Dirty Tricks, 1892: Yakima's Candidate for Governor Fights Back

The publication of the charges in the Post-Intelligencer against Mr. Snively created a sensation. In Yakima scarcely anyone took stock in their truth. A few pygmy-brained partisans scampered about this fair city gloating over this newspaper taint placed on one of the citizens who has been among the most respected and honored. ... Let us see who this man is that is thus attacked.

Henry J. Snively came to Yakima seven years ago. He had no hesitation in saying that he was poor, having passed through a business failure in which he had given up everything in an effort to satisfy his creditors and the creditors of the firm of Martin A. Snively. He lived modestly here and attended strictly to business. His ability and worth became known and he acquired an extensive and remunerative law practice. Still his living was continued in the same modest manner. He acquired no property, and people wondered what became of his money; but Mr. Snively knew that the property he left behind in Grafton, West Virginia, had been handled in such a way that enough had not been realized from it to satisfy all of his creditors, and his surplus earnings above that required for his business and family use have been sent back for this purpose, although his failure was an honorable one, and he had turned over to his creditors and assignee everything, including his homestead right, and, with the consent of his wife, some money that belonged to her. Mr. Snively has always been especially punctilious regarding his personal obligations wherever he has lived, and his creditors, realizing that he has been making every effort to meet what are mainly the moral obligations of an honest man, have not pressed their claims, and the only suit against him is one now pending in the courts of Yakima, and brought by John T. McGraw on a paper signed by Mr. McGraw, Mr. Snively and Luther Martin. The status of the obligation of this note can only be told after legal investigation, Mr. Snively maintaining that he has offsets.

What is charged? In brief it is that Mr. Snively, as a member of the firm of Martin A. Snively, lumber manufacturers, failed at Grafton. That he fled the country, leaving numerous debts behind, and that as guardian he defrauded the minor heirs of John Fallon out of their patrimony.

The Post-Intelligencer, in several instances, published affidavits which were gathered by Phillips, a man who was indicted for perjury at Wheeling, West Virginia. These affidavits, in the main, purport to be signed by persons who are unable to write their names and who use the X. The first affidavit is that of Mary E. Fallon, signed with an X. Of this John T. McGraw, attorney of the heirs, writes: 'He (Phillips) has been working on the Fallon heirs for an affidavit, but he will fail to get anything from that quarter, unless he manufactures it.'

As guardian Mr. Snively invested the patrimony of these heirs, an amount less than $1,000, in a manner that he believed to be safe, taking a secured note for their protection. These heirs were to be paid their shares of the estate as they became of age. But one has reached his majority, and Mr. Snively has his receipt for the portion due him.

Another statement of the Post-Intelligencer is that Harriet Brixenbaugh, a poor servant girl, is Snively's creditor for borrowed money. Harriet Brixenbaugh was at one time employed in Mr. Snively's family. She was without education and could not write. The Snivelys left Grafton without owing her a cent, and one of their great regrets was that they could not bring her with them. Mrs. L. V. Allen, the present employer of Harriet, writes to Mrs. Snively under date of June 8, 1890: 'Harriet says she wishes she was with you, and was quite delighted to hear from you. Of course she wishes to be remembered to all of you.' And again Sept. 23, 1892: 'Was much pleased to hear of Mr. Snively's nomination, and hope he will be successful, even if your state has been republican.'

In his published statement, Mr. Snively explained his business failure: 'My first venture into the sawmill business was with my father-in-law, Luther Martin. I was to put $5,000 into the business and become special partner, which I accordingly did. The business proved profitable and we enlarged it from time to time, and from time to time I put in additional sums of money. We purchased large tracts of land some time in the summer of 1884, on Whiteday Creek, in Taylor County, West Virginia. ... We were engaged in manufacturing oak lumber to be used in the manufacture of railroad cars in England and Scotland, and we worked the slabs and ovals into staves, out of which were made sugar shooks or sugar hogsheads. Those were shipped in bundles to the Spanish West Indies, chiefly to Havana. ... In August, 1885, the United States Senate rejected a treaty which the Spanish government desired to have ratified by the Senate, which resulted in angering the Spanish government, and inasmuch as the shooks were about the chief product shipped from the United States to Cuba, the Spanish government, in order to show its resentment against the United States for its failure to ratify the treaty, laid a heavy export duty upon sugars shipped in hogsheads, which resulted in compelling the planters to use English gunny sacks instead of American hogsheads, which they had been using prior to that time. This completely deprived us of a market for our shooks and placed us in the position of being either compelled to make an assignment or to borrow money with a view to endeavoring to hold ourselves up until there was some change in the shook trade or until we could sell our oak lumber in some other quarter than the English trade, or to make an assignment at once. ... After carefully investigating for a week the affairs and prospects of the firm I became convinced that even with this assistance I could not pull the firm through, so I laid the matter before my friends and stated my determination to turn over all of the property of the firm and my own to the creditors and return those notes to the endorsers, and I accordingly made assignments of all the firm's property and all of my individual property, and I returned the notes and they were destroyed. ... As to the part of the Post-Intelligencer's articles ... charging me with a flight from West Virginia, I have only to say that this is absolutely false. ... It was to enable me to recover my health that was so shattered by the misfortunes that had come upon me, that I left immediately after making my assignment.'

The Herald republished a dispatch from the Wheeling Register: 'The Sunday conference of the Republican bosses at this place was a dirty scheme, and one which will make any party man blush. One of the important features, and there are many, was the sealed delivery of depositions, statements, etc., against Hon. H. J. Snively, formerly of Grafton, but now the Democratic nominee for governor of the state of Washington. All this week also Republican heelers were busy at their headquarters taking depositions, etc., in regard to the business failure of Mr. Snively, a former business man of Grafton. Anything and everything that could be trumped up against him was done, and no attention whatever was given to the truth. During the taking of the statements one of the heelers said: "Don't let that go, because Snively was right." His answer was: "Let it go; it will make no difference, because he won't have a chance to deny it." This evidence is to be printed and circulated just on the eve of election in Washington, and they hope to prejudice enough votes to carry the state for Harrison.'