The Sun.
London, England, 1870-03-24 00:00:00

THE GREAT GOLD CONSPIRACY.

The New York Tribune very properly objects to
let its light remain hidden under a bushel; in-
deed from the language it used when the World
revived that ridiculous and untruthful story of
Mr. Greeley's being hidden under a table during
the New York riots, it seems to have a mortal ob-
jection to any concealment at all. The report of
the Gold Panic Investigating Committee was com-
municated to that journal in time for publication on
the Ist March, but this was with the proviso that
the news should not be published until authorized.
" Second-rate journals," says the l ribune, " strug-
gl ng for a position, may find it needful or ad-
vantageous to resort to such disreputable prac-
tices as the violation of confidence in a case like
this ; the Tribune does not." We can, however,
assure the Tribune that great as it undoubtedly is,
it could much less afford to do a most disreput-
able act than to be late in the publication of any
news ; and that, if in the habit of infringing such
confidence it would very soon descend into the rank of
second-rate journals. The gold conspiracy report
reads like a highly-wrought sensational novel. That
story of villainy, of audacity, of conspiracy, has
few parallels in history, assuming a magnitude so
gigantic as to secure for it a page in the reords cf
America. The prime mover was Jay Gould • the
" bad man of the play" James Fisk; the half-foolish,
half-vicious, and wholly unprincipled instrument
was the " old fool" Corbin. Many other incidental
characters were thrown in, such as the maniac
Speyers, Belden the scapegoat, and Butterfield,
whose position in the conspiracy has never been
satisfactorily explained. Men of all grades were in-
volved, and the whole trade of the country was for
the time paralysed. The conspiracy began with
an attempt on Gould's part to secure a successor to
Mr. Van Dyck, who resigned the Assistant Trea-
suryship of New York last June. This brought in
Corbin, who first suggested Robert B. Catherwood;
but attention was soon directed to General Butter-
field, and he was finally appointed. 'the story pro-
ceeds, as is well known, with Gould's efforts to
extract from the President some explanation of his
financial views, but all they could get from him
was that he thought there was a certain amount of
fictitiousness about the prosperity of the country,
and that the bubble might as well be tapped in
one way as another, which conveying the impression
that he was a contractionist, acted on the clique
like a wet blanket. Early next morning Gould was
atthe telegraph office (this interviewwas at Boston),
where he found an associate sending a message
to New York to sell out his stock. .No man can
achieve anything national in America without as-
suming the role of patriot, and with the aid of Mr.
James M'Henry, who held his own views regarding
the prosperity of the country, a theory was pro-
pounded which suited the purpose of the conspi-
rators. Mr. M•Henry was interested in the Atlantic
and Great Western and the grain carrying trade,
and his views of the national good naturally took
the direction of prosperity to the Western farmer.
Gold, Le maintained, should be at 145 if the fall
crops were to be moved to advantage and a foreign
market secured. Working on Mr. M'Henry's data,
Gould endeavoured to impress these opinions upon
Gen. Grant, using Corbin for this purpose, and the
President of the Atlantic and Great Western R.R.
to influence the press. The latter important object
was to be achieved through the New York Times,
and as the appearance of one of these conspirators
in the office of that journal would have been fatal
to their success, Mr. M'Henry was asked to present
the article drawn up from his figures to his friend
Mr. Bigelow, then the chief editor of the Times.
Under the impression that the article was the direct
expression of the President's mind, it was dou-
ble leaded for a leading article ; but doubts were
aroused on reading it, when it was submitted to the
financial editor. Mr. Norval suspected, particu-
larly from the last paragraph, a sinister purpose to
"bull" gold ; so the objectionable paragraph was
stricken out, and the type unleaded, and then it ap-
peared as an ordinary article. The Committee
observe that, when comparing the manuscript with
the article, it will be seen how cunning was the fraud
that had been attempted. It seems, however, that
the views, which we well recollect as being gene-
rally circulated, were not without their influence
on the President; for he wrote, on the Ist Septem-
ber, to Secretary Boutwell, then in Massachusetts,
that he did not think gold should be sold down
while the crops were moving, as it might embarraas
the West. This had the effect of curtailing the
sales Mr. Boutwell would otherwise have made, and
on the 3d and 4th Sept. gold commenced to rise
rapidly, touching 1371 on the 6th. The sense of
the coantiy was against the conspirators, and
Gould found it impossible to hold his associates
together, for it was evident to all, in the face of
good crops and increasing confidence in Europe,
that the i ise was artificial, and the precious metal
began to flow in from every quarter. Gould
found himself compelled to maintain his posi-
tion, while, as he says, the other fellows deserted
him as rats do a sinking ship. He left no stone un-
turned to strengthen his position, placing Gene-
ral Butterfield under obligations by a private
loan, buying and carrying for his profit $1,500,000
gold, besides securing the control of the Tenth Na-
tional Bank. For Corbin he bought and carried
another $1,500,000; but notwithstanding all his
efforts, his position began to grow desperate, when
he again invited Fisk to join. Here we cannot do
better than give the actual words of the report :

