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Answer. I have personal knowledge of many facts to sustain charge 2d.

Question by committee. What are the facts to sustain the charge of "wilful misrepresentation," contained in charge second?

Answer. I have personal knowledge of many of the facts tending to prove the allegation of wilful misrepresentation. I was employed in 1850, by Mr. I. D. Marks and others associated with him in Mexico. as an attorney, to aid and act in concert with the Mexican minister, to effect an arrangement whereby the Mexican government might be enabled to anticipate the payment of the third and fourth instalments of the indemnity due by the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, either by the payment of the money in advance by the government of the United States direct to the Mexican minister here in Washington, in the same manner in which the payment under the late Mexican treaty was made through General Almonte, or by obtaining an acceptance, by the United States government, of drafts drawn by the Mexican government, payable in the United States at the pleasure of the United States government. The object of this proposed arrangement was two-fold: first, to relieve the Mexican government from the necessity of paying interest at the rate of eighteen to twenty-four per cent. per annum for advances to the bankers employed by the United States to make the payments secondly, to give to the Mexican government the benefit of the large premium of exchange-to wit, twelve to fifteen per cent.—on drafts upon New York. As an inducement to the United States to asseut to this arrangement, I was authorized to offer, as a premium of exchange for prompt payment here, or acceptance of the drafts, one per cent. more than any banker should offer for the contract to pay the money in Mexico. When this matter first begun, I was absent on government service abroad. On my return to the United States, and shortly after the change in the government, resulting from General Taylor's death, I addressed to the Hon. Daniel Webster the following communication, to wit:

WASHINGTON, August 1, 1850.

SIR: My friend, Mr. I. D. Marks, wrote to me from Mexico last winter, saying that, wanting funds, the Mexican government wished to negotiate drafts on the government of the United States for the two remaining instalments under the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, and asked my aid to obtain an acceptance so as to make the drafts negotiable. My father, who in my absence received his letter, applied to the late administration, and it was understood that the drafts would be accepted, payable at the pleasure of the government, when an appropriation was made by Congress, and that as four-and-a-half per cent. would be allowed to the United States for accepting, and the payment in advance would save some ten per cent. more, the Secretary of the Treasury would, during the present session, ask an appropriation to enable this government to make the payment now, and thus save to the United States near, or quite, one million of dollars.

With this understanding, Mr. Marks has closed a contract with the Mexican government; and I have just received a letter from him saying, that as soon as he can be advised that the death of General Taylor and the change in the cabinet has interposed no obstacle to the negotia

tion, he will come to Washington and bring the drafts of the Mexican government.

Will you do me the favor to say whether you are willing that the present administration should carry into effect the understanding between your predecessors and Mr. Marks? And oblige your obedient

servant,

Very respectfully,

Hon. DANIEL Webster,

Secretary of State.

Mr. Webster's reply was as follows:

BEN. E. GREEN.

WASHINGTON, September 2, 1850. SIR: I have received your letter of the 31st ultimo, stating that your friend, Mr. I. D. Marks, had closed a contract with the Mexican government for the payment of the instalments due by the United States to that government, pursuant to the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo; and inquiring whether I was willing that the present administration should carry into effect the understanding upon the subject between my predecessors and that gentleman.

In reply, I have to inform you, that I have found no papers or evidence in this department showing any such understanding with Mr. Marks or any other person. A few weeks ago a definite arrangement on this subject was made with Messrs. Baring Bros. & Co., Howland & Aspinwall, and Corcoran & Riggs, the eminent bankers who have heretofore been employed in reference to the instalments paid to that government, during the administrations of Presidents Polk and Taylor. I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

BENJAMIN E. GREEN, Esq.,

Washington.

DANIEL WEBSTER.

