Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1865-03-02
FRAUDS ON THE DRAFT.

FRAUDS ON THE DRAFT.
1t has been a great wonder to many peo-
the army, or why it is thai the armies of
the United States are not larger, after the
several large drafts which have been made
This matter is about to be explained to the
country The authorities at Washington
have discovered that thousands upon thou
sands of fraudulent papers, such as are re-
quired to be made out for each actual sold
ier, have been palmed upon the townships,
boroughs, and cities, that have been bring
ing up men to fllup their respective quotas,
taking heavy sums of money from them,
but furnishing no men, and therefore, none
going into the army, thereby swindling the
government out of the men, and the town.
ships, boroughs, and cities out of very
great sums of money. Immense fortunes
have been made out Of this business by the
bounty-brokers, some having realized as
high as ttcO and three hundred Thousand dol
lars by means of these swindles But the
game is played out,as we are glad to learn.
The NewYork Herald, of Feb 8, gives the
following account of these operations in
that city -
{" 1t is we'll known that these bounty-brokers in
following their business legitimately would make
a great deal of money out of men honestly enlisted
and placed in the service. But when the men be-
came scarce, and profits did not accrue as rapidly
| as wished, they cast about for means of making
them reach the desired standard. This was soon
found and has been worked to such an extent as
to make many of the enormously wealthy A re-
cruit legitimatey enlisted at the naval rendezvous
in York street, Brooklyn, would be sworn in, a re-
cord kept in the Office, and he sent on board the
North Carolina, where receipt from the officer in
charge for him would be good for the bounty and
hand money. So far so good. Col Baker has dis
covered the following mode of procedure the
part of the brokers
One of the party who has been arrested, and
whose name will presently appear, would go to the
chief clerk of the Naval Rendezvous and procure
from him the of all the men recruited on the
preceding day Taking the names of these men,
who already on board the receiving ship, the
| parties engaged in the work would forge duplicate
enlistment papers, descriptive rolls, &c, making
out full set of papers, to which would be affixed
the signature and seal of office Of John Devlin, no
tary public, making all appear straight and correct
| These papers thus prepared presented on
| board the North Carolina, showing the enlist
ed, receipt would be given by the officer in charge,
which presented at the rendezvous, called for and
was good for $3.50. Again, there always to be
| found IN this city numbers of from other
towns looking after substitutes to fill their quota.
| The brokers employ runners to find these men out,
who waited on and told that they fill their
| quota, asking how many men they require and how
| much their town pays? On being informed, a bar
| gain is struck, and the happy man is informed the
men to save their city from draft shall be forth
| coming III the morning The brokers 90 to their
| office, forge the necessary number of enlistment
| papers complete-each list representing a man
and, having attached to it the seal of office and
signature of the notary public who is represented
as having sworn them in-this notary in all cases
being John Devln Everything-so far as the pa
pers go-looks fair, the broker representing that
the recruit has been sent board ship, or on the
island The man pays his thousands of dollars
! and goes home, congratulating himself upon the
quota for his town being filed, the broker pockets
! the money, and the government receives mary a
soldier although the papers carried off by the men
who have paid their money, and which are in the
hands of the provosts of the different towns show
their quota is filed and they receive credit for the
same.
This is part of the system of fraud and forgery
perpetrated by the brokers in this city and Brook
lyn which Col Baker has been able to trace up.
procure the proofs, and arrest the scoundrels To
do this he has had an infinite deal Of trouble but
with his efficient corps of detectives he has been
able to go to the bottom of the whole matter. The
first arrests made was through representing him
self as man from inland town wishing to raise
n large number of men to fill his quota. James
! Devlin, living at l2S Hudson avenue BROOKLYN,
brother of John Devlin, and James Cahill, both
substitute brokers, operating through John Devlin,
called upon Col Baker at the Astor House, and in
| quired if he was the man who had some inland
town quota to fill He said he was, and would give
five hundred dollars apiece for the men to fill it
At that time he purchased from them four sets OF
papers, for which he paid them two thousand dol
lars III greenbacks. He then told them that he
wanted one hundred and twenty-sx sets more, and
if they would furnish the men he would pa five
hundred and twenty-five dollars apiece for them.
They promised to do so and would have them the
next day. The next day they came again but said
they had been able to get but ninety-two yet would
procure the remainder in day. Col Baker took
the papers and gave them a check on the Hanover
Bank for sixteen of them amounting to over ST. OO0
saying he would go with them to the bank and get
the rest. receipt for the money paid was asked
for by Col. Baker, which was signed by the two
men-one as James Cole and the other as James
Higgins. Immediately upon seeing the signature
of james Higgins, which appeared in one of the
four sets previously bought a recruit enlisted
and sworn in by John Deylin, the notary as sold
ier, Col Baker knew he had the right men, He
then told them who he was that he had been af-
ter them, and that their game up, and at once
arrested them. As soon as they found out they
were trapped, they owned up the whole affair told
who were their accomphceS, how the work was
done, and gave such information has led to the
arrest of twenty-seven of the principal actors in
the most stupendous fraud ever attempted, They
confessed the papers We're forgeries in every case
From this beginning Col Baker went on and
| found that the practice of bounty jumping was
carried to an alarming extent. almost passing be-
lief, and that these brokers had regularly organ
lied plan by which they would enlistthe Jumper ~
help him to jump" enlist him again, pocketing
the city and county bounty in all cases, carving
the same process on until the man had been put
through t,eenty-seren times"
nap Maj.-Gen. George Crook and Brig
Gen. Benjamin F. Kelley commanding in
the Department Of West Virginia, were re-