On page 2223 Rerdell says that in August, 1878, he had a talk with Miner, who said that they could do nothing while Boone was in the combination; that Brady was hostile to Boone, and that Boone's place was to be taken by Vaile; and that Miner asked his opinion about Vaile, and asked what Rerdell thought about Dorsey's approving it, adding that Vaile was very close to Brady. On page 4177 Miner swears that he has no recollection of the conversation, and does not believe any such conversation ever occurred.
Ah, but they say that when a paper was handed to Mr. Miner, an affidavit, for instance, he could not give you the history of it; he could not tell you where he was when he wrote it; he could not tell you where he was when he filled it. I would not have believed his testimony if he could. He had to take care of some ninety-six routes. Upon those routes there were numberless papers, notices from the department, notices of fines and deductions, of remissions, and everything of that kind. On each route there were probably a hundred papers, and may be more—petitions, affidavits, and papers of all descriptions. If a man should stand up here five years afterwards and pretend that he knew the history of each paper, I would know he had not the slightest regard for truth.
Mr. Miner said when he was shown a paper, "I don't remember ever having seen that paper before; I don't remember when it was written." That was the truth. If he had wished to stain his heart with perjury he could have said, "Yes, I remember it. I know absolutely the time I wrote it. I know I sent it to New Mexico. I know it was filled up before it was sworn to"; but he was honest enough and he was brave enough to face the truth and say, "I don't remember," and I respected him for it when he did it. Whenever you hear the truth, as a rule the first thought is, "May be it won't do." But if it is the truth, the longer you think about it the better it seems, while if it is a lie, the longer you think about it the worse it gets. It would have been, apparently, to Mr. Miner's interest to say, "I remember it perfectly," but the man had honor enough to tell the truth. And when you come to investigate his evidence it sounds much better than though he had pretended to remember time and place.
I call your attention to page 2446; that is about the affidavit.
On page 2384 Rerdell speaks of the charges made to Samuel Jones and James B. Belford for two thousand dollars. Then Mr. Bliss in his speech, which I will come to after a while, says that Mr. Rerdell spoke about a charge to J. B. B. He never did, never. He said James B. Belford. I started the J. B. B. business. I was the first one who ever said it, and Mr. Rerdell never swore J. B. B. Then they sent out to Denver to get a fellow who had the same initials. I will come to this man after a while.
On pages 2429 and 2430 Rerdell swears that he had two balance-sheets of the books, made by Donnelly; that he showed them to MacVeagh and Woodward. How does it happen that Woodward was not sworn about it? Nothing would have been of more importance, if they wished to prove the existence of the two red books, than to prove by Woodward that Mr. Rerdell, in June, 1881, showed him copies of those balance-sheets or the balance-sheets themselves. They did not bring Mr. Woodward on the stand. Why? Mr. Woodward, in my judgment, had he come upon the stand, would have sworn to the truth. Rerdell says, "I do not know where they are." Then he paused. Then I saw the working of his mind just as plainly as though his skull had been opened. He got himself together and swore that he gave them to Dorsey in July, 1882. He had to get them out of his hands some way.
On page 3736 S. W. Dorsey swears that he, Rerdell, did not give him any balance sheets.
On page 2434 Rerdell swears as to the papers he gave to Dorsey—the original journal, and copy of the Oregon correspondence made by Miss Nettie L. White. Miss White was not called. He gave these, he says, to Dorsey, July 13, 1882. On page 2793 Dorsey swears that he did not give them to him, nor did he give a paper of any kind.
On page 2461 Rerdell is asked if he did not admit to Judge
Carpenter, in January, 1882, that he had a memorandum written by himself, which he showed to James and MacVeagh, and that he made it so much like Dorsey's handwriting that he did not think anybody could tell it. What was his answer? "I may have done so." Honest man!