, 1859-02-15


Further 11vestlEAs1o3 Of tAo Great
Rraud..@rhs A9porlto".eent BILL
Locai meesur. s--PxobaAas Close Of
the &ctaa1us ht0.
erAuaEHn. Feb. II. 1a6a
The Investigating COMMITTEES met On Friday
evening, upon short notice, to hear the teatimony
Of Gen. H4RT L. srEwAk7, Of Chicago, Who was
expected to leave for home. His evidence had
but an indirect bearing upon tie case Immediately
before the Committee but q it il deemed to be
important, / transcribs its leading points:
MI. Stewart was employed By Gov. Frcneh
shortly after the LITTER came into Office, to collect
aud fund the floating Canal indebtedness Was
engaged In the business for some time, and. in
pursuit Of 1t, went to New York. In at his in
qut1ies and purchases had never seen but two or
three Of these "oo day Canal checks" Was con-
ddent that none Of them were in circulation. Had
seen none except those purchased since 18&o or
1872.
On Saturday evening the Committee met agatn-
Present-FuLIKR, Of Tazewell, Chairman, and
BRYAN, Of Marion /; BUcExAsrER, Of Madison
KuykEiDA11, OF johnson CooK, Of La Sale;
MARs1A11, OF Coles, and APFIMarox, Of Ogle,
with the attorneys employed respectively by GOV.
Matteson and BY the sd4cers Of the State. The
meeting was held in the Senate Chamber, and
large crowd by their presence attested their inter-
est In the proceedings.
JOSIAH McRosxk1s, late State Trustee When
he came into office, found at the Office in Chicago
two boxes which he understood contained Canal
indebtedness which had been taken up; thought
they were the boxes which came from the bank;
one Of them wss still sealed-had not been opened;
he top Of the other was loose appeared to have
been opened. Had seen Gov. Aatteson in Chi
cago, AMI had spoken to him about sending them
to Springfield; Wells, his predecessor, advised it
also. Took black trunk in the office, ard shoe
boz procured for Kim By Kehoe, the office porter,
and packed the Indebtedness for transportation.
The sealed box Kas too large to 60 into the black
trunk OF shoe-box could not tell which did not
break the packages. Packed the contents Of the
other box aud a number Of packages which were
lying in the safe, understood to be Canal scrip
also. The trunk, he thinks, was not full !; filled
it up with old papers could not say whether 1t
was the trunk or the box which vas untitled, but
one Or the other. In repacking contents Of the
open boz, found some packages which seemed to
be diminished in slze-71ve or six packages; e1-
amined them, and their contents did not cores
pond with the amount specified in their seye!a1
envelopes taking them altogether be thought
there we're four OF five thousand dollars short
these packages were all cancelled Canal indebted
ness, but OF what particular kind he could not
say. After the trunk WIS thus packed, the box
was nailed up and marked with brush and paint,
"Joel 4. Matteson, Springfield" Box ana trunk
were sealed; q label was put on the trunk with
address sane as VAS On the box. Had them
them taken to the Rock Island Railroad depot
Kehoe took them, and waited until McRoberts
came. He (McRoberts) had them put On the
cars, and came with them as far as La SIlle;
there he delivered the trunk and box into Gov.
Matteson's possession has never seen either of
them since. This was in March, 1858, few days
after he took possession Of the Office. Recognized
the trunk before him as one like that which he
packed at Chicago. Ex-Governor Wells had told
him that there was package Of worthless indebt-
edness, amounting to 5000, which had been ab
straeted from the office neither he nor Wells had
theft could do no harm.
Gen. ". F. THORNTON, recalled, and questioned
In relation to the package Of checks untitled with
name Of payee, found in the bundle funded. Re.
cognizes the sigma ures as genuine; says they
were never Issued by the Commissioners were
signed in blank to b. filed and paid to parties as
they might be wanted, by the Treasurer or bis
clerk, whose duty 1t was to enter them upon the
book whenever issued. Thinks such checks would
not be negotiable aud would not be received by
business men. (Checks shown.) These chects
are clean as when Just from the press do not
seem to have been folded appear never to h,ye
been carried in the pocket they are untrimmed
ut the euds.
JOEL MANNING, examined the untitled checks.
Recognizes the signatures as genuine says they
were never issued 1t the Canal Office. These
checks were kept in the sale he aai his clark
were the only persons who had keys or had access
to the ea!e.
Gen. JACOB Far, examined same checks. Sig
natures genuine !; the checks were never issued
by the Canll Bolrd. /: was the habit of the Off
GERS to sign checks whenever they had leisure
signing was done in his OF an adjoining office.
GEN. Isaac B. CuRRAN.-Was in the habit x
visiting Gov. Matteson's rooms at the St. Nicholas
Hotel of1en-almost daily-during the winter Of
1861. Has frequentls-as many as six or seven
umes-seen gentlemen there selling the Governor
State Indebtedness. Did not know the names Of
the persons making any transactions Of the sort;
was sometimes Introduced to them by Gov. Matte
son; at other times, was not, Has seen the Gov