"Fisk replied that the skies did not look bright, that
the tendency of gold was downward, that everybody
was opposed to an upward movement, and that it they
should buy much the Treasury would sell. It would
appear that nothing but the scent of corruption could
sharpen the appetite of Fisk for the game which his
leader was pursuing. His own testimony on this point
exhibits his singular depravity, and the kind of influ-
ence which could move him to act in opposition to his
own judgment. Ho was told thatOorbin had enlisted the
interest of persons high in authority. That the Presi-
dent, Mrs. Grant, General Porter, and General Butterfield
were corruptly interested in the movement, and that the
Secretary had been forbidden to sell gold, Though these
declarations were evidently false, as the evidence abund-
antly shows, yet the compounded villainy presented by
Gould and Corbin was too tempting a bait for Fisk to re-
sist. He joined the ruoveLtent at once, and brought to its
aid all the force of his magnetic and infectious enthusiasm.
The malign influence which Catelino wielded over the
reckless and abaudoued youth of Rome finds a fitting
parallel in the power u hieh Fisk carried into Wall-street
when, followed by the Thugs of Erie and the debauchees
of the Opera House, be swept into the Gold Room and
defied both the street and the Treasury. Indeed, the whole
gold movement is not an unworthy copy of that great con-
spiracy to lay Rome in ashes and deluge the streets in
blood for the purse of enriching those who were to

