That was introduced to show that at the time Vaile was in a conspiracy
with S. W. Dorsey. Why did they introduce it? Simply for one line in it
in which he says he was acting as the trustee of S. W. Dorsey. He was.
How? Dorsey had advanced money. The routes were liable, and the persons
who held the routes had agreed to refund it. The subcontracts were made
to Vaile, and Vaile agreed out of the proceeds of the route to pay the
debt to S. W, Dorsey. To that extent he was the trustee of S. W. Dorsey.
Dorsey swears it. Vaile admits it, and we all claim it to be true. And
yet they introduced that letter simply because that line was there. Now,
gentlemen, I have read both of those letters, and I want you to remember
them if you can, and tell me whether at that time Vaile and Dorsey
were in a conspiracy together to defraud this Government. And yet the
Government introduced this letter just to prove that one thing, and no
more.
On the Julian and Colton route there is this peculiarity: The Government
failed to prove the number of men and horses necessary on the original
schedule for three-times-a-week service, and consequently we are left
without any standard by which to judge; without any standard by which to
measure.
On page 4685 Mr. Ker calls attention to the fact that the proposal
marked 6 P, originally contained an offer to carry the mail at
thirty-six hours for seven thousand seven hundred and twenty-two
dollars additional, but he states that the thirty-six was rubbed out and
twenty-six was put in its place.
That is, they offered to carry it in thirty-six hours for seven thousand
and odd dollars, and then afterwards fraudulently, of course, rubbed out
the thirty-six and inserted twenty-six. But they did not change the
sum for which they offered to carry it. They offered to carry it
in thirty-six hours for seven thousand seven hundred and twenty-two
dollars, and afterwards they rubbed out the thirty-six and put in
twenty-six, and then offered to carry it in twenty-six hours for seven
thousand seven hundred and twenty-two dollars. The question arises, how
did that hurt the Government? The question arises, was that a fraud? If
it had been originally twenty-six hours and they had rubbed out those
figures and put in thirty-six hours, then you might say the intention
was to defraud the Government. But the proposition had to be accepted
after that was done, and consequently in no event could the Government
be defrauded by the change of the proposal before the Government
accepted the proposal. I might say to a man, "I will let you have
a house and lot for ten thousand dollars." He does not accept the
proposal. Have I not the right on the next day to charge him twelve
thousand dollars for it? Is that a fraud? If I tell him, "You may have
it for ten thousand dollars," and he accepts, then, as an honorable
man, I cannot change the proposal. But if I tell him he may have it for
twelve thousand dollars and then afterwards tell him he may have it
for ten thousand dollars, Mr. Ker calls that a fraud of two thousand
dollars. If one of the jury should give me a contract to deliver one
hundred horses for ten thousand dollars, and I should scratch out the
one hundred and put in seventy-five, certainly you would not consider
yourself defrauded. Or if I agreed to carry the mail in thirty hours for
the Government for seven thousand seven hundred and twenty-two dollars,
and then afterwards changed and said I would carry it in ten hours less
time for the same price, can that be tortured into a fraud--unless I
might be indicted for defrauding myself?
On page 4569 Mr. Ker says that Mr. Farrish, who was the subcontractor
says:
I always carried the mail in from six to ten hours before expedition.
I carried the mail from Greenhorn to Pueblo. I did not stop at Saint
Charles.
On page 835 Mr. Farrish says he carried the mail for three months in
1881. That is the only time Farrish carried the mail. This route was
expedited on the 26th day of June, 1879, and yet Mr. Ker says that
Farrish carried the mail before it was expedited and carried it in from
six to ten hours. Mr. Farrish did not carry the mail until about two
years after it had been expedited.
On page 4768 Mr. Ker, speaking of the two affidavits on the route from
Pueblo to Rosita, laughs at the idea that the proportion was the same in
both.
Now, what is the proportion in both? One affidavit says that on the then
schedule it would take eight men and horses; that is, the horses and men
added together make eight, and that on the proposed schedule it would
take twenty-four. Then they would be entitled to just three times the
money they were receiving on the original schedule, because three times
eight are twenty-four. Let me explain here what I mean by proportion.
If I am carrying the mail with, say, four horses and two men, making
a total of six, and if then that service is increased so that it
takes twelve men and horses, I get twice the original pay; if it
takes eighteen men and horses, I get three times the original pay.
