Evening star., 1869-12-04
THE BOND AND CURRENCY PRINT.
ING.
Report Of the Congressional Iuyesti.
eating COmmittee-Large Amounts
UnaccOunted For.

over two years ago charges were made i'm SUBJ
stance, that the affairs OF the printing and note
department OF the Treasury Department had
been carried on in a criminally reckless manner
resulting in enormous losses to the people and
that It's conduct was so loose and free from
proper checks to prevent rascalty as to call for
the intervention OF Congress, which body re-
ferred the accusations to a select committee OF
two Senators and one Representative, Senator
Edmunds, Chairman. That committee, after
spending about two years in thorough examina.
tion of witnesses (employed in the Treasury De-
partment) and personal inspection of machine
ry, books, ect., has made a report, covering sew
eral hundred pages, which partially sustains the
charges, and makes the statement that the ag-
gregate of securities of the Government created
s%Ss 10 gG W. ss 0t0sf
reau prepared about S4;S27 900 ,OOO that most OF
the bonds, certificates OF Indebtedness, gold GER
uncates ana fractional currency were executed
ly all engraved by the bank note companies.
that If the se Ond series OF the 7-3O
ioan notes OF the various denominations,
from JOS 10 50, DCs, are unaccOunted for
making the tOta; missing of that issue in value
~4G6,45O that the Implications of third series
Jus 1852, were executed i'm the Treasury De-
uartment, and mot outside of L" as alleged by
). NJ. Clark and others OF the Department that
Il third series 5-20 tonds, FebI urary 25. 1862
over seven thousand 500 notes, over ten thou
,and 500 notes, and other denominations, in all
S1,59oO0, have not been satisfactorily ac-
counted for; that various bonds marked as s.de-
>troyed' on the books of the Department are
not destroyed, or at least proof of destruction
is adduced; that the methods of accountability
ana comparison between the various Bureaus I'm
the Department, as well as i'm their own opera
ions, have been imperfect, and Sin some re-
>pects grossly careless" that il has frequently
happened that vouchers wOnld be taken for the
interchange OF securities on slips of paper and
gwen up when settlements would be made.
leaving no recorded evidence OF the transactions;
that in respect to the deliveries of most of these
bureau hnraan nd fro,
branch to branch i'm the department., no books OF
account were kept in the form OF debts and
credits, and comparisons made and balances
struck, ETC.. and have led to considerable conf,l-
sion, even supposIng the discrepancies before
stated to have been the result of merely innocent
error; that one evil Of this lack of accounts.
&c, was, that in the course of printing and
transmitting securities to the Registers Office
it was the custom to send with each thousand
impressions quantity of extra impressions.
not numbered, intended to be used to supply
those of the regular numbered class which. |.
from time to time, might be erroneously
hlied up or accidentally defaced. These
extra impressions were called the "stock pack
age, and whenever there was occasion to use
one OF them, the bond or note injured or said to
be injured would be thrown in the fire, or other
wise destroyed, as Is stated by the clerks, and
one taken to supply its place from the "stock
package" Without any account or record
being kept OF the performance, and without any
proof or method Of proof of the actual destruc-
ton of the one so actually or ostensibly disposed
Of. 1t is impossible, therefore, to account.
except on very vague evidence, for many of the
securities that went into the Registers Office.
The foregoing are specimens of the many par
agraphs in this voluminOus report, showing the
sO-called irregularities practised in the Treasury
Department up to last March.