apply the torch and wield the dagger. With the great
revenues of the Erie Railroad Company at their command,
and having converted the Tenth National Bank into a
manufactory of certified checks, to be used as cash at their
pleasure, they terrified all opponents by the gigantic
power of their combination, and amazed and dazzled the
dissolute gamblers of Wall-street by declaring that they
bad in league with them the chief officers of the National
Government."
The account for the "pool" they styled the National
Gold Account, their settled object all along being
to convey the impression throughout the city that
they were backed by Government officers. Gradu-
ally they pushed the price, up till on Wednesday,
the 22d Sept., gold was firm at 40f premium, with
from fifty to sixty millions of dollarsof calls, in the
hands of the clique. Its situation then had become
very precarious, and every rumour caused alarm.
It was stated that Secretary Boutwell had been in-
vited by a party short of gold to dine at the Union
League Club on his way through New York, when
a great pressure would be brought to bear to in-
crease the sales of gold, and to break up the clique.
Corbin was closely watched, and influenced by
Gould the celebrated letter to the President had
been forwarded by a special messenger; Mr. Chapin
being despatched post haste to Washington, Penn-
sylvania, to place it in the President's hands. Ile car-
ried also a note to G en. Porter, the secretary, and
reached the house when the gentlemen were playing
a game of croquet. General Porter was informed
that a person awaited him in the parlour, where,
on finishing the game, he proceeded, while the Pre-
sident sat down in the porch. When Porter entered
the note was delivered, which said "The bearer has a
letter for the President. Please afford him an oppor-
tunity of delivering it.—A. R. Corbin." He called
to the President, who then came in, and was handed
the letter by the messenger, and he walked out read-
ing it. Shortly after the President returned, when
the messenger a• ose and said, " Any reply ?" and
on the President's saying "No answer," Chapin
entered les buggy and drove away. Then Porter
asked who the wan was. The President replied, " I
don't know ; why ?" and appeared quite astonished
on learning that he was from New York, supposing
that he had come from the Post-office,as a messenger
usually carried up his despatch( s, the Postmaster
himself or one of his clerks delivering them. Tha
letter was destroyed at the time as a document of
no importance, and Porter tore his up, as was his
habit with such notes, after reading it. Had the
President preserved his letter as of value it
would have been entrusted to General Porter, who
would have filed it. Though wholly valueless in
its contents it proved the means of bringing the
conspiracy to a climax, and bursting the bubble, for
the messenger, intending only to convey to his em-
ployers the information that he had completed
his business, went to the telegraph office and for-
warded the words, " All right." This they took to
mean that their bolt had been truly shot, but instead
its effect was the reverse, for the fact of thus de-
spatching a messenger who had to ride 28 miles from
Pittsburg, the station nearest to Washington in the
State of Pennsylvania, together pith the rumours
afloat that Corbin had become a great " bull" in gold,
excited in the President the suspicion that he was
influenced by a selfish, pecuniary gain, and he sug-
gested to Mrs. Grant to say in the letter she was
writing to Mrs. Corbin that he hoped, if the case
were so, that her husband would at once disengage
himself from such speculations, as General Grant
was much distressA at such rumours. That letter
reached New York on Wednesday evening, the 22d
September, and its contents were d'selosed to Gould
by Corbin late the same night. A graphic picture is
given of the two conspirators at midnight bending
over the pee cil marks of the letter • the one know-
ing that his duplicity was now fully revealed, and
both sensible of the extremity of the peril. Corbin
had the advantage, for h, had m.cured a plan. He
hoped t to save his credit with the President, and at the
same time to reap a profit from his operations. Re-
presenting the imprudence of allowing the Presi-
dent to believe he was engaged in s4_,eculation, he
intimated that he had written to General Grant,
denying all personal interest, direct or indirect, iu
the movement; and it was only necessary, before de-
spatching the letter, to make it true, which could be
done by Gould paying him the accrued profit on his
$1,500,000, amounting to over $lOO,OOO. The
position of the arch-conspirator, in the face of this
dilemma, was trying. He knew that Corbin had
been deceiving him all along ; he saw through his
object to back out with a large gain, while maintain-
i g his religious character, and pretending the pu-
rest motives to his brother-in-law, yet Gould dare
not incur Corbin's hos ility, so he asked for delay
till the morning, urging secresy, and s'atine• that if
the contents of that letter became known he was a
ru•ned man. Next morning Gould offered Corbin
$lOO,OOO on account if he would remain in the pool,
which Corbin refused; so in the evening Gould pro-
cured from Fisk a cheque for $lOO,OOO to pay Cor-
bin, but he retained it, though Fisk, who knew little
of this transaction, t stifled that .Gould had given
it to Corbin that night. It was then that Gould
and Fisk, foreseeing the impending smash, set them-
selves to escape the consequences. Gould sold gold
largely in secret, while Fisk and others kept up the
appearance of buying to raise the premium. Belden
was the tool, who, bringing into the " street" a
crowd of fresh brokers, was to purchase recklessly
on the credit of Fisk and Sadth, and Gould, Martin,
and Co., as his principals and backers; and one of the
brokers employed was Mr. Speyers. Under cover
of the reckless purchases thus directed, Goul I was
selling vast sums, and forcing those short of gold
to settle by all manner of devices and chicanery.
The climax now rapidly approached, the gold
c'earing having risen from its average of $70,000,000
a day to $240,000,000 while the clique held calls for
$100,000,000, though there were but $15,000,000
of the metal in New York outside the sub-Treasury.
All the gold owed was tothem, and no gold in compa-
rison was procurable, so they were masters of the
situation, with a full list of all who were short, in-
cluding 250 promineutNew York firms. This was on
the Thursday, and when the conspirators met that
night it was debated whether the list should not be
published in the morning papers, showing the sums
owed, and informing their victims that if they did
not settle before three o'clock next day at 145, a
hgher rate would be demanded. Counsel was asked
if any legal difficulty existed, and the conspirators
were advised that under the New York statutes that
course would constitute a conspiracy, which, with
the fear of the rising popular fury, deterred them.
Then came the eventful Friday, of the events of
which our readers have received the fullest infor-
mation. The tide of success, which the confederates
had up to this point carried with them, seemed to
flow more strongly than ever that morning; but
before noon two thunderbolts had gathered over
their heads to annihilate the whole scheme. The
one was wielded by a Scotch banker, named James
Brown, whose legitimate business was threatened
with ruin unless he met the conspirators with their
own weapons. Backed by several leading bankers
and merchants, he threw himself vigorously into
the scale of the " bears," and sold down gold so as
to turn the fall tide when the celebrated bid was
made for five millions at 160, 161, 162. Once
turned, the collapse was like the vanish of a
phantom army ; indeed, " phantom" was the word
used by Fisk when asked why he feared Treasury
sales when they held calls for six times as much
gold as there was in New York outside. the sub-
Treasury. " Our phantom gold," he answered,
" cannot stand the weight of the real stuff." And
it was when the legitimate bankers, in negotiation
with their correspondents in Europe, threw them-
selves into the maie that the real weakness of the
conspirators transpired. The other thunderbolt
was in the hand of Mr. Boutwell. The fluctuations
in gold had been too rapid even for the telegraph,
and it is recorded that the wires, in many instances,
were burnt off by the efforts of the operators to
keep up with the news. The fire of telegrams into
Washington was enough to drive the Secretary de-
ranged, and he felt that a crisis had arisen which
made it the duty of the Government to interfere,
even though the contest werebetween speculators,for
they were ea, rying ruin over the country. At 11
a.m. he called at the Executive Mansion, when the
President expressed his opinion that $5,000,000
should be sold. Mr. Boutwell inclined to $3,000,000,
but while returning to his office he determined to
advet tise the sale of $1,000,000, and a message to
that effect was ins' alive, despatched through all the
rival lines. General Butterfield received the first at
12.5, and the committee cannot Lind that there was
any irrregularity regarding the deseat_;h. It was a
few minutcs before noon that the bankers broke
the bubble in th..! Gold Room, and about ten minutes
after the news came that the Treasury would sell,
the effect being like a massive charge of cavalry on a
broken and discomfited brig'ide, going clear over it,
leaving nothie gbut wreck and ruin behind, The whole
thing vanished, an dmen looked in amazement at each
other, believing that the city had been tuned into a
Bedlam, the craze and scare being simply universal.
Still Gould imagined that Corbin might be of use,

