gan land grants introduced by him in
the senate on Jan. 81, 1908, had been
prepared by the attorney general and
! that his interest in the matter had
been first aroused by desire to pur-
chase some of the timber land" Mr..
Bonaparte also replies to Senator Till
mans remark made in the senate last
February that he had not bought any
land anywhere in the west or under
taken to buy any"
The text of the attorney generals
statement in part is as follows:
Senator Tillman called upon me,
at the department of justice, a few
days before the Introduction by him
of the resolution which 1 see, by the
record, he presented to the senate on
Jan. 81, 1908. Our interview occurred,
therefore, a little less than three weeks
before his letter of Feb. Is to Messrs.
Reeder and Watkins, in which he re-
quested them to hold in reserve for him
eight of the best quarter sections and
probably little more than three weeks
before his statement in the senate that
he had not bought land anywhere in
tn AL. 30
Tiiman Sought Information.
''He told me he wished information
as to the status of the lands embraced
in these Oregon grants because he had
heard so much complaint about the
conduct of the corporations claiming
them during his recent journey thru
the states of the Pacific slope. He crit
icized, with great fervidity. the policy
of granting the public domain to such
corporations and mentioned that, on
some occasion, in discussing proposed
land grant of this character, he said
to certain of his colleagues: You may
as well give them what they want
now; you have given them pretty
much everything else He said accord
ing to my recollection, that the lands
had become Of great value and many
persons wished to purchase them, and
added that he would have been glad to
do so himself if he could; but never
told me a word of any connection on
his part with an arrangement to &C
quire some part of these lands, nor
that he intended, expected or even de-
sired, at that time, to make any such
purchase. AS stated by him his reason
for making these inquiries. was that
he might better discharge his public
duties; and I was totally ignorant until
saw the documents transmitted by
the president to Senator Hale that
Senator Tillman, at the time of his
conversation with me, had any private
interest, whether actual or in expecta-
ton, in connection with the subject
of our conversation.
Was Given Inside Story.
II gave him full statement Of the
information which had been collected
by the department as the result of Il
protracted investigation made by
Messrs Townsend and McBlair as spe-
cial counsel and which had continued
during a considerable part of the
preceding year I told him also that
we deemed 1T advisable to secure con-
gressional action in the form of res
olution empowering the attorney gen