It will be well for the people of your section to send to the member of Congress from your district such petitions as will express their opinions on the subject of this reduction.
Truly, yours,
JNO. R. MINER, Ag't.
Could you write a milder letter than that, to save your life, and refer to the subject? Could you write a fairer letter than that, to save your life?
He does not say, "Get up petitions against it." He does not say, "Send those petitions to your member of Congress and tell him to do what he can to prevent it." Not one word of that kind.
Yet that is considered as evidence of fraud; that is considered as evidence of conspiracy.
The next point made is that Mr. Ker states, at page 4632, that Brady endeavored to bribe the members of Congress into making this appropriation by doubling every star route in the Southern and Middle States, and did so during the Congressional investigation. What are the facts? The deficiency bill passed April 7, 1880.. That appropriated money only for the purpose of carrying the mails up to June 30, 1880. The regular appropriation bill was passed at the same session, and appropriated money to carry the mails from the 1st of July, 1880. Now let us see if Brady doubled the trips in these Southern and Middle States during that investigation. On page 3393 Brady says:
Practically on July 1, 1880, we doubled up the entire service for all the Southern and Middle States.
This was after the deficiency bill had passed; it was after the money appropriated by that bill had been expended; and it was paid for out of the regular appropriation for the Post-Office Department.
Yet that was a bribe. It just shows that Congress by the regular appropriation indorsed the policy of Mr. Key to have a daily mail to every place where there was a county-seat.