The North-Carolina standard., 1839-06-26

Committee of Congress- most unaccountabIv. or
rather most ulpably. abstained from this impor-
tant and Interesting inquiry. - - ...---r'
One OF the methods by which Swaflwout con-
triVed to conceal his early defalcatons was this.
The weekly transfers to the Treasurer of the
United States were usually made ON Monday.
but did not include the moneys received By him
after 10 o'clock. a. m. on Saturday or Sunday,
by which means the receipts due on Saturday
were embraced in the succeeding week. and thus
that amount, which was often 100000 or S2OO,-
/ OOO could be kept and used by him without de-
lection; the receipts of the two last days of each
4 week enabling him to make up the previous
4 dehcleney. Thus, each successive weekly trans
fer was, from the start, deficient in the receipts
4 of two days. which were not necessarily inc Iuded
until the Hnal settlement. But the amount of
money abstracted, at length became too large to
be covered In this way, and recourse was had 10
other funds. such as protested and unascertained
duties penalties &c. until at length, his appetite
becoming more Voracious or his speculative
wants more pressing. he seized upon bonds to
the amount of more than half million, retain
ing too, when he went out an admitted balance
OF S2Ol ,O96 40, upon The plea which will be best
explained by his own letter to the Secretary of
the Treasury, dated New York. April 81, 1888,
of which the following is copy IL have the
honor 10 state in reply to your letter of the 10th
inst. that although the balance in my hands ap-
pears to be very large, it will not be more than
Sufficient for the settlement of the outsta nding
claims against me- [ enclose a letter received
yesterday from the District Attorney, showing
my invidual liability for the judgments obtained
against l received notice from Mr. Lord
yesterday, that he would issue executions against
my furniture, unless paid the amounts of the
several judgments forthwith paid of course
The next court will pass upon twice as large
amount.
The notices of protests served upon me for
duties paid and passed to the credit of the Trea-
sury, estimated Mt between $4,000 and
300. 900, and the Circuit Court decided that the
collector being alone LIABLE ought not to paw the
duties into the Treasury. In addition to these
immense liabilities, the settlement of damages,
when the parties have paid full duties on damaged
goods, which cannot be adjusted by the present
collector, must take large sum, and cannot all
he brought IN, under three months. l hope,
therefore, you will not consider the present ba-
lance in my hands at all unreasonable. l am,
| SC. SAMUEL SwARTwoUT." .-- a....
How fair, how smooth, how reasonable -
Most amable and unimpeachable Conservative.
1t now any additional explanations want
ed to account for these enormous peculations,
and their long concea ment, | remark further
by an unaccountahle imprudenre of the law,
the collector has the appointment of his subor-
dinates, who, therefore, according to their own
declarations consider their allegiance fidelity
to him. even at the expense OF integrity, para
mount to that which we owe the Government
Shultz, one of the favorite witnesses of the ma
jority of the defalcation committee, being asked,
why he did not testify to the defalcation Of
Swartwout when examined before the Seuate's
committee in 1884, coolly replied because we
clerks in the custom house consider om selves in
the service of the collector and not in the service
of the United States" Philips, too, theassisIant
cashier of the customhouse, another choice wit
ness of the majority of the committee, iu confor-
nifty with the custom-house practice and the rea-
son given for it by Mr. Shultz, observed in re-
ply to a similar qnery, d" that he was thecerk OF
Mr. Swartwout, and did not like to disclose the
secrets of his employer" Besides these two,
Ogden, his confidential cashier. and perhaps
others, connived at if they did not assist and CO.
operate with the guilty collector in his npnsrous
frauds and gigantic peculations. The District
Attorney, too, Price, the legal adviser and spec
ulating partner of SwarIwout, became the coadj
tor OF his mai practices, and probably the ptTt-
cipator of his thetts besides he ping himself TO
more than S50.000. upon the eve OF bis sudden
elopement for Europe. This he could easily do,
unsupported as he was and taking apparently
the most active part in the exposures of Swart-
wout, against whom he expressed the warmest
Iindignation-this | say he could very readily
do, by collecting or comprising bonds In suit,
and pockeling the money. TO the last Swart-
Wouts accounts were fair upon the face OF them
and supplied no means Of detection. This, the
majority of the committee have labored very
hard and successfully to establish, though for a
mother purpose, The Whig clerk, who audited
his accounts. and who is much praised and re-
lied upon by them testifies, that his examinations
in 1897 led to that conclusion, though he does
not include the bond account, of which more
hereafter. ..e ss .a..r aa
4 Yet the accounts of Swanwout were false and
fraudulent. notwithstanding the denial Of the
committee, since the amount in his alleged "sus-
pense account" for purposes which have des-
crlbed, had been appropriated to himself. Bonds
which were paid or compromised, were stated as
unpaid, & the balance which he kept, at last un-
der the pretence of protecting himself was used
or carried away with him, SC. &c. No man was
ever more aided by men & by circumstances than
Swartwout. Conniving subordinates. the District
!, Attorney pGrtecepS crimiDis the confusion and
delays created by the great FIRE, and the general
suspension, the decision of the Courts, the sym
pathy and the confidence of the merchants, every
thing. seemed to play in his hands might go
on and furnish many more explanatory details
| but neither your patience nor my time would
permit me to say the quarter OF what might be
) urged My only object has been. to give you q
general but ceardea of this vexed subject. which
L.. haP and clouHed II