"Dear Rerdell: I wish you would get fullest information in regard to all the new post-office lettings and keep posted as to the schemes going on in the department. There are certain routes we want advertised and others we do not. I shall be in Washington as soon as the 12th unless something unexpectedly happens,
"Faithfully,
"DORSEY."
Q. What Dorsey was that?—A. That is S. W. Dorsey's handwriting.
Q. And signature?—A. Yes, sir.
There is where he first speaks of it. At the time that letter was introduced, or in a little time, gentlemen, they also introduced the envelope. I do not know that I should have suspected the letter if they had not introduced the envelope. Whenever there is an effort to make a thing too certain I always suspect it. When that Morey letter was gotten up, what made me suspect it was that they had the envelope, and I said to myself, "Why did they want the envelope if it was clearly in the handwriting of Garfield? What difference did it make whether it was sent to Morey or to somebody else? What difference did it make when it came from Washington?" The only question was, "Did Garfield write it?" And upon that subject the envelope threw no light. When a man feels weak and thinks that other people will know what he does not want them to know, then it is that he wants to barricade and strengthen before the attack. So they got up this envelope, and when I looked at that it did not look to me as if that stamp had been through the mail. I noticed the handwriting of "Chico Springs, N. M.," and then I noticed the 3 or the B on the postage stamp, and then I knew that the man who wrote "Chico Springs" never made the letter or figure on that stamp. It is utterly impossible for the man who wrote that "Chico Springs" to make that mark on the stamp. This stamp looked awfully clean, and I said, "Well, I wouldn't wonder if that was an envelope used here in the city which has been got through the mail in some way." They had it stamped on the back and I said, "Perhaps that was written in 1879." No. You see, if it was not written in 1879 it did not do any harm, because in 1879 Dorsey was not a member of the Senate. Having gone out on the 4th of March, 1879, that letter was dated in April, 1879, why then there was no harm in his writing to Mr. Rerdell and telling him to look after the mail business. But if it was written on the 3d of April, 1878, it went far to show that Dorsey was personally interested at that time in mail routes. You will notice the printed date, April 3, 1878. They introduced that letter. I noticed that that envelope was a funny looking thing, and that the writing on it did not correspond with the mark on the stamp. I noticed also that upon the back they had the stamp. I do not know how they got it. When the Post-Office Department has possession of a paper they can put almost anything on it.
When I said to Mr. Rerdell on cross-examination, not knowing anything about the letter, "Was that not written in 1879?" he said, '"No, sir." Said I, "Don't you know, as a matter of fact, that Dorsey was not here on the 3d of April, 1879?" He said, "As a matter of fact I know that he was here on the 3d of April, 1879." "Don't you know, as a matter of fact, that he was here on the 3d of April, 1878?" He says, "I know as a matter of fact that he was not here on the 3d of April, 1878; he was at Chico Springs." He knew as a matter of fact that he was here in 1879, and he swore that so as to preclude the possibility of his having written the letter in 1879. And he swore to the positive fact that he was not here on the 3d of April, 1878, so as to show that he wrote him that letter from Chico Springs. They wanted some letter from Dorsey in 1878, to show that he was personally interested in these routes while in the Senate. They submitted that letter to Mr. Boone, who was their witness. He looks at it and he tells you that Dorsey did not write that letter. A clear forgery. Whom else do they bring now? They leave it right there, and by that admit that Rerdell forged that letter. Mr. Boone, their witness, swears it. Nobody swears to the contrary except Rerdell. Boone threw the letter from him contemptuously, and said, "That is not Dorsey's handwriting," and they dare not bring another witness. The country is filled with experts, gentlemen, who know about handwriting; the United States had plenty of men and plenty of money, and they never brought a solitary man.
Now, gentlemen, do you want to know how this fellow got caught? I will tell you. There is the letter, and they dare not put a man on the stand to swear that it is in Dorsey's handwriting. Look it all over. But I want to tell you how Rerdell got caught about Dorsey being present on the 3d of April, 1878, and I might as well tell you how I found it out. I do not want to pretend to be any more ingenious than I am. I found it out because I made the same mistake myself. I stumbled on that same root. I hit my toe of heedlessness on the same obstruction. I went up to look at the Senate journal. I opened a book to see whether Dorsey was here on the 3d of April, 1878. You see at the bottom there of the title page, Mr. Foreman—Washington: Government Printing Office. 1877.
You know I was not looking for the book of 1877, so I shut that book up. I then took the next book and opened it, and it said at just the same place:
Washington: Government Printing Office. 1878.