Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1864-04-21
ENLISTMENT FRAUDS IN NEW YORK.

Gen. DIX in letter TO the Judiciary Committee of tho
Legislature of New York. specifies ayarieyof gross abuses
which have been pracsed recruiting for the army in he
city of New York He estimates the amount out Of which
have been derauded at 100000 This letter is
written in Justification of the imprisonment of Hawiey d.
Clapp ground that he the chief actor 10 these
frauds. We extract few passages from the letter OF
Gen. Dix;
The amount of which recruits were defrauded at La,
fayette Hail. where and while Mr. Clapp chief bro
kerr cannot fall short Of $400 000 have succeeded in
recovering about $4,000 and not without hopes Of
adding largely to this amount
Almost every imaginable form Of outrage and decep-
ton has been developed in the 10 which Mr. Capp
was agent for the payment OF the bonntes Mep both
white and coored were offered employment as teamsters
and office servants receiving from twenty
to fifty dollars pay in advance and finding themselves
enlisted private soldiers while Mr. Capp received from
three hundred three hundred and fifteen dollars in each
case With what conederates the money divided he
and they only tell have considered 1t enough that
it received by him, aud not paid to the cruts who
were entitled to ii. sts4E H
"In some cases boys have been seduced from their
homes to their enlistment in others have been
drugged and enlisted while unconscious in others they
promised furoughs ard where the full bounty was
not paid they been told that they would receive the
balance they should arrive at Rikers Island
In short there artfce fraud which has not been
resorted to in carrying out this system OF pilage
In letter to the Secretary of War the subject
Gen. Dix says zoe .3e
Inc bounty, IN the payment OF winch these Irhuus
have been committed, is that paid by the city OF New
York, amounting to $500 per with fee OF $5 per
man to the person presenting the recruit. About two
thousand men were recruited by Gen. Spnoa. The
average amount of bounty Them he stated in an
explanation volunteered to Msjo Hapne was about 500
per man The other $500 per has been plundered
by the brokers and their coadtor Thus 5000 600 have
been paid TO the recruits, and the enormous sum OF
$500 600 have been pundered by the brokers' 1t one
Of the most stupendons frauds committed In this
country has gone for the most part into the hands OF
public punderers, of whom OF VIGOROUSLY IN
famous character aa a4-
Od men and boys and persons abOring under ncurabe
Diseases instances thrust into the service
under this system of public plumber alike fraudulent TO Inc
recruits and the Government" bt.4
ceived him the that all fairly conducted
by the officers at Lafayette Hail. The evidence to the
contrary became conclusive that directed Lieut. Cole
and the contract Surgeon, Dr. Kerrgan to be arrested
They have since been tried the former dismissed the SER
vice, and the latter, who holds military commission,
disqualified for future employment" A
"In my interviews with Gen. Spinola objected to the
whole system Of brokerage calculated to prevent rather
than promote enlstments Gen. g. defended the system
Of brokerage and said that without 1T the Cover
could get recruits The result has been precisely the
reverse" N.t 4 -a,. NJ
The ourages pracised on recruits too unjust to be
Boys have been seduced from their families drugged and
then enlisted. Two so badly drugged they died
his arrival at Rkers Island and the other the fol-
lowing day.
Stringent have been adopted aud this whole
system OF fraudulent recruiting is nearly broken up out
great wrong has been done individuals in the service,
and it Is impossible wholly to repair it"