The Buchanan County guardian. (Independence, Buchanan County, Iowa) 1858-1864, 1861-02-26
The Great National Robbery.

The Great National Robbery.
EF The report of the committee on
the abstraction Of the bonds belonging to
the Indian Trust Fund, exhibits the de-
tails Of one Of the largest and most vii
famous robberies ever perpetrated. JOHN
B. FLOYD has not only proven himself
traitor, but thief; and he has not only
robbed the government, bat used his Of
fetal station to pilfer millions from un-
suspec,ing private individuals. This viii
lsin. throughout his whole connection
with the war department, has seemed to
study nothing but how to defraud. as wit
ness the Fl. Smelling, the Willet's Point.
and numbers of other swindles perpetra-
ted by him, amounting, in the aggregate,
10 many hundreds Of thousands of dol
lars. Then, again, he was drawing hun
dreds of thousands of arms, and great
quantities of ammunition, from govern
ment arsenals, and placing them in the
possession of Southerners, in the know
ledge that they would be stolen and used
against the government. And now it has
been proven that besides the 100000
worth of bonds distracted from the Inoi-
an Trust Fund, undoubtedly with his
knowledge and sanction, he has launch
ed upon the market some $6,977, 1895
worth of fraudulent acceptances. or
these, $4,000 were placed in the hands
Of Mr.. BAILEY, in lieu of the bonds alb
stracted, and $4,000 were returned
and cancelled, although it is thought 9TH
ers were issued in place Of them. and
not registered. Admitting that this was
not the case, there is yet outstanding.
aud in the hands of private parties,
$5,339,395 worth of these acceptances,
which, unless assumed by the govern
ment, must be lost by the holders. Add
to this the s798,OO of conditional ac-
ceptances held by Mr.. BAILEY, and
FLoyD's robbery will amount to Sc. 49,
395. These acceptances, it will be re-
membered, were issued to the army con-
tracing firm of RUSSELL. MAJORS d.
WADDELL, and all ran against unearned
money, and while receiving them the
firm was also receiving their pay for SER
vices under their contract in money from
the government. And Mr.. RUSSELL tes-
tilted before the committee that the gov
eminent is owing his firm but a small
amount on their contract. And yet this
robbsr, FLOYD. has upon the market over
six million dollars of these acceptances,
which must mainly be lost by private in.
diyiduals, who were duped by his repre-
sentations-for it appears that he repeat
eddy wrote to bankers, urging them to
purchase or discount the acceptances
And yet the villain, in his letter to the
House Of Representatives. about the time
III uiS IctiIClucult Ldo tuC W
write:
within the four years since have presided
over this Department, not dollar, ] believe,
has been lost to the government by embezzle
ment or theft; and within that time $50 ,0O0,-
600 have been disbursed. No system of ad-
minstration. no line of policy. think, reaches
better results. No system OF accountability
could be more perfect
Add to this the fact that he openly
boa>led, at 2 banquet given him in Rich
mond, Of the methods by which he qui-
eted Mr.. BucHANAN's fears, and adyanc
ed the interests of the traitors who are
endeavoring to uproot the government,
and who can find words to ftly charac-
te,ize the black hearted scoundrel. If
ever an individual deserved to dange up.
on gallows. it certainly is the traitor
and thief, JOHN B. FLOYD, of Virginia,
late Democratic Secretary Of War.