Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1871-01-19

might be well to add to this Board Sheri-
dan Shook, formerly Collector of the
Foriy-second district; E. D. Webster, ex-
Assessor of the Thirty-second district;
John +. Cleveland, ex-Assessor of the
Thirty second district, as well as Spencer
Kirby, the present Assessor. Il
"Scme of these men were special OBJ
iects of Mr.. Bailey's confidence, and
while these would make it impossible for
him to be as active and intelligent men,
bers of the Board as Mr.. Tracy and Mr..
butcher, still their knowledge of the in
ternal revenue business would make their
advice exceedingly valuable. 4
"The Government cannot afford not to
order this investigation. All of the gen.
tlemen we have mentioned are now resi-
dent in New York. There is not one of
them who is not familiar with Bailey's
transactions. Mr.. Tracy was District At
torney, and now holds that office. He
was Mr.. Bailey's counsel and friend,
and materially assisted him in his grand
effort to put Judge Fullerton in
prison. MIR. butcher was Super
visor of Internal Revenue, and still holds
that office; he was Dir. Bailey's official
chief. He took possession of the
Office when he fed, he has sufficient pow
er and must have necessarily suspected
Mr.. Bailey's Illicit transactions, and could
have gone to the Office with three regi-
ments of infantry and made every inves-
tigatiop. We have no doubt he has al
ready made some report on the subject
probably satisfactory report; and as his
friend, and as a friend of Mr.. Tracy, we
insist upon his making such report public.
''The question is, can we condone the
offense of this extraordinary criminal by
permitting him to depart in silence, and
cover with the mantle of secrecy this ex-
traordinary career9 We do not think so.
We are confident that the more Gen.
Pleasanton reflects on the subject, the
more he will feel that it is duty he owes
to the country to make . thorough inves-
tigation and a speedy examination of the
great Bailey mystery"
there are some damaging insinuations
in this extract, and certainly somebody,
if not Grant and his Commissioner of In
ternal Revenue, will feel the necessity of
having this Bailey mystery investigated
and explained. 1t has been stated re-
peatedly that Bailey could be found if the
government officials desired to get hold of
him; and it has been as frequently stated
that the reason why no effort has been
made to arrest him is, that other parties
are implicated with him, and that with
his exposure would come theirs, and that
they have sufficient influence with the Ad-
ministration to prevent this catastrophe.
The course which Grant and the Com
missioner of Internal Revenue have
pursued in regard to this matter, has GER
tainly strengthened the growing convic-
ton that there is truth in these insinua-
tons. What now becomes of Grants
boast that he would have the revenue
laws honestly administered {? Here is a
case where a collector of his own ap-
pointing not only violated the law by
levying black-mail and other illegal prac-
tees, but embezzled large amount from
the government; and to this day no eff
fort has been made to arrest him, nor
does the1e appear to have been an inves-
tigation to ascertain the amount of his
defslcation.