Page:Looters of the Public Domain.djvu/368

 The testimony at the trial of Hall assumed a wide latitude, the Government being permitted to not only expose the entire scheme of the Butte Creek Company, and by this process implicate the defendant in an effort to protect those "higher up," but was allowed to delve into a great deal of Oregon's political history. It was during the progress of the case that Mr. Heney made his famous, speech against Senator Fulton, before an audience that filled the First Congregational Church in Portland to overflowing, in which Mr. Fulton was charged with having handled the sack at the notorious "hold-up" session of the State Legislature in 1897, at which John H. Mitchell sought re-election as United States Senator.

It was shown further from the developments of the Hall case that while he was United States Attorney he had been guilty of shielding those having a political pull, and had used his official position as a menace to those who were standing in the way of his ambitions. In this manner he had caused George C. Brownell. the political leader of the Republican party in Clackamas county. Oregon, and speaker of the State Senate, to withdraw his name as a candidate against Hall for United States Attorney, the latter claiming to be in possession of evidence that Brownell had been connected with the forgery of names to applications for Government surveys. It was proven afterwards, through the confessions of Henry Meldrum, the convicted United States Surveyor-General, that Meldrum had himself forged the signatures, and that Brownell had nothing whatever to do with it, Meldrum having surreptitiously used his notarial seal and attached Brownell's name to the documents without his knowledge or consent. When these facts became known to Francis J. Heney, he recommended the dismissal of the indictment against Brownell, and in conformity therewith Judge Wolverton wiped the case off the docket.

Another instance of Hall's inactivity where influential interests were involved was brought out in connection with the testimony of W. E. Burke, a member of the Oregon Legislature in 1894, who told of being employed by A. B. Hammond in 1899 in connection with William G. Gosslin, Hammond's secretary, when, with Gosslin's assistance, he induced twenty unemployed men that were picked up in the North End of Portland, to file on timber land at the Oregon City Land Office, each of the twenty illegal entrymen being paid $2 for their services. The witness explained that the men did not take the land with the intention of acquiring it for themselves, but did so with the understanding that they were to hold the land temporarily, and to execute relinquishments that were to be filed as soon as Burke and Gosslin received from Hammond lieu land scrip to plaster on the land when it was relinquished. He explained further that representatives of the Northern Pacific were after the same timber land, and that the course adopted by himself and Gosslin was the only means by which they could keep the rival land gobblers from acquiring the desired claims, which adjoined each other in a district of valuable timber.

Burke said that he afterwards related the facts attending the transaction to the United States Grand Jury, which was in charge of Edwin Mays, and by which an indictment was returned October 19. 1899, charging himself. Gosslin and the twenty entrymen with conspiracy to defraud the Government by perjury. He stated also that Senator Fulton, assisted by Henry E. McGinn, a Portland attorney, was employed by Hammond to defend those involved in the indictment.

On cross-examination, Burke admitted that he had never discussed the subject with Hall, although it is evident the latter was familiar with all the circumstances. In answer to another question by Heney, the witness said that Charles H. Carey and F. P. Mays were the attorneys for the Northern Pacific, and that while Hammond did not get the lands that were originally filed upon, he understood that eventually the twenty quarter sections were divided between the rival companies. William G. Gosslin, who followed, corroborated the testimony of Burke. It was while Gosslin was on the stand that Heney introduced telegrams that had

Page 362