and he and his wife were despatched to Washing-
ton, where he attempted to talk with the President,
when he was cut short with the remark that the
subject was closed up, and be returned from his
vain mission, the Treasury announcements showing
the conspirators that he had totally failed. Indeed,
to use Fisk's words, " matters took such a turn
that it was no use. It was, each man, drag out his
own corpse."
The report then enters on a wholly new phase ;
men had to meet the consequences of their action,
and how the wily individuals involved accomplished
this is the next subject discussed. Their first move
was to obtain from the Courts injunctions and judi-
cial orders, placing a receiver in the Gold Clearing-
house, and restraining its officers from making
settlements, except on the Courts order, as well as
the Gold Exchange from enforcing its rules and
compelling settlements among its mcmlers. The
simple principle adopted was to enforce, as far as
possible, all contracts in their favour, and to repu-
diate all against them. The Committee believe the
Gold Exchange Bank to be a source of evil, and re-
commend the House as follows :
"Resolved, —That the Committee on Ways and Means
be instructed to report a bill levying such a tax on the
transactions of the Gold Exchange and the Gold Exchange
Clearing house as in their judgment the interest of the
country shall require.
"Resolved,—That the Committee on Judiciary be in-
structed to inquire into the expediency of reporting a bill
to define and punish conspiracy against the credit of the
United States and the business bf the people.
" Resolved,—That the Committee on Banking and Cur-
rency be instructed to inquire whether any further legis-
lation is necessary to prevent the improper use of certified
checks by the National banks, and that they have leave
to report by bill or otherwise."

