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1494 JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS [Apl. 1,
so, but the course pursued, and the rulings as to the evidence,
as has been stated, were to obstruct, rather than to help the
investigation; and finally, although he had said that the
Committee did not intend to put the Commissioners on the
stand, until the testimony against them was closed, the Chair-
man, when Major Gilmore, himself, was at last on the stand,
took and maintained the extraordinary position, that the wit-
ness (one of the very Commissioners being investigated) could
only be examined by the prosecution, as he called it, on sub-
jects which he had testified to "in-chief;" and, as his counsel
had been very careful to make his examination as brief and
immaterial as possible, the Committee, thus in effect, turned
its back upon the requirements of the order of this Hous3,
under which it was acting, (p. 68, Mch. 16.) The very begin-
ning of the investigation showed how little of the "free, fair
and full" there was to b.e about it. Instead of sending for
the leaders of the Opposition or Reform party in Baltimore,
who had made the charges against the Police Commissioners,
and for the newspaper men, who had particularly described
them, and could furnish the names of witnesses. What did
the Committee do? They summoned the Police Commis-
sioners themselves, their Marshal and their Clerk; they,
together with General Herbert and his third-hand cock and
bull-story of a negro insurrection, constituted the witnesses
present on the first meeting of the Committee, February
10th, 1876, when the Chairman stated, "there are wit-
nesses present in response to summonses, and ready to be ex-
amined. If there be no objection, I will first call Mr Fussel-
baugh," (p. 1, 6, of the testimoney, Feb. 10, '76,) counsel
representing the Reform party, happened to be present on
that first night in consequence of information sent them by
one of the undersigned that very day ; and if it had not
been for the cross-examination by this counsel and his sug-
gestion of the names of witnesses, the investigations would,
in the opinion of the undersigned, have been closed by the
majorty of the Committee that very night. The Chairman
of the Committee undoubtly struck the key note of the
spirit of the investigation, when he used these words on that
first night, in reply to an objection to his course of pro-
ceeding:
"Has it not occurred to the gentleman, that the testimony
which may be given by these witnesses to-night, may so
cover .the ground that there can be nothing brought against
them? (P. 6, Feb, 10, 76.)" This was the spirit in which
the investigation started, and in which it was conducted
throughout, A willingness, .an anexiety was displayed to
discredit and dismiss, upon the ex parte statements of the
parties accused, charges of the gravest character ; involving
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