Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1870-11-04
FLORIDA.
The Great Reed LfttIefeId Bond SwImdIe
ExpOssd-A POrtfoa Of the
Bonds Returnea

A precious nest of scoundrels have the y
in the high places in Florida, as the fol-
lowing articles from the last Floridian will
show .~-.
With more than ordinary qualification
We announce 10 the readers of the Floridian
that the efforts made by this and other
journals TO save the State from the i'm
mense Littlefeld swindle have, to some
extent, already beeu successful.
1t wilt be remembered that the pretenSe
of Governor Reed for the immense issue oil
State bonds to Littlefield-to whom he be-
longs, body and breeches upon the bogus
security of pretended first mortgage rail
road bonds, was that it would enable Lit
tlefeld to build the road to Pensacola
Little6eld had no such intention, as the
event proved. So far from ft he designed
to use our bonds as he and Swepson had
used the bonds of North Carolina-that is,
for the purpose of private speculation.-
Littlefeld swore before the Bragg com
mittee of the North Carolina Legislature
that over 500, 900 of the proceeds of North
CarOlina's bonds had been used in buying
Florida railroads, and further, that $117,-
600 moro of the same proceeds had been
expended 'in protecting the purchase"-
that is. in bribing our legislators. and SO
forth. That Littlefeld proposed to make a
similar personal and private use OF Florida s
bonds was apparent, for no sooner had he
got possession of some three and a half
millions of them, than he pledged one mil
lion to o gentleman of this State TO secure
n prirate dcbt, and promised the people OF
Jacksonville, that with another million,
more or less. he would build magnificent
depots, etc. in that city, ana establish a
line of ocean steamers from thence to New
York. And now comes the rumor that
another large amount of the bonds have
been pledged for private debts in North
Carolina and elsewhere or is in danger OF
being attached by his creditors This is
building the road to Pensacola with a ven.
geance. Foreseeing the danger, the Flor
idian raised the alarm. A telegram went
to Now York warning "capitalists to be-
ware," which was posted ON the bulletin
board of the Stock Exchange. Governor
Walkers Putnam county letter was sent to
the World and published, and capitalists
soon became satisfied that Littlefeld's g.
4OS, 900 Florida bonds were nothing more
than huge swindle, and were consequent
ly not worth bawbee. Finding that no
body would buy them at any price in the
United States, Littlefeld tried his game
in Europe, bat soon found that no one
would touch them there. Of course, all
this made Governor Reed very ugly, for if
Littlefeld could not sell the bonds, he could
not receive any more bribes, or get any
more personal loans on the States credit,
glide the Swepson draft on Soutter Co.
Reed slipped off to New York and howled
out his rage, and published his false state
ments as to the debt of the State through
the columns of the Tribune. But this on
ly made the matter worse, for the World
opposed him to such point and pith, meet
ing his assertions with facts and figures
that the finishing stroke was given to his
hopes of "doing something for himself in
his usual honest way" with the $40O, 900
bonds already hypothecafed for $12O, 1000
or thereabouts. This failure distressed
the head of republican government in
Florida more than the failure of Little
field. He appeared again in the Tribune.
rehashing his Lake City speech against
that internal dynasty, Tallahassee, Walk
er and Dyke - but said New York was in
oredulous. Reed, Littlefeld, bonds and
all, was arketable-nobody would buy
either. Aud now, one million of the bonds
pledged to a private party for private
debt, have been voluntarily returned by
that gentleman for cancellation, and the
State is relieved of that much of her obli-
cations issued by faithless, corrupt Gov
ernor, under a juggling statute passed by a
demoralized Legislature. What triumph
over the swindling schemes of the swind-
ling ring who have brought poor Florida
to the verge of ruin by their plundering
rascality.