Q. Was it a printed form?

A. Yes, sir.

Q. Why didn't you make the affidavit?

A. I could not make it conscientiously.

Q. What was the character of that land? Has it pine or valuable timber upon it?

A. Part of it is pine.

Q. Did you have any talk, at that time, with Mr. Barnard about it?

A. No, sir.

Q. This was with Mr. Robinson, was it?

A. Yes, sir.

Mr. Manager Grosvenor-We offer this affidavit to show the rule of the office, this printed form with the instructions at the bottom.

The following is the printed affidavit referred to:

duly sworn, depose and say, that they are well acquainted with the following described land, to wit: in the county of and State of Michigan, and know that the same is valuable mainly for agricultural purposes. And deponents further say that the timber standing and growing on said land is not pine, cedar, or hemlock, making said land valuable for lumber purposes, but that the timber growing thereon is principally

Subscribed and sworn to before me, this A. D. 18-.

day of

NOTE. This affidavit to be made by the supervisor of the township, or by two responsible persons, residents of the town in which the land is situated.

Q. What did you do then?

A. I went to Saginaw.

Q. What further in reference to getting this land?

A. Mr. Goddard asked me if I had any minutes of good pine lands?

Q. Did you give him any?

A. Yes, sir.

Q. Did you give him these minutes?

A. I gave him some minutes on the S. E. of Sec. 16, 24 north, 3 west.

Q. Just state whether they were those two fractions, and what number they are [showing witness a book],-whether they were numbers five and six ?

A. Lots No. 5 and 6.

Q. Did you give him these?

A. Yes, sir.

Q. As shown on this book as primary school lands?
A. Yes, sir.

The Presiding Officer-The Senate will take an informal recess for ten minutes.

AFTER RECESS.

The Presiding Officer-The Honorable Managers will proceed.

Question. You stated you gave the minutes of this land to Mr. Goddard; is it E. G. Goddard?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Q. Were you to have any interest in the land?

A. Yes, sir.

Q. Will you state whether Mr. Goddard made application for that land, immediately?

A. Yes, he wrote a letter.

Q. Making application?

A. Yes, sir.

Q. What are the contents of the letter?

Mr. Shipman-We object. We object to the question because it calls for secondary evidence, and there is better evidence of the fact. If they claim the letter was destroyed, let

them say so, and then the next evidence would be either the man who wrote it or the man who read it. If the letter was sent to the Commissioner's office, a request should be made to produce it; and if it is not produced, possibly then secondary evidence might be produced. But it seems to me, at this time the evidence is inadmissible.

Mr. Manager Grosvenor-We have attempted to show, by a clerk in the office, that after a careful deposit of that paper in a depository in the office, the only two places it can be found in the office-the letter-book and the boxes-and they are not there, I submit that, if we went to the proper repository in the office, it is equivalent to examining the whole office. No court would require every paper in the office to be examined, before it would say that it was not there. We think we have made a prima facie case, and we have asked them to produce it. We ask from the witness the contents of this paper,—that was the paper Griswold was interrogated about,-and we have asked them to produce it; and I understand they don't require any written notice.

The Presiding Officer-At any other time than just the present, has there been any request?

Mr. Manager Grosvenor-Not formally, but this morning there was an hour's time expended with one of the witnesses on the stand, to find the paper.

Mr. McGowan-The proof of the loss of this letter was only made by the clerk Griswold, and it will be borne in mind that Griswold testifies that with that department of the office, he had no knowledge of, and was not familiar with it, and that he made the search where he supposed it was.

The Presiding Officer-It is the opinion of the Chair that there has not been sufficient showing to entitle you to go into that. The witness never saw the letter.

Mr. Manager Grosvenor-Yes, he said he saw the letter.

The Presiding officer-Very well, I will sustain the objection on the other ground. I will take a vote of the Senate, if desired.

Senator Ball-I would like a vote of the Senate upon it.

Mr. McGowan:

Question. Did you read the letter?

Witness-I did not read the letter; Mr. Goddard read it.

Q. To you?

A. Yes, sir.

The Presiding Officer-The question is, Shall the question asked by Mr. Manager Grosvenor be put to the witness? Those of you in favor will, as your names are called, respond Aye; those opposed, No.

Senator Wheeler-Do the gentlemen ask time?
Mr. McGowan-We do.

Mr. Manager Grosvenor-If there is any probability of the letter being found, I will not ask him now. I will ask that the search may be made. I made a search this morning, and I demanded of the chief clerk this paper, and he contemptuously told me that there was no affidavit, and he would take the responsibility. I got this clerk and brought him in, and this clerk was asked to give me these papers from the repository for them. I then ask the clerk to come in and testify. The Presiding Officer-The question is, Shall the question be put to the witness? The Secretary will call the roll.

The Secretary called the roll, and the question was ordered put to the witness, by yeas and nays, as follows:

The Presiding Officer-The yeas being 20 and the nays 4, the question will be put to the witness.

Question. That letter was read to you, I believe you said, after it was written?

Answer. Yes, sir.

Q. And you were interested in the subject-matter?

A. Yes, sir.

Q. Now, will you state what were the contents of that letter, as near as you can ?

A. I don't know as I can, every word of it.

Q. The substance?

A. The description was put in, but it was not put in by the number of the lot, but all the vacant land in that section. I hadn't the number of the lot with me, but I had the number of acres, he wrote. The way he read the letter to me, he wrote to Mr. Barnard, and applied for that land, saying here is a fivedollar bill-do you want I should give the exact language? Q. Give the exact language if you can ?

A. "For God's sake, do something for a poor fellow."

Q. Was there any money sent besides that?

A. There was a draft.

Q. For how much?

A. I think it was $60.80,-a dollar per acre at all events.

Q. Was there any affidavit enclosed that it was not valuable for pine?

A. No, sir; not that I saw.

Q. That letter was sent off and mailed?

A. Yes, sir.

Q. Now, can you tell me what the result of the application was in that form to get the land?

A. I got a letter in two or three days after I got home to Ionia, that he had got the land, and it was all right.

Q. Was that application of yours before the application of Mr. Goddard?

A. Yes, sir.

Q. Didn't you inform Mr. Goddard that you had been refused the land?

A. Yes, sir.