Knott On Blaine

Mr. Knott, Chairman of the Jndiciary Committee, said he had listened to imputations upon himself wíthin the laat twó hottrö whick, oming from a different source, he iniglit perhapi? snsyer very differontly froin the manner in whlcll to Rhorüd now attempt to answer them. Those who were intimately acquainted with him knew that he was tho last man in the world to soek a personal controversy, and he assured the House that of all mon in th6 world the gentleman from Maino (Blaine) was the last man with whom he would Seek such a controversy. Tllat gontletnaü was entirely too immense a party in his proportions. " Wby, man, he doth bestride the narrow woflíi like a Colossiw," and we petty men walk nnder his huge logR and peep about to flnd oursclves in dishonorable graves. Personal controVersy peetned to be that gentleman's forte. He reíninded him oí Homer'a description of Diomodo : " Diro was the eiang, ana drcüdítil ftQrtí afsr, The aniiod Tydides rusliing to Wat." As a íriend of his would say, the gentleman waa entirely too bumtious and too usurptiouR for him. [Langhter on the Democratie síde. Two-third of the time tlie gentleman was in thö House he did not seem tö realicé whèthe'r he was Speaker or only simply a member, and to a stranger it would be an insolvable enigma to know which he was. The gentleman had quite nnnecessarily lugged him (Knott) into this pere-onal matter of his own. In the first place he had insinuated that from some unworthy motive he (Knott), as Chairman of the Judiciary Committee. had appointed on a sub committee which had oharge of these investigations the gentleman from Virginia (Hunton) and the gentleman from North Carolina (Ashe). In answer to that he had to say, first, that either of those gentleman was his (Blaine's) peer in any sense of the word, and that in point of honor it was no disparagement to the gentleman from Maine to say they were his superiors. [Hisses and othor marks of disapprobation from the other side of the House.] Mr. Knott- That is all right. There are tbree kinds of animáis in the world that hiss - vipers, geese, and fools. [Laughter. J In the second placo this committeo was selected long before thero was any insinuation, public or private, that the gentleman from Maine was Lu any manner implioated in the fraudulent tranaactions on the part of any of these corporations, and it seemed to n.e when the gentleman flung his imputations at me that it was a little strange that he could ascribe such motives to me under the circumstances. Even granting that the gentleman from Virginia and the gentleman from North CaroUna were his personal enemies, it does seem a little remarcable thot you cannot touch one of these railroads but the gentleman from Maine will squeaL and 1 have no doubt that it struck Mr. Harrison os a little remar kable that when that $75,000boad transaotion was montioncd in the meeting of the directora the Treasurer of the Union Pacific Baüroad Company should say, " Donrt say anything about that; it will involve Blaine." But his committee was raised long before I had any intimation that Blaine was inyolved in it in any manner I went to his personal friend and colleague, Frye, and asked him to tako a position on tlie subcommittee, which he declined. The gentleman from Maine seems to insinúate tb at it is the settled purpose of the Judiciary Committe to do somethiüg or other which might, peradventuro, prevent him from receiving the nomination of his party at tho coming convention at Cincinnati. 1 beg the gentleman to bolieve that so far as I am concerned we are perfectly willing he should reccivo that nomination. lf in the pending campaign wo cannot defeat the gentleman rom Maine then our cause is entirely hopeless. f Laughter on the Democratie side.] If heshal] receive the nomination and be elected by the American people in the face oi aü the f acts, then all I can say is, "May the Lord have mercy on tlie American people." [Shouts of laughter.] Tho Judiciary Committee has done this gentleman no wrong. It has not even decideá what shallbe done with the letters. The committee has not taken any action on the subject at all, and the gentleman ought to be informed that to-morrow morning the question was to be broughi ap. Yet in defiance of all parliamentary law an ex-Speaker of tho House comes here on the pretext of a personal explanation, and takes the matter away from the jurisdiotion of tho committee ; that is the coudition in which this thiug stands. It is a matter not decided yct at all, and there was no intimation that a solitary word of one of those letters would be given to the public, but the gentleman was very positively assured that he would not bo martyred by the Judiciary Committee. As to the cable dispatch from Josiah Caldwell, it is true that last Thursday morning I did receive a dispatch. The gentleman from Maine (Biaine) seems to know precisely the hour at which I rccoived it and its contenta. He seems thoroughly postod on tho subject, but permit to say with regard to the insinuation that that telegram has been suppressed, that any man, high or low, whoover he may be, who will elsewhere make such an insinuation, must take the conseqnences. tí wv I hurl the falsehood back into the teoth of any man who makes a suggestion as to the suppreasion of that dispatch. [Applause on the Democratie side.] I have it. I did not ijjjjipress it at all. In less than thirty minutos after I receivod it I read it to several gontlomen. But thore was no particular address in London from which it purportod to come, and I did believe, and am not altogether certain yot that I do not believe, it was a flxednp job. [Murmurs of dissent from the Republican side.] In answer to requesis from tho Republican side to read tho dispatch írom Cnldwell, Mr. Kuott said: I have not the dispatch here. It is at my house. The content of it are subutantially aa statod by the gentleman from Maine (Blaine). I do not know that I can repeat it in the exret torms. The purport of it is that Caldwell had Been Thomas A. Seott's testimony in tho New York papers and that it was substantially correct; that he had not let Mr. Blaine have any bonds, and that he would send an affidavit to that effect, but that he was engagod in a railroad enterprise over thoro and could not come to givo his testimony without serious pecuniary loss. This is substantially what is in it, and if the gentleman had only waited that dispatch would have been presonted to the committee for whatover uso the committee might see proper to make of it. I had no desire to injure the gentleman from Maino personally, and especially not politically, but I desire tliat the truth may be told. As for myself, I liad no knowledgo of any transaction by tho gentleman from Maino inconsistent with tho highest personal integrity. I do not desire that he should be iujured in the least, but I do desire that if any person is guilty of wrong we shall turn tho gas on and let the people see him. Laughter aud applanse. )