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Blaine, Of Maine

Blaine, Of Maine image
Parent Issue
Day
9
Month
June
Year
1876
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

[From the Chicago Tribune, Rep.] The testimoDy of Mulligon seems to f urnisli a common thread connecting the alleged $04,000 Fort Smith and Little Rotík bond transaetlon and the later story of Northern Pacific revealed in Blnine's o-ihi letter to Fisher, and recently made public by Arhiila Adms; Mulligan was Fisher's confidential clerk, and ia that capacity settled up some outstanding differences between Blaine and Fisher. Mulligan's tcstiinony is not as clear and cxplioit as it might be; it has an air of coastraint, aüd earrics with it the impresaion that Sdmethitig of importance is still auppressed. But, takihg It a? It is, there seems to be no doubt that Fisher and Blaine were mutually interested in wild-cat railroad stock speculations. Fisher was engaged, for one thing, in selling the bonds of the Fort Smith and Little Bock railroad, and Mulligan recalls one transaction iu which $130,000 of these bonds were sold, carrying with them the same amount of common and preforred stock; this sale was made by a third party, who received from Fisher 8652,500 of bonds as his commission. Though Mulligan did not say Blaine received this commission, his testimony leaves that inferenoe, and Mr. Fisher has only testified that he never gave Blaine any bonds without consideration ; of course Mr. Fisher would regard the services of a broker as ampie consideration. However this may be, Mulligan testified that he had delivered the $130,000 of bonds to Mr. Blaino, who had sold them to other parties. Hero is where this story hingos on the Harrison story relativo to the Torn Scotl sale of seventy-five bonds to the Union Pacific railroad for $64, 000. Mulligan's understanding was that Blaine had disposed of part of these bonds to Torn Scott. Torn Scott's statement was that he had received them from Caldwell, and paid eighty cents on the dollar for them, though other testimony goes to show that they were selling for only forty-flve cents on the dollar and less, with stock thrown in and large commissions paid. Caldwell is tho missing link, and he unf ortunately suddenly sailed for Europe about the time this matter was flrst made public. There is also an ngly circumstance in the fact that Eollins, the Secretary of the Union Pacific railroad, has never yet recollected how he got his impression that Blaine was in vol ved in this transaction, which he admite he told Harrison. Certainly the inference from. Mulligan's statements is thai Blaine acted as broker for the sale oi 8130,000 of these bonds at forty-five cents, and for his services receivod a commission of $62,500 in bonds ; that part of these bonds found their way into Torn Scott's hands, who must have had some reason for paying nearly doublé whai they were worth at the time ; and, finally, that Torn Scott availecl himself ef hia connection with the Union Pacific Company to nnload his bad bonds at the exorbitant rate he had paid. The transaction in Northern Pacific stock was likewise between Messrs. Fisher and Blaine, and one of the mosi suspicions features about this is that Mr. Blaine departed from what he has announced as the rule of his life. In his statement bef ore the House, Mr. Blaine said he had always been guided by the maxirn that "Whenever concealment is desirable, avoidance is advisable;" but in his letter to Fisher relative to the sale of a one-twelfth share of Northern Pacific stock he said: " Keep my name quiet; mention it to no one unless to Mr. Caldwell." This is the same Mr Caldwell who left so nnexpectedly for Europe, who is the missing link in the Fort Smith and Little Rock bond trans action. Anothor bad feature of the Northern Pacific transaction is tha it is a notorious fact that the $80,000,000 stock (the one-twelfth part of Jay Cooke's half of which Blaine offered to secure for $25,000) was entirely üctitious, since the road was to be built from the sale of bonds. The stor also goes that the stock was to be divi ded up in shares and placed " where i would do the most good," af ter the man ner of the Union Pacific stock in the Credit Mobilier operations ; and the Boston Herald and New York Sun have published statements relative to its place ment, according to programme, among certain railroad capitalista and poli ticians. But as Mr. Blaine 's proposec sale to Mr. Fisher was never consum matcd, it is but fair to assume that he never received any part of this distribu tion. But the failnre of Jay Cooke showec Mr. Blaine to be indebted to the firm o Jay Cooke & Oo. in the sum of $33, 333.33, with accrued interest at the rate of six per cent. (Cooko was paying five per cent. on deposits), which swellec the sum to over $40,000. This was se cured by a mortgage on Mr. Blaine's Washington house, which is said to be worth not more than $25,000 ; but Mr. Blaine roturned to the Fisher pool the money he had received from them for the Northern Pacific stock wbich he hac failcd to deliver. This is as clear a statement of the several transactions and their connection as can be made from the data so far. II is by no means conclusivo that Mr. Blaine acted corruptly, but it is strongly suggestive that he acted as a sort oi stock-broker while he was Speaker oi tho House, and that he availed himseli of the peculiar opportunities of his position to make money out of certain transactions in stock where "concealment" was found "desirable."

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Subjects
Old News
Michigan Argus