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THE STORY OF ERIE
449
Albany, with having offered him ,^500, on March 27th, to influence
his vote on the Erie bill, and asked that Mr. Frear be
relieved from serving on the investigating committee.
Mr. Frear offered his resignation as one of the committee,
but the matter was referred to the committee itself to investigate,
and report whether any action on it was necessary.
'Phe committee took immediate action, and April 10th reported
that "the evidence does not furnish any justification
for the charges made by Mr. Glenn against Mr. Frear, and
we have unanimously come to the conclusion that the testimony
exonerates him from this charge," and that his request
to be excused from serving on the committee be denied.
'Phe report was unanimously agreed to by the Assembly,
and Mr. PYear addressed the House.
remarks he said :
In the course of his
passed, the negative votes being W. S. Andrews, of Kings;
I became satisfied, on investigating the facts, that the acts of the
James Irving, of New York ; Alembert Pond, of Saratoga
confederated Erie Directors—trustees as they were—constituted a highhanded
fraud upon the rights of stockholders, and a violation of the County; Alpheus Prince, of Erie County; Robert Stewart,
common principles of honesty, which,if committed' by men of humbler of Madison County.
means and station, would have subjected them undoubtedly to punishment
at the criminal bar; and I stood,if I may be allowed to say, Frear, who had shown such righteous indignation over the
Among those voting for the Erie bill in the Assembly was
prominently among eighty-two members of this House against the mere fact that the Erie should have come to the Legislature
audacious attempt of these stock-jobbing conspirators to secure the
and asked for aid.
sanction of legislative aid to such palpable frauds and atrocious violations
of trust.
It is a painful thing to recognize from the
testimony that the immediate prompter of this accusation is an old
man, who seems to have outlived everything but his malignity. The
member from Wayne stands without any justification, except the infirmities
of mind and body.
might have been due to the dignity of this House that the member
from Wayne should have been subjected to the judgment of his fellow
members for an offence which nothing but his weakness palliates. As
it is, I leave his case and mine in your hands, and to the consideration
of an intelligent community.
Assemblyman Lawrence D. Kiernan, of New York, moved,
inasmuch as the charges against Mr. Frear had not been
established, and had evidently been made wantonly, that Mr.
Glenn be brought before the bar of the House and publicly
Whole. April nthit was made the special order for Tuesday,
April 14th, and to be continued the special order thereafter
until disposed of. 'Phis was an act legalizing the
over-issue of Erie stoi k and the other transactions of the
management that had led to the investigation.
April 17th W'alcott J. Humphrey, of the Thirtieth District,
reported from the Committee of the Whole in favor of
the passage of the bill, and the report was agreed to, and
April [8th the bill was passed on a vote of 17 to 12. Among
those who voted for the Erie bill was Senator Mattoon, who
had deserted the minority of the Investigating Committee
and signed the caustic anti-Erie report of the majority.
April 21st, in the Assembly, on motion of William C.
Bentley, of Otsego County, the bill went to the Committee of
the Whole, anil the same day it was reported favorably and
'Phe Hale Investigating Committee held meetings as
follows ;
1S68. At the Capitol, Albany, April iSth, 20th, 22d, 23d,
Under other circumstancesit
29th, 30th ; May 28th, 29th, 30th ; June 2d, 9th, 12th, when
it adjourned subject to call of chairman. The next meetings
were December 15th, 16th, 17th, 221I, at Albany.
1869. At Congress Hall, Albany, January 4th, 25th;
February 16 th, 2 2d.
The following were the principal witnesses examined by
the committee :
John B. Dutcher, Abram Van Vechten (lobbyist), Hugh J.
Hastings, Jay Gould, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jr., Charles C
Clark (Treasurer of the Hudson River Railroad Company),
censuretl. 'Phe resolution was carried, but, on motion of Mr. Thomas G. Alvord, Dyer 1). S. Brown (editor of the Rochester
Democrat), Horace Greeley, Thomas C Fields (ex-Sena­
Frear, all action in the matter was postponed until the final
report of the investigating committee had been made.
April nth Mr. Glenn tendered his resignation as Member
tor), Senator Abner C Mattoon, Ashbel N. Cole, Julien 'P.
Williams, M.D. (ex-Assemblyman), Senator O. W. Chapman,
of Assembly, and the record makes no further mention of the John Van Valkenburg (lobbyist), Senator Abiah W. Palmer,
matter.
John Flavel Mines (newspaper correspondent), Louis F.
The witnesses examined by the investigating committee
were Mr. Glenn, who appeared at the morning session, but
declined to answer a subpoena to attend in the afternoon.
His testimony was rambling, and established nothing ; Mark
M. Lewis, of Albany, an optician and lobbyist ; Assemblyman
Payne (lobbyist and liarbor-master).
May 5 th, Senator Edwards resigned from the Hale Investigating
Committee, and Senator Asher P. Nichols, of the
Twenty-first Distrii t, was appointed in his place.
In the course of the investigation it was brought out that
Frear, who denied absolutely the charges of Mr. Glenn ; during the interesting legislation on the Erie bill there
Assemblyman Henry Ray, of Ontario County ; Assemblyman had been in the employ of the P>ie, Hamilton Harris,
Luke Ranney, of Onondaga County, and Assemblyman Lyman Tremain, and Peter Cagger, of Albany, and John
Augustus A. Brush, of Dutchess County.
April 1st Mr. Chapman, from the Senate Committee on
Railroads, reported a bill entitled, " An Act in relation to the
Ganson, of Buffalo, as counsel, and Hugh J. Hastings, Julien
'P. Williams, Dyer D. S. Brown, as lobby agents. The Vanderbilt
lobbyists were Abram Van Vechten, John B. Dutcher,
Erie, New York Central, Hudson River, and Harlem Railway and John Wan Valkenburg. George Bliss, Jr., acted as counsel
in opposition to the bill. Companies," which was referred to the Committee of the
Gen. A. S. Diven, Vice-Presi-
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