One winter especially his railroad corporation had
fed a hostile Indian tribe when the Government supplies had
failed to reach them, saving them from the danger of starvation
and saving the Government from a bloody and costly Indian
war. I said, Mr. Huntington--Was not that ultra vires for
a railroad corporation? He answered, "No, Sir! no, Sir! we
never gave them anything as strong as that." He evidently
thought he was being charged with supplying the Indians with
liquor, and that ultra vires meant extra strength.
The only other important committee work that I now recall
during my service in the House related to the investigation
of the conduct of Mr. Speaker Blaine. He was charged with
having received stock in a railroad at a price much less than
its then value with the expectation of paying for it by aiding
the passage of legislation in which the road was interested,
by political service as a Member of the House of Representatives,
and especially by his great influence as Speaker. It was
further claimed that in letters addressed by him to a man
named Mulligan he had demanded conveyances of such stock in
compensation for a ruling he had before made by which a measure
in conflict with the interest of the road was defeated.
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