"If you have no money to spare," said Mr. Ames, "I will hold the stock until you can find it convenient to pay for it." After taking a few days to consider the matter, Garfield told Mr. Ames he had decided not to invest. The following July, 1867, Garfield sailed for Europe, and in order to obtain funds for this trip, he turned over advanced drafts for several months of his congressional salary. When he returned home in November, he needed a small sum, for current expenses, and borrowed three hundred dollars of Oakes Ames. This loan he paid back in 1869. Not long after this transaction, Garfield was informed that his name was upon Oakes Ames' book as holding ten shares of the Credit Mobilier. He demanded an explanation, and Mr. Ames appeared before a committee of investigation, upon December 17, 1872. His testimony was as follows,-- "In reference to Mr. Garfield," said the chairman, "you say that you agreed to get ten shares for him and to hold them till he could pay for them, and that he never did pay for them nor receive them?" "Yes, sir." "He never paid any money on that stock, nor received any money from it?" "Not on account of it." "He received no dividends?" "No, sir; I think not. He says he did not. My own recollection is not very clear." "So, that, as you understand, Mr. Garfield never parted with any money, nor received any money on that transaction?" "No, sir; he had some money from me once, some three or four hundred dollars, and called it a loan. He says that is all he ever received from me, and that he considered it a loan. He never took his stock and never paid for it." "Did you understand it so?" "Yes; I am willing to so understand it. I do not recollect paying him any dividend, and have forgotten that I paid him any money." Five weeks after this statement, Mr. Ames appeared a second time before the committee with a memorandum in which there was an entry to the effect that a certain amount of stock had been sold for $329 and paid over to General Garfield; that it was not paid in money, but by a check on the sergeant-at-arms. To this statement, the sergeant-at-arms, Mr. Dillon, testified that he had paid a check of $329, but that the payment had been made to Mr. Ames, not to General Garfield. It was conclusively proved that Garfield's name was not among the eleven congressmen who had bought shares in the Credit Mobilier. In a long and able vindication of the purity of his motives, Garfield concludes with the following words:-- "If there be a citizen of the United States who is willing to believe that, for $329, I have bartered away my good name, and to falsehood have added perjury, these lines are not addressed to him. If there be one who thinks that any part of my public life has been gauged on so low a level as these charges would place it, I do not address him; I address those who are willing to believe that it is possible for a man to serve the public without personal dishonor.