|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1544 JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS [Apl. 3,
tempted, heretofore, to procure the passage of a law, to pro-
vide a pension for a man from Somerset county, who was no
entitled thereto, is true or false, beg leave to respectfully pre-
sent the following minority report:
And, although it has been the pleasure of your Honorable
Body to adopt the report of the majority of the Committee,
thereby rendering this report valueless and unnecessary in
assisting your Honorable Body in making up its judgment
upon the subject presented to you, that judgment having
been already pronounced, the minority of your Committee
feels an imperative duty, demanding that this paper should
bo presented. As has been already stated by the majority
report already adopted, a number ol gentlemen possessing a
personal knowledge of the facts, underlying the subject unde
investigation, were summoned and examined by the Commit-
tee. With a singular facility, the majority have, in their
report, almost completely ignored the testimony presented by
the gentlemen having the most intimate knowledge of the
facts of the case, and seem to have based their report upon the
testimony offered by gentlemen, who, from their relations to
the subject, could possess but comparatively little knowledge
thereof.
Now, what are the facts in this case as presented by per-
sons swearing positively and emphatically that their state-
ments to the Committee were strictly and absolutely true,
and who from their intimate connection with the subject ara
best qualified to testify as to the truth or falsity of the
charge, that Col. Levin Wool ford attempted to procure a
pension for a man in Somerset county during the Legislature
of 1872, not because he was entitled to a pension, but be-
cause he was a good Democrat and serviciable to the party in
his county. The majority report presents to the General
Assembly, the opinion that the party for whom Col. Wool-
ford is alleged to have attempted to procure a pension, was a
man named Noah Webster, who was granted pecuniary re-
lief by a subsequent Legislature. That this is an assumption
by the Committee unfounded and unsupported by facts, and
has no testimony whatever to rest upon, your Committee
thinks will appear clear and undoubted, as the sworn testi-
mony of the case under consideration is presented.
That the plleged pensioner was not the man, Noah Web-
ster, appears from the testimony of Charles M. Jump, who
being duly sworn, said : "He was a member of the Senate
Committee on Pensions in 1872, and that during the Ses-
sion 1872, Col. Woolford came to him with a petition, of a
man residing in Somerset county for a pension. This peti-
tion was placed among many others in his file. Inconsequence
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