You understand that there is always a relation between the pay and the
number of men and horses used. If I am using one man and one horse and
am getting a thousand dollars for the service, and if it is expedited
so that I have to use two men and two horses, I would get two thousand
dollars. In the first affidavit they had eight men and horses. If
they put up the service to what they were going to, it would take
twenty-four. Three times eight are twenty-four. Then they would get
three times the original amount of money. In the second affidavit he
swears that it takes fifteen men and animals on the present schedule,
and on the proposed schedule it would take forty-five men and animals.
Three times fifteen are forty-five. Three times eight are twenty-four.
You see that on both affidavits you get the same amount of money to a
cent, because the proportion is absolutely and exactly the same. Yet Mr.
Ker laughs at the idea of the proportion being the same. It took eight
men and horses in the first affidavit on the present schedule, and
twenty-four on the proposed schedule. There the contractor would be
entitled to three times the original sum. In the next affidavit it took
fifteen men and horses on the original schedule and forty-five men and
horses on the proposed schedule. Again, he would be entitled to three
times the original sum.
On page 4579 Mr. Ker says the oath was put in for three trips. By
looking at page 867 we find that it was for seven trips and not three.
There is nothing like accuracy.
On page 4580 Ker says that Brady had on the jacket before him the
evidence that Hansom was a subcontractor at three thousand one hundred
dollars a year, and the contract gave the contractor a clear profit of
five thousand and forty-eight dollars. The fact is, that Brady's
order was made on July 8, 1879. That order is on page 866. Hansom's
subcontract was filed October 22, 1879, about three month's after
Brady's order was made. And yet Mr. Ker tells you that on that jacket
when Brady made the order he had notice of Hansom's subcontract. Unless
he had the gift of seeing into the future he knew nothing about it. He
would have had to see into the future three months in order to have had
it before him at that time.
On page 4703 Mr. Ker says that the letter of J. W. Dorsey, written April
26, 1879, referred to the Perkin's affidavit as not putting the number
of men and animals high enough. Let us see. Another case of arithmetic.
The letter refers to Dorsey's statement transmitted with the letter. It
could not be the way stated by Mr. Ker for the following reasons: The
affidavit of Perkins said three men and six animals one trip a week on
the then time. That makes nine. On one trip a week with the reduction to
eighty-four hours, eight men and twenty-four animals would be required.
That makes thirty-two. The proportion then gives three and five-ninths
or three hundred and fifty-five per cent, increase of pay. That is the
affidavit, he says, that Dorsey wrote out and said was not high enough,
and then fixed up one that was. The affidavit that John W. Dorsey sent
in the letter says that it will require for three trips a week on the
then time four men and twelve animals, making sixteen; on the proposed
schedule for the same number of trips eleven men and thirty-two animals,
making forty-three. As sixteen is to forty-three--that is, two hundred
and sixty-nine per cent, increase of pay. Now, that letter, he says,
claims that the Perkins affidavit did not put it high enough. I say that
he did not refer to the Perkins affidavit. He could not say that did not
put it high enough, because that put it at three hundred and fifty-five
per cent., and the affidavit he inclosed in the letter, put it at two
hundred and sixty-nine per cent.--nearly one hundred per cent. less.
According to Mr. Ker he was complaining that that affidavit was too low,
and so he inclosed one, one hundred per cent, lower. That will not
do. Besides all that the affidavit of John W. Dorsey is for forty-five
hours, while the first affidavit, I believe, is for eighty-four hours.
John W. Dorsey offers to carry it in forty-five hours for two hundred
and sixty-nine per cent., and the other affidavit on the basis of
eighty-five hours calls for three hundred and fifty-five per cent. Do
you not see, gentlemen, it is utterly impossible to believe that?
On page 4738 Mr. Ker again falls into mathematics. He says that Mr.
Brady allowed on the Bismarck route for three hundred men and three
hundred horses.
I tell you this prosecution ought to go into the stock business. One
hundred and fifty men and one hundred and fifty horses were called for
by the affidavit. Now, Mr. Ker says when Brady doubled the trips he
doubled the horses, and when he doubled the trips he doubled the men.
