The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1871-04-29
The Testimony before the Paper Credit
Comm issiOmers

~ 'hS hSh WIZ CONcI UtU6Tdt IJFaDLS lease
of the White House.
The Testimony before the Paper Credit
Commissioners.
The appendices to the report of the Paper
Credit Commission will be far more interest
ing than the able document to which they are
appended. The whole work is now going
through the pless under the superintendent
of Capt. S. w. Lane, Secretary of the SEN
ate, who has kindly allowed us 10 examine
the advance sheets as far as completed APP
pendix "A" will present the subject matter of
those that follow. Appendix "B, the one be-
fore US, contains the testimony of town off,
GERS and agents who were employed to fill the
quotas. This evidence enabled the Commis
sion TO ascertain the parties engaged in selling
paper men. The principal or wholesale deaf
ers are very few ard if not well known, the
testimony OF the town officials point them
out very clearly,-so clearly that the Com
mission was warranted in giving their names.
Those that appear most frequently are Pike
d Colby, j. P. Deering G Co., Jos. II. Man
ley, G. M. Delaney G. Co., A. b. Farwell, G.
p. Cochrane and J.P. Heath. The class that
acted as middle men or Commercial travel
ers,' was very large one-fOur or five to
from peddlers to briefess lawyers. In
short, nearly all that class of our fellow
citizens of all parties who let no occasion "to
turn an honest penny" pass unimproved, had
hand in the business either as buyers or
sellers.
The dispositions of town officers plain
ly indicate that they were actuated by
the spirit that generally prevailed to
avoid the impending draft by some means.
They show very evidently that there was
more anxiety to escape the dangers at the
front than to fill up our skeleton regiments
1t is painfully evident that practical patriot
ism was at low ebb. A large number, the
majority, made no further enquiry respecting
the men offered by the brokers than sufficient
10 satisfy them that these paper substitutes
would save their townsmen from the draft.
There was few town officers that required
assurance as to the character of those with
whom they were filling our decimated resi-
ments. The replies of these wholesale patri-
OTIS show that they were possessed of powers
of Imagination that would be invaluable in
the field of fiction. 1t is lamentable to think
that such brilliant genius as these answers to
honest town officers displayishould be "born
to blush unseen" or be content to "waste its
fragrance on the desert air" of this sordid if
not wicked business.
Mir. Dyer Of New Portland was one OF the
few town officers whose notions of duty and
patriotism prompted him to trouble dealers
with questions as to the character of their
men. Mr.. d. testi6es that the Democratic
firm of Pike & Colby assured him that they
had agents in the Sonth enlisting colored
men; and that they had at that time forty
negroes to sell-a transaction that is well es-
tablisbed by Democratic precedents The
same firm told Mr.. Cornish of Winsow that
their men were already enlisted in the navy
and that they had obtained the same through
agents at great expense who obtained con-
sent of the enlisted men on ship board. One
of the firm of Deering d Co. represented
that their enterprising agents were making
raids upon the Bluenoses and capturing them,
but at imminent risks no doubt. One gen.
tleman well known in Maine informed the
officers of Starks and Sidney that he had
agents about Washington who were re-
enlisLing veterans or others who had seen
service, hanging about there, at the same time
giving out that one such soldier was worth
infinitely more than any man these towns
could send.
The answers of these officials respecting
The certificates "that the men whose names
were credited to the quotas of their respective
towns we're residents thereof and liable to
military duty" are neither complimentary,
to their sasacity as business men" nor
tneIr regard for the sanctity of an oath.
Inc majority Of them that acknowledged the |
SAID 1t was represented to them |
.n'. was mere matter of FORM" The |
ofohers SO represented it; and their people
were frightened. One of the selec,mon ofp.
Iermo not only signed the certfc.,o r,,;,,.oI,
pu' mat o' aho'nor oil the board who had an
thorized HIM to do so "if it was all riebtv HE
second cousin who sold him the men said 90.
was all right, and so he signed il.n M.n,
said the authorities were satisfied with tbis
way OF filling quotas they were willing to take
any steps to make their towns secure. In
several cases the select men deny that thew
signed any such certificates; that where their
names appeared, the obliging brokers signed
or them as a "matter of foIm."
In the town of Warren, towards the last of |
his wretched business, curious case has
'ome to light. One of the selectmen enlist
ID one of his townsmen for a battery, got
Inn accepted and placed upon the quota of
he town, deposited a town bounty with some
'aity Tor him al certain time. In week
ne man returned saying that he was not ac-
epted. Upon inquiry, it was declared that
ne man was fool and unfit for service. His
pace was hlled by paper man and the
county taken. 1t is equally curious that the