STAR ROUTE CONSPIRACY.

UNITED STATES

against

THOMAS J. BRADY AND OTHERS.

OPENING ADDRESS

OF

GEORGE BLISS.

WASHINGTON, D. C., JUNE 2 AND 5, 1882.

2641-1

OPENING ADDRESS

OF

GEORGE BLISS.

May it please the court and you, gentlemen of the jury, it has been assigned to me to open this case, and to state to you the ground which the Government has for appearing here to ask at your hands a verdict of guilty against the persons named in this indictment. It is natural that in any case which has required a good deal of preparation, and which has excited a good deal of attention, the counsel involved should come to regard it as one of a great deal of importance. We do so regard this case; not only as of importance to the Government, but of importance to the defendants who await your verdict. In the view of the Government, by the fraudulent action of these parties, the direct action of these parties, more than six hundred thousand dollars has been fraudulently, if not corruptly, taken from the Treasury of the United States without any adequate return being made for it, and without any necessity of its being so taken on public grounds. It is important, too, from the former position of the parties involved. One of the parties was formerly the Second Assistant Postmaster-General of the United States, and as such was by virtue of his office charged with the regulation and the management and the control of the entire mail service of the United States, so far as relates to the transportation of the mails, and having under his care practically the disbursement, I think, of about sixteen million dollars a year. Another of the defendants is an ex-United States Senator from the State of Arkansas. Of the position of the other parties concerned I shall have something to say before I get through with the remarks I am going to address to you.

Allow me at the outset, gentlemen, to say that it will be necessary for me to occupy a good deal of your time, for the case is in some respects complicated, involves a great mass of detail, involves some technicality of procedure and language, and is, as we regard it, surrounded and permeated by such a variegated character of frauds upon the Government that it will require considerable time to suggest them.

Upon the 33d page of the compilation of laws and regulations relating to the Post-Office Department will be found section 388 of the Revised Statutes, which provides for the organization of the Post-Office Department. It is as follows:

There shall be at the seat of Government an executive department to be known as the Post-Office Department, and a Postmaster-General, who shall be the head thereof, and who shall be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and

consent of the Senate.

By the next section it is provided:

There shall be in the Post-Office Department three Assistant Postmasters-General, who shall be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, and who may be removed in the same manner.