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Show LETTER FKOffl JUUUE DRAKE. Salt Lake City, May 6. 1873. Editors Halt Lake Htrald; Since the Hon. Obed F. Strickland has failed to furnish the promised evidence ev-idence and documents to show that in honesty and justice he ought not to pay his note to my old friend Thomas Jefferson Drake, I hope you will pub lih the enclosed letier from Judge Drake, giving his further versiuu of the law and the testimony of the case. The people of Utah and the United States will, having beard both parties, then determine who is a juat aud upright up-right Judge with clean hands aud pure heart; and who is the corrupt, and dishonest officeholder, bringing dishonor dis-honor on the ermine, disgraco upon the country, and infamy upon him- BClf. Gko. C, Bates. Pontiao, Michigan, April 20, 1873. Friend Bates Your letter advisiDg me that you had commenced proceedings proceed-ings against Strickland has been received. re-ceived. I thank you for your attention. atten-tion. Lately I havo seen in tho Detroit De-troit Post some notice of the proceedings, proceed-ings, taken from the Salt Lake Herald. Her-ald. Whatever has been done there L suppose has had your sanction. I notice in tho Post Borne errors, but whether editorial or oopiod from tho Herald I can't Bay. One material error is, that I was to resign and re commend Strickland for the appointment. appoint-ment. This is entirely untrue, and in my view important that tho publio mind at Salt Lake should bo kept free from the poison intended. I have had reason to suspect that an effort had bcon made, somo time sinco, by Strickland or his friends, to impose the belief upon the publio that ono of the conditions of his giving the note was, that I was to resign and recommend recom-mend him for the appointment. A letter from Major Hempstead gave me the information. I don't know why he thought bo; but his letter showed that he entertained the opinion. I wrote to him at onoe that there was no such undertaking on my part. Now the objeot of this false report is to show, in some manner, that I was employed or hired to get him appointed; appoint-ed; and it is essential that tho true state of the oase should -be kept before the pnblic. The dootrine of contra bonus mores ib not applicable to this case. I never did, by word or deed, anything to promote his appointment. The oase is simply thiB: I held an office; by a computation it was ascertained ascer-tained that my salary for the unexpired unex-pired part of the term would amount to about the sum of $2,800. It will be remembered that the Balary had been raised from $2,500 to $3,500, to take effect on tho first of July, 1869. x nau a icgai ngiit io resign my umuu, and in doing so I was oautious not to embarass the President. My resignation resig-nation was to take effect upon the appointment ap-pointment of a successor. The President Presi-dent could have refu ed to receive my resignation. I oould have been ordered or requested to return to my post, in whioh case I must have returned, or been disgraced, and a successor would havo been appointed on the ground that I had not obeyed the laws, and had abandoned the office. There was a sufficient consideration for tho note in the fact that I did an act at his request a legal act whereby I was inj ured in a pecuniary manner; which injury was the immediate and direct result of complying with hia request, he having requested it; and having promised to pay a certain sum if I would do as he requested, ho was in law and equity bound to pay me, whether he received the appointment or not. On or about the 16th of Maroh my leave of absence from Utah was extended ex-tended to tho 1st of June. , On the 29th of Maroh I wrote my resignation. When I left Salt Lake, in February, 1869, I travoled in company with Strickland to Omaha. On the road I did not hear him say a word about getting an office. He reached Washington Wash-ington long before I did; I reached Washington on tho 2d of March-Soon March-Soon after the inauguration I learned that Strickland was an applicant for Borne office in Montana, where ho had lived before he went to Utah. I am not sure, but think that he presented to judge Titus and to me a commendatory commenda-tory paper, addressed to the Presidont, and I think that we both signed it that was the only paper I signed for him. He was not successful in getting any office in Montana, and he applied for one in Wyoming, as he told me, huh did not; ep.i. t. I need not repeat the history of his whining and moaning. They cannot redeem his character, and you need nothing further to elucidate his . We think the noun used here is libelous, libel-ous, and henoo decline to print it. Eds. Herald. As in days gone by, I am now your friend. Yours, Tnos. J. Drake. |