A. I do not know of any rule against it. Q. Is it permitted for any clerk in that office, to receive appplications, and receive money by mail, or upon personal application for lands? A. By personal applications, it is not very common for more than either of two or three of us. Q. Is it allowable for the clerks to receive application by mail for lands? A. I think there is a rule against it; though there are a great many sent, for all that. Q. That is frequently done with outside parties,-instead of corresponding with the Commissioner, or with the Deputy Commissioner, correspond directly with some of the clerks ? A. Sometimes do. Q. Do you not frequently get letters of that kind, directed to you, with regard to purchasing lands? A. I think not, with regard to purchasing lands. The Presiding Officer-The Senate, sitting as a Court of Impeachment, will take a recess until two o'clock this afternoon. Lansing, Saturday, P. M., May 11, 1872. The Senate met and was called to order by the President pro tem. The Sergeant-at-Arms made the usual proclamation. Senator Wheeler-I ask leave of absence until Wednesday morning for Senator Jenks; he has gone to take his wife home, who is now sick. Leave of absence was granted. The Presiding Officer-The Senator from the First [Mr. Ro meyn] sends up the following motion for an order. The Secretary will read the same. The Secretary read as follows: "Ordered, That in place of the usual adjournment at four o'clock, the Senate at that hour take a recess until seven o'clock P. M., for the purpose of proceeding with the trial pending." The question being put, the motion did not prevail. The Presiding Officer-The Honorable Managers will proceed with the testimony in support of the articles of impeachment. TESTIMONY OF M. O. ROBINSON, RESUMED. By Mr. Manager Huston: Question. You were stating, at the time the Court adjourned, in regard to the custom of the clerks to correspond with customers in regard to the sale of lands. Will you state now, whether such is the custom in the office, for different clerks to correspond with the parties who desire to purchase State lands? Answer. I can answer for myself. To some extent, it is. Q. Mr. Edmonds has knowledge of that fact, has he not? Q. Don't you know? A. I don't know. Q. Do you not know, as far as you were corresponding with parties in the office, in your own name, whether Mr. Edmonds had knowledge? A. I do not. Q. What did you do with your letters you received from customers? A. Filed them in the office. Q. Are they bound with the other letters? A. I presume they are. Q. They were kept in the files? A. Yes, sir. Q. Is that the fact in regard to all the clerks that do that kind of business, that the letters are filed with the other letters in the office ? A. I do not know as to that. I think it is, to some extent. So far as comes under my observation, it is. Q. Is it a fact that all the applications that are received are filed. A. Supposed to be. Q. Do you know whether that is so, or not? A. I cannot say, positively, about that. Q. Do you not know that frequently there are letters and applications for land, that are not filed in the usual place for filing applications and letters? A. I do not. Q. Now, in regard to these boxes. Are the applications of these parties, that have boxes in the office, bound with the others,-applications that you usually have bound at the close of the year? A. They are not. Q. Then the application of those large dealers, who had boxes in the office, are not bound with the other communications received on that subject? A. It is owing to the nature of the application. Q. The applications received during the year 1871, that were kept in the one hundred boxes as has been testified to,-have they been bound? A. I think not. Q. They are not contained in any of those books? A. I think not. Q. Do you know anything about any applications that are left in those boxes there, being taken out? A. I do not. Q Do you know anything about taking any out of Mr. Hewitt's boxes, night before last? A. I do not. Q. Have you no knowledge of that kind? A. No, sir. Q. Were you not in there examining with another party those books, night before last,-Mr. Hewitt's applications? A. I was in there with you, showing you a box. Q. After I went away? A. No, sir. Q. And didn't you select them out with another party that was in there? A. No, sir. Q. How many of the clerks are there in the office that are in the habit of corresponding directly with parties that desire to purchase lands? A. I could not say. Q. You cannot say whether it is general with all the clerks, or not? A. I could not say. Q. Do you know whether Mr. Barnard is in the habit of corresponding with outside parties that desire to purchase lands, in his name, not as Deputy Commissioner? A. I don't know anything about it. Q. You cannot say about that? A. No, sir. Q. How long has he been Deputy Commissioner? A. Since the first of June, 1871. Q. What was the rule in the office in regard to proving up claims, or, rather, filing proofs, when application is made in regard to purchasing licensed lands? What was the rule a year ago this spring? A. In regard to the sale of lands? Q. The rule in regard to proofs. Suppose I apply to buy a piece of land that has been licensed: what proof would have been required a year ago? A. A proof of non-settlement, or abandonment, as the case would require. Q. Was that an universal rule? A. I think it was. Q. Has that rule been changed since? A. Yes, sir. Q. When was it,-in October? A. I cannot say positively when it was. Last year some time. Q. It was last fall? A. Sometime last year; I cannot say whether fall or summer. Q. Was it since Barnard has been Deputy? A. I cannot say as to that, whether it was or not. Q. What is the change you referred to,-that of not requi ring proofs where there had been no proof of settlement? A. To require proof where no proof had been filed. Q. The three months' proof is proof of settlement or occupancy? A. One of them, sir. Q. Now, do you not know that, almost immediately after Edmonds decided that where there was no proof of settlement and occupancy, that it was not necessary to have any proof of non-settlement in order that a party might purchase those. lands, that Mr. Cornell bought some of those lands? A. I do not remember about that. Q. What is your best recollection about it? A. Nothing; I have no recollection about it. Q. Is not it your best recollection that Van Dunham and Cornell entered into this speculation in buying swamp lands almost immediately after Edmonds changed the rule and decided that in that kind of a case no proof was necessary? A. It is not my recollection that they did. Q. What is your recollection? A. I have no recollection about it. Q. You are chief clerk in the office? A. I am so called. |