The effects of the conspiracy on the country are
told. The ineffectual attempts to compromise the
President are disposed of in a few strong sentences,
and the case of General Butterfield is discussed
very much to that officer's disadvantage. The Com-
mil tee do not find that he joined as a coadjutor
of Gould ; but they do find that he speculated
deeply on his own behalf ; and while acknowledging
that his official duties were transacted with vigour
and intelligence, they censure without reserve
the part he took as a Treasury officer in the gold
gambling.

Mr. Cox delivered the minority Report, which
does not mainly differ, except in the attempt to
fix upon the President's family the discredit of
having participated in the speculation. It mainly
draws attention to the efforts used by the minority
to have the witnesses examined who could have
cleared away the discrepancies, and have shown
unmistakeably if they were innocent; but the
minority were baulked in every effort to bring the
President before the Committee, or Mrs. Corbin,
or Mrs. Grant. If, argue the minority, they were
all so free from any of this contamination, why not
take the most effectual measures to prove it, so that
we, the opponents of the Executive, would be com-
pelled to accept the evidence as conclusive, which
would fully exonerate the President's family before
the world. A letter from the President to Mr. Bout-
well, written in New York when Grant was on the
eve of proceeding to Washington, Pennsylvania, is
quoted Against him. The Secretary is warned that,
on passing through New York, he will be beset by
the operators in gold; but that his advice was, not
to pay the slightest attention to any ; this was the
course he had adopted, but Mr. Boutwell might
have better means of judging after he had come
in contact with them, advice tantamount to recom-
mending that the plan not to sell gold be preserved.
Indeed the words used by Grant were.—" I think,
from the lights before me, I would move on,
without change, until the present struggle is over."
It was to this Washington in Pennsylvania that
Corbin despatched his celebrated letter. Corbin's
testimony when questioned about the much-talked-
of " Sis" letter was evasive and unsatisfactory. The
minority report is skilfully drawn up to show that
the President's family were not wholly clear, but
every effort to get a shadow of a case against the
President, or even the others, has failed. On the con-
trary, his action in at once recommending on the
eventful Friday the immediate sale of an amount
nearly double as large as that suggested by Mr.
Boutwell is conclusive, had there even been cause
for suspicion, for he thereby pricked the bubble.
The minority report strikes us as being Written
in bad taste, not to elucidate the truth, but to
stigmatize a great name merely to advance party
purposes.—Anglo-Amerzcan 'limes.

