The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1864-08-03
INVESTIGATIONS IN THE TREAS
URY DEPARTMENT.
Shocking immortality.
TheTreasuryiBuiI a House
II, ~ of Prostitution.
THE PARTY OF GALL THE RELIC
:. IOUS AND ALL THE DECENCY". i.
UNMASKED.
Minority Report of the Congression
al Committee.

The minority report that, in pursuance
of the resolution of the House, April 80
1864, they have attempted to give the
subject therein mentioned. the investiga-
ton required by the House; but they re-
gret their inability to do so, if not from
want of time, from the resolutions and
conclusions arrived at by tho majority of
the Committee, that tEeir powers were
much more limited than the minority
seem to think they are, under the werds
of the broad resolution,
'To investigate and report upon the
allegations (set forth in the preamble Of
the resolution), and any other allegations
which have been or may be made, affec-
ting the integrity of the Administration
in the Treasury Department.
1t appears that Mr.. Chase employed, as
his Superintendent of Public Printing,
one S. NJ. Clarke, a man of notcriously
bad character. The majority of the Com
mittee, however, would allow no in7esti-
CATION into Mr.. Clarke's antecedents. Of
this action the minority say:
THE Existing CHARACTER OF THE sU-
PERINTENDENT OF MONEY PRINTING.
This resolution precluding and forbid
ding any investigation Of the ,qualifca-
ton and character of S. NJ. Clarke, and
seeming to scsnt On that no matter what
may have been mans private life, all
that is no qualification fer the greatest
public trust ever given to any one man,
{. uch as that of the superintendence Of
the printing of nearly nine hundred mil
lion of money! your Committee were obli-
ged to give up all further investigation
into the antecedenfs of S. NJ. Clarke, and
TO coufiue themselves to matters within
the brief period of his money supcrinten-
dence.
But this brief period discloses, officially
very important and very suggestive facts,
even under all the restraints that have
been put upon the in vestigation by the
resolution to close the testimony submit
ted and passed in the sitting of this Com
mittee, june 1st, (ayes 4. noes 3 Your
Committee, under that resolution, have
been limited as to all investigation into
character, with but one exception case, to
the official reports made to the Sec retary
of the Treasury, first by Col. Lafayette
G.. Baker, Provost Marshal of the War
Department, and next, by Edward Jordon,
Esq, the Solicitor of the Treasury, who
reinvestigated the report of Provost Mar
shai Baker
OFFICIAL REPORT OF PROVOST MARSHAL
BAKER.
1t appears from the testimony that in
December last, one Charles Cornell, a
Clerk in the Redemption (Treasury) De
partment, was detected ir. stealing some
S31 COO or S32 600, and that about that
time one G.. A. Henderson, in the Requi-
sition Warrant Department, was detected
in misplacing for money the order of bills
on file to be paid, wherefore he received
no inconsiderable rewards. These frauds,
or rather crimes, creating good deal OF
alarm in the Treasury Building, the Sec
retary of the Treasury, by letter mar kad
"Confdential," December "a, 1868, (see
testimony asked the Secretary of War
to direct Colonel Baker s'to make such in
vestigations ard arrests, and exercise such
custody of persons arrested as Chez may
find needful," &c. Co. Baker having been
put at the service of the Treasury Depart
ment, as thus confideDtially requested, he
commenced his investigations, as shown
in his report to the Secretary of the Treas
ury, with the papers annexed.
THE DISCLOSURES IN THESE REPORTS OF
GROSS rMMoRALITIEs IN THE TREASURY.
These afidavits disclose mass of i'm
morality and profigacy, the more atroc-
ious as these women we're employees of
Clarke, hired and paid by him, with the
public money These women seem to
have been elected In the Printing Bureau,
for their youth and personal attractions
Neither the laws of God nor of man, the
institution ef the Sabbath, nor common
decencies of life seem to have been re-
spectsd by Clarke, in his conduct with
these women. A Treasury Bureau, there,
where is printed the money representa-
tive, or expression of all the property,
and of all the industry of the country,
there, where the wages of labor are more
or less regulated, and upon the faith and
good conduct of which depends, more or
less, every mans prosperity is converted
into a place for debauchery and drinking,
the very recital of which is impossible
without violating decency. Letters 60
thence, arranging to clothe females in
male attire to visit "the Canterbury" p
designations are made from thence
The facts set forth in these affidavits
are vouched for by military officer OF
the Government, who has now been three
years in the confidential employ of the
Secretary of war, and who seems to have
his unlimited confidence. Indeed, the
Secretary of the Treasury had such con