I had previously written to Mr. Marks, announcing the death of General Taylor, but expressing a confidence that, as the arrangement proposed was mutually beneficial to both governments, there would be no objection to its consummation on the part of the new administration; and supposing that the Mexican government would, as it did, act at once on the receipt of that information, I was in daily expectation of the arrival of a messenger with the drafts. Conceiving that the contract mentioned by Mr. Webster, however binding on him, was not binding on Congress, I thought it my duty to apply to Congress, and obtain, if possible, an amendment to the appropriation bill, directing that the money should be paid in the manner desired by the Mexican government. I therefore, as attorney for Mr. Marks, drew up and submitted a memorial to the Senate and House of Representatives, explaining the nature of the proposition submitted on behalf of the Mexican government, a copy whereof is hereto annexed, marked A.

This was the proposition which was submitted by my father and myself, on behalf of the Mexican government, to enable that government to carry into effect a contract made with Mr. Marks, and other important measures dependent thereon; and this was the sum of the

petitions which we addressed to Congress, not in our own names or in our own behalf, but as attorneys of Mr. Marks and on behalf of the Mexican government.

To

The foregoing correspondence between myself and Mr. Webster, and the memorial of Mr. Marks above offered in evidence, were read in the Senate, and printed in the Senate proceedings in Appendix to Congressional Globe, 1st session 31st Congress, pages 1373 and 1376; and this memorial and several others, all to the same effect, and containing the same and no other proposition, were submitted by me to Mr. Bayly, as Chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means. show the previous understanding with the late American cabinet-on the strength of which the Mexican government had entered into the arrangement with Mr. Marks, and the grounds on which I asked that the wishes of Mexico, as to the mode of payment, should be regarded and gratified-we requested Mr. Bullard of Louisiana, Mr. Marks's representative, to call upon Mr. Clayton, the late Secretary of State, for a statement of the antecedents. A copy of Mr. Clayton's reply was furnished to Mr. Bayly, as chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, and the original is here offered in evidence:

NEWCASTLE, DEL., December 16, 1850.

SIR: I have this moment received your letter of the 14th instant, and, in reply to it, I have the honor to inform you, that some time in the latter part of last winter or early in the spring, General Duff Green informed me that Mr. Marks could effect an arrangement with the Mexican government for the payment of the two last instalments of the Mexican indemnity under the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, reserving to the United States a premium of 43 per cent.-the money to be paid on drafts by the Mexican government on our treasury. I had previ ously endeavored to negotiate with the Mexican minister at Washington for the payment of the second instalment (for which an appropriation had been made by Congress) upon this basis; my object being to take the matter out of the hands of speculators by paying the money directly to the government of Mexico. An offer, through Mr. Rosa, to the Mexican government to pay that instalment, deducting the export duty (5 per cent.) on specie in Mexico, was declined by that government. When the second instalment had been paid or arranged, Mr. Marks's proposition was made verbally to me by General Green, and as it offered a good premium and secured the indemnity from speculators, I thought well of it, but made no contract whatever on the subject; yet I forthwith told General Green that if the President approved it I would apply to Congress for the necessary appropriation to enable us to pay the money for the third and fourth instalments directly to the Mexican government, without the intervention of speculators or brokers; thus saving the premium of 43 per cent., and the interest to accrue to us, and protecting Mexico against the enormous discount to which it was said she had been and would be again subjected.

But when I mentioned the subject to General Taylor, he declined to bind himself by any agreement before Congress should make the appropriations for the instalments. Of this I informed General Green,

who afterwards held some conversation with the President himself, of which I know nothing.

You will observe, then, that I made no agreement about the matter, and had no authority to make any. But I have no doubt, that in consequence of the communication I made verbally to General Green, Mr. Marks was encouraged to urge the Mexican government to enter into the arrangement he had proposed. Had he succeeded in obtaining it while I was at the head of the State Department, I should have urged the President to ask the requisite appropriations from Congressto carry it into effect.

Mr. Webster was not informed of this proposition by me, as we happened not to have conversed on the subject; at least I have no recollection of having spoken about it to him. Indeed, while I remained at Washington, I did not learn that Mr. Marks had succeeded in any negotiation with Mexico about the matter. I recollect that Mr. Letcher, at the close of my service in the department, wrote that he could negotiate with the Mexican government on the subject.