AMERICAN CONSULS AS LAWYERS.—It does not
seem to be generally understood that the laws of the
United States permit Consular officers to do business as
attorneys at law and conveyancers, while they do not per-
mit such as receive stated salaries to engage in commercial
pursuits. Americans or foreigners, having documents,
powers of attorney, and the like, to be drawn, or who de-
sire legal advice, have only to apply to American Consuls.
Many of them are lawyers, and they are generally supplied
with the requisite facilities for doing law business. This
right to supplement inadequate salaries is but just and pro-
per, while it promotes the convenience of foreigners desir-
ing to do business with America. The salaries of Ameri-
can Consuls are in almost every instance inadequate to a
prdper support,. especially in the great capitals of Europe.
In a recent Report made by the Inspector of Consulates,
thd salary of the Consul-General at Paris is stated at
$5,000, out of which he has to pay clerk hire and other
expenses, and he has left but $0,350 per annum. It is
very evident that if the law had not generously al-
lowed Consuls at leading places to reserve for themselves
their professional and notarial fees not one of them could
sustain himself. Newspapers and individuals who have
Censured the Government for allowing its leading Consuls
salaries entirely inadequate to their support, should in jus-
tice note its liberality in according the privilege referred
to, which is one accorded by no other Government.
How valuable this permission is may be gathered from
the statements of ex-Consuls. A late Consul at Paris openly
stated his legal and notarial fees to have been $12,000
per annum; another stated to one of his confreres that
his were more than that, and could by activity have been
extended to twice that sum. Would it not be much better
if Congress would allow-such salaries to American Con-
suls as are allowed to the Consuls of other great nations,
and not compel its representatives to eke out their pay by
engaging in outside pursuits, which must necessarily
occupy their time and attention to the detriment of the
public business and interests?
Texas has been admitted into the Union under
the same restrictions as Virginia and Mississippi, the vote
being 131 to 45. This completes the work of reconstruc-
tion so far as bringing back into the Union the States
which strayed therefrom is concerned ; and with the rati-
fication of the Fifteenth Amendment finishes up the work,
to accomplish which the Republican party was formed lti
years ago. lts success is a splendid instance of what free
discussion can achieve in a free and intelligent community.
No task could have appeared more hopeless than that em-
bodied in its platform ; and none could have offered less
in the way of a material gain, in power, or in that sort of
gratitude which the world cares to obtain. The people
for which it laboured were slaves—not the slaves of con-
quest, but a race from time immemorial degraded among men,
upon whom it was even asserted that Nature had plainly
branded "slave." Socially the African was avoided even by
those who upheld the Republican platform ; still so power-
ful was truth, so overwhelming its influence, that within
that short period, and, through a conflict involving
hun-
dreds of millions of treasure and hundreds of thousands
of lives, the task has been performed,
slavery abolished, the
status of the blacks raised to that of the whites in the eye
of the law ; and as if to give this fact the broad stamp of
take the very
'
truth, a -negro is returned to represent
er
of the leading States of the rebellion,andjeffsDavis, the lon ton the Senate sue
chair which was last occupied by
Pre-
sident of the Confederacy.

Last Wednesday a special funeral service was
------- -
held in the American chapel in honour of Mr. Burlingame,
Orations were delivered by Mr. Washburne and Mr. Alex.
Bullock, the Governor of Massachusetts, and resolutions
were passed expressing the sympathy of the American
residents in Paris with the family of the deceased.

The morning train for New Orleans on the Missis-
sippi Central whilepassing Buckner's Trestle, which crosses
a ravine at a height of 40 feet, got off the track,'and, crush-
ing the trestle, wrecked the baggage, mail, Express, and
three passenger cars. The engine appears to have crossed
all right, but some of the timbers being rotten a rail
slipped out of place, which switched off the cars when
going at a great speed, and they crushed the trestle and
plunged into the ravine. The baggage, mail, and Express
freight was scattered on the hill side; two passenger cars
were smashed, but the end of the second seems to lave
blocked the way, and prevented the third from falling over.
Twenty-one were killed on the spot, and a still larger
ou.nber seriously injured, and much indignation is ex-
pressed at this sacrifice to the demon of carelessness.

The Ohio Legislature has rejected the female
suffrage amendment. In Minnesota the Senate by 19 to
12 concurred in the House Bill to submit the amendment
to the men and women of the State, on the point of ad-
mission of women to the ballot, and oviding separate
boxes fin male voters.