INVESTIGATION" OF THE FUK-SEAL INDUSTKY OF ALASKA. 147 



In order to fully understand what this secret permit thus given to those lessees 

 really was — what an infamous transaction it really was — it is necessary for this com- 

 mittee to look back of April 2, 1891 (when the Mill's letter was dated), a little ways, 

 to observe the following facts, to wit: 



On November 19, 1890, and on January 6 following, Secretary William Windom 

 and Henry W. Elliott went over to the residence of James G. Blaine, Secretary of 

 State, in Lafayette Square. In his study there, on both occasions, Mr. Blaine dis- 

 cussed with Windom and Elliott the whole fur-seal question, arid after a long session 

 (on January 6) Mr. Blaine agreed to lay aside the claims of the lessees and adopt the 

 Elliott modus vivendi, only stipulating that the closed season called for in it should 

 be five years instead of seven. 



On January 6, 1891, Secretary Blaine declared to Henry W. Elliott, in the presence 

 of Hon, Nelson Dingley, jr., chairman Ways and Means Committee, House of Repre- 

 sentatives, that he was busy with the details of arrangement for this modus vivendi. 

 He asked Elliott to be patient; to say nothing, and write nothing about it. Mr. 

 Elliott promised him that it should be done, and he obeyed that request faithfully. 



On April 7, 1891, Mr. James G. Blaine pledged himself to Sir Julian Pauncefote, the 

 British Minister, during a conference at the State Department, to that modus vivendi 

 plan of Elliott's, provided this offer was made officially, as first coming from Lord 

 Salisbury. Sir Julian Pauncefote accepted the terms, and sent them by post that day 

 to the British Premier in London. (See British Blue Book covering these dates, 

 "U. S.," etc.). 



On April 11, 1891, Secretary James G. Blaine authorized Charles Foster to give a 

 secret permit to Stephen B. Elkins, for the lessees, authorizing the killing of 60,000 

 seals, "if they can be found" on the seal islands of Alaska! Think of it! Only four 

 days earlier this high official had promised to suspend all killing on the islands if 

 the British Government would do so in the water, and if the British Government 

 would make this [his] offer of suspension to officially appear as if first coming from 

 Lord Salisbury And Sir Julian had at once engaged to carry it out, and was then 

 busy with it! (See British Blue Book, "U. S.," March-June, 1891, covering these 

 letters, etc.). 



Now, your committee can realize the pressure which the "Ogden Mills" letter of 

 April 2, 1891, exerted on these particular high officials of our Government; what use 

 those false "affidavits" were put to, you can understand. 



How was that secret permit of April 11 found out and soon made public? By the 

 rarest of accident. It was thus: 



On or about April 8, Sir Julian Pauncefote was a guest at a certain private or social 

 dinner given to him. His hostess sat beside him; during the progress of this entertain- 

 ment, Sir Julian remarked to her that he believed that he had been instrumental at 

 last in settling the vexed fur-seal question, and that Mr. Blaine and he had just agreed 

 that no further slaughter on the islands or in the Bering Sea was to take place for at 

 least six or seven years, or that until both Governments had thoroughly investigated 

 the conditions, no killing was to be resumed, at least. 



On the evening of April 11, following, this lady was at another social entertainment^ 

 and there overhead the attorney for the North American Commercial Co. congratu- 

 late an unknown person who stood beside him in the reception line over their success 

 during the day in getting Charles Foster to give them a permit to kill seals; that 

 "nobody in Washington knew anything about it," and "nobody was to know any- 

 thing about it " either, etc. 



In a moment it flashed on the mind of this lady that Sir Julian had been duped or 

 those men were in error; second thought told her that the lessees' attorney (Gen. 

 N. L. Jeffries) was one who knew his business, and it must be true. She had heard 

 me tell how Mr. Blaine was pledged to a close season; so, on the following day she 

 called on me at the Smithsonian Institution and told me of what she had heard, all 

 as above stated. 



Astonished and mortified, I at once set to work to find out the truth. I knew that if 

 this was a secret permit, that if I went up either to Mr. Blaine or to Secretary Fosler, 

 they would not admit it; it must be secret or it would be published, and I would, too, 

 have been called in and notified of such an order, and the reasons why it was given over 

 the denial of it by myself and all of the official reports of the department's seal agents. 

 As Congress had adjourned March 4, 1891, there was no way of getting a resolution of 

 inquiry and the like introduced and passed. I therefore asked Congressman William 

 McKinley, Jr., who was still in the city, to call on Secretary Charles Foster and put 

 this inquiry sharply and squarely up to him. 



Maj. McKinley did so. On Monday morning — I think on or about April 14, 1891 — 

 he called on Foster at the Treasury Department. Later, same day, he reported to 

 me that Foster first shirked the answer; then admitted that he had given this secret 