While I was in the department I declined all negotiation with brokers in regard to this indemnity, not considering that my duty; but I did negotiate with the Mexican government on the subject of part of the second instalment through the minister. One objection which I communicated to General Green, as the friend of Mr. Marks, to any contract with Marks, was, that it was not my province to negotiate with any one but a minister on the subject, and that if I did attempt it I might embarrass Mr. Letcher. I think I told him to say to Mr. Marks, that if he went to Mexico, and assisted, or acted in concert with Mr. Letcher, so as to obtain the terms he had proposed, I would not hesitate to advise the President to ask of Congress the appropriation necessary to perfect such an arrangement. I should not have hesitated. In haste, respectfully, your obedient servant,

Hon. H. A. BULLARD.

JOHN M. CLAYTON.

I certify that the above letter is a true and correct copy of the original.

C. W. CARRIGAN, Clerk.

A copy of this letter, also, I furnished to Mr. Bayly, for the express purpose of showing to him that neither to Mr. Clayton originally nor at any time had my father made any proposition on his own behalf; that he had always acted, and that all his propositions had been, on behalf of the Mexican government, or as the friend and attorney of Mr. Marks, with whom the Mexican government had made a contract which it was very desirous of carrying into effect; and that from first. to last it was contemplated that payment would be made by the United States directly to, and receipts taken directly from, the Mexican government, acting through its duly-authorized agent; that neither I nor my father was to have anything to do with the payment; and that he, Bayly, was in error in representing the contrary to the House. Besides the communications above mentioned, made to him in his official character as chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, I also called at his house to explain this matter to him verbally. No propo

sition was ever made by my father, on his own behalf, or on behalf of himself and others, to contract with the United States for the payment of one dollar in Mexico; yet Mr. Bayly, from first to last, though frequently informed that he was mistaken and in error in so doing, persisted in endeavoring to create an impression, by his remarks in the House of Representatives, that the aforesaid proposition, submitted by us on behalf of Mexico, was a proposition by Duff Green to contract with the government of the United States for the payment of these instalments. At the first session of the 31st Congress, he said, alluding to the proposition submitted by us on behalf of Mexico:

"The proposition was by General Green, on behalf of himself and some persons in Mexico." (See Cong. Globe of that sess., p. 1853.) And at the first session of the 32d Congress (see Cong. Globe, p. 215) he said, alluding to the same proposition :

"It was the proposition of Duff Green to pay three and a quarter millions of dollars, and in that proposition he offered to do it for onehalf per cent. less than anybody else. The Committee of Ways and Means did not believe that Duff Green was the man to pay three and a quarter millions of dollars in the State of Mexico."

Mr. Bayly knew from the beginning that Duff Green had made no such proposition. Being interrogated by Mr. Boyd, of Kentucky, whether it was the wish of the Mexican government that the money should be paid in a different way, and whether that different mode of payment would not result in a profit to the United States of seventy to eighty thousand dollars, he commenced to state the case truly, so far as Duff Green's agency therein was concerned. He said:

"I am informed that there has been no proposition made to this gov ernment by any officially recognised agent of Mexico. There has been a proposition made to this government through a gentleman who represents himself as acting for the government of Mexico, but I am told he has no credentials. I do not want to refer to the individual; he is a gentleman for whom I entertain a good deal of personal respect. But I am authorized to say that there has been no official communication whatever. The Mexican minister has made none. There has been one made by a citizen of this country, professing to act on behalf of the Mexican government."

Being pressed by Mr. Disney to say whether he, (Bayly,) had any information, official or unofficial, that the Mexican minister was authorized to receive and receipt for the money, he evaded that inquiry; and, in disregard of what he had stated but a few minutes before, he represented that the proposition submitted was one by Duff Green, "on behalf of himself" and some persons in Mexico.

Mr. Bayly knew that the money would be paid through Messrs. Corcoran and others, if the amendment asked for in the memorial herewith offered in evidence should be defeated. He also knew, and stated to the House of Representatives, that Messrs. Corcoran and others allowed to the United States three and a half per cent. only as premium; and, as four and a half per cent. was offered by the proposition submitted on behalf of the Mexican government, he also knew that from $60,000 to $70,000, in the way of premium, besides a much larger amount in

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