“Now I want my audience to understand that in the midst of that storm and tempest of accusation, and only a little while before the election, I started it and let it go broadcast to the daily press, that I did know something about the Credit Mobilier; that I had on two occasions discussed the matter; that I had taken it into consideration, and that finally I had declined to subscribe; that I never had owned or held a share; had never seen a certificate of the stock. Now, I am not asking you at this moment, to discuss the truth of that statement, but only to say that I stated it long before there was any investigation talked of; that I never dodged or evaded or denied having knowledge on the subject, but at the first declared plainly and finally what I did know about it. “When Congress met, Speaker Blaine and the rest of us whose names were concerned in it, at once, on the first morning of the session, demanded a committee of investigation to go through with the whole subject from beginning to end. I want those gentlemen who talk about Mr. Garfield being got after by committees of investigation to know that no investigation into any public affair has been held in the last three years in Washington that I have not helped to organize and bring about. [Applause.] THE COMMITTEE OF INVESTIGATION. “Now what was the investigation? You will remember that before the investigation had gone far a feeling of alarm and excitement swept over the whole country that has hardly been paralleled in American history. Some men whose names were connected with the charges of the Credit Mobilier matter, shocked at the terrible charge of bribery thrown at them, in the hurry of the moment so far forgot themselves as to give equivocal answers as to whether they knew any thing about the matter or not, and the impression was made throughout the country that most of them had denied that they knew any thing about it. The fact was that the country was settling down to the belief that the whole thing was a mere campaign slander, and had no foundation in fact. Looking at the subject from this distance, I am inclined to believe that the impression left upon the American mind is that the faults of those who were charged with buying stock was not that they did any thing wrong in reference to the stock, but that afterwards they prevaricated, or lied about it. Now, without discussing any body else, I call you to witness that I stated at once what I knew about it the first time that I knew the thing was going the rounds of the newspapers. When the committee of investigation came to make up THEIR REPORT