That would make three hundred men and three hundred horses. If he
had doubled the trips again he would have had six hundred men and six
hundred horses, enough cavalry to have protected that entire frontier.
Yet after all the Bismarck and Tongue River business, Mr. Vaile comes in
and swears, on page 4062, that the loss on that route to Vaile and Miner
was at least fifty thousand dollars; and Mr. Miner swears that the loss
on the route was between forty and fifty thousand dollars. Vaile says
if he had known at that time of the clause in the contract by which he
could have gotten out of it he would have abandoned the route, but that
he had not read a contract for ten or twelve years. Now, as a matter
of fact, gentlemen, and it seems to me the prosecution ought to be
perfectly fair, Brady allowed only forty per cent, of the affidavit made
in regard to the one hundred and fifty men and the one hundred and fifty
horses, and yet according to Mr. Ker he allowed for three hundred men
and three hundred horses; instead of allowing for forty per cent, of one
hundred and fifty men and one hundred and fifty horses, he allowed for
one hundred per cent. more. That would have run the pay up, I should
think, to about a million dollars. Mr. Ker also says that Mr. Vaile
swears that he induced Brady to give an extension to August 15th, and
thereupon Mr. Ker makes the remarkable statement that Vaile did not do
it; that Boone did it; I am very thankful for the admission. From that
it appears that Boone was more potent with Brady than Vaile was.
If he was, why did they have to get somebody close to Brady? Afterwards
we are told by Mr. Ker that Mr. Boone was kicked out to make a place for
Vaile, so as to get a man close to Brady.
Mr. Ker. Will you tell me what page it was I spoke about Boone?
Mr. Ingersoll. It was Mr. Bliss. It is Mr. Bliss's turn to explain
now. The notes that I have were handed to me by another, and I supposed
referred to Mr. Ker. Mr. Bliss said:
This, I think, can leave no doubt in the minds of any one that the
extension was obtained by Mr. Boone.
Mr. Bliss says that on page 4899, and so I will relieve Mr. Ker of that
charge.
Mr. Ker. I am glad to be relieved of something.
Mr. Ingersoll. I do not want to do any injustice to Mr. Ker; between Mr.
Bliss and Mr. Ker I am perfectly impartial.
Mr. Ker attacks the affidavit made by Vaile on the Vermillion and Sioux
Falls route. Let us get at the facts. The route was let as fifty miles
long. That is the distance that was given in the advertisement by the
Government. They wanted expedition on that route. The Government asked
for it. Mr. Vaile asked if he could make the affidavit, and he made it,
supposing the route was fifty miles long. He never had been over it. It
turned out that it was about seventy-three miles long, and consequently
the affidavit provided for too fast time. The affidavit called for ten
hours. That made over seven miles an hour; or, including the stoppages,
I presume about ten miles an hour. The difficulty arose out of the
mistake in the distance. Vaile so swears, on page 4030. He also swears
that he went to the department and there saw Mr. Brewer, who was in
charge of that bureau, or at least of that business, and it was Brewer
who suggested to him to make the affidavit. Mr. Vaile did not ask for
any expedition on that route. Mr. Brewer spoke to him about it. Mr.
Vaile swears that Brewer spoke to him first. Mr. Vaile swears that he
made the affidavit at the instigation of Mr. Brewer. Mr. Bliss says
Brewer is an honest man, and calls him honest Brewer. Why did he not
call honest Brewer to the stand and let him deny that he asked Mr. Vaile
to make that affidavit?
The Court. Yes.
Mr. Ingersoll. [Resuming]. If the Court please, and gentlemen of the
jury, on page 4645 there is the letter from Miner to Carey.
John Carey, Esq.,
Fort McDermitt, Nev.
Dear Sir: One S. H. Abbott, who was postmaster at Alvord, I find, by
accident, is writing to the department that you do not pay your bills,
and that there is no need of anything more than a weekly mail.
I wish you would see this man at once and satisfy him; pay him whatever
is reasonable and report to R. C. Williamson, at The Dalles.
I suppose that is what he is after. He knows nothing of the through
mail, and probably a weekly is all he needs; but more likely he wants
some money. He complained once before to the department that he had to
make a special trip to Camp McDermitt to make his returns, and I sent
him thirty dollars, and it was all right. Now, I suppose, he wants a
little more money. Yours, &c.,