The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1871-01-24

POEtAA<A4\A~
TUESDAY, JANUARY "a, 1871.
That Disrepatable Frye.
THE THIRD INVESTIGATION OF THE PAPER
CREDIT FRAUDS.
And the goat shall bear upon him ell their iniqu-
ties unto land not inhabted; and he shall let 60
the goat in the wilderness.-Lev, xvi. 20.
tits now nearly week since the results of
the third investigation of the paper credit
frauds of 1864 were reported to the Legisla-
ture. We have patiently waited day after
day, hoping that some of our contemporaries |
wonld investigate the investigation, and re-
port upon the report, but TO our surprise none
Of them except the Waterville MAI have
done SO. That paper with praiseworthy spirit
and independence protests in general way
against the assumption that the report of
Messrs Talbot and Conner exculpates all of
our own citizens, and charges the entire re-
sponsibility of the frauds upon Provost Mar
shall General Frye. We would gladly have
avoided the unpleasant duty of going more
into detail, and stating clearly who are i'm
plicated in the frauds, because many people
who, one would think, never act upon pure
and unselhsh motives themselves, and
are incapable of recognizing the existence and
agency of such motives in others, will inevita-
bly, proclaim that "malice'and certain person
al prejudices have induced the PRESS to
take up for examination a subject which, for
some good reason we doubt not, the other pa
pers of the State have passed over in silence.
But, holding as we do that the report of the
Paper Credit Frauds Commission shows the
existence of state of Decentralization and cor
ruption in Maine that will, if not rebuked and
In some way punished, result ultimately in
other and still more damaging frauds, and
perhaps in the reduction to the New York
standard the performance of the States gov
Ornamental functions, we feel constrained to
discuss the subject at some length, and to in
culpate in plain language parties whom the
commissioners leave to be judged by their
acts without undertaking to characterize their
conduct.
To state with the greatest possible concise
ness conclusions reached from what we know
OF the three investigations ordered by the Leg
stature, the report of the commission on the
equalization ofthe municipal war debts, and the
statements made by Mr.A. B. Farwell in his let
TER to the Daily Advertiser (regarded by that
paper as complete vindication of its auther,
and defended as such with great bitterness and
rudely aggressive zeal) and in his still more
remarkable speech made in the Legislature of
1870, the paper credit frauds of 1854 arose in
this way. BY law Of the United States PAS
Cd in July of the latter year towns were per-
mitted to reduce their quotas under call for
troops then pending by the number OF their
men they could prove to have enlisted in the
Navy previous TO February of the same
year. To facilitate the proper assign
ment of SO many of these men as the differ
enttowns 10 Maine we're entitled to, the Gov
ernor and Maj. ]. W. Gardiner A. A. Pro-
vost Marshal General of Maine, were appoint
ed Commissioners to take charge of the mat
ter. The Commissioners sent to the munti-
pal officers Of the cities and towns properly.
prepared blanks to be filled with certified
list OF their men that had enlisted in the Navy
ana mad not been previously credited either to
the town OF their residence or elsewhere.
Taking advantage of these circumstances a
number of gentlemen, several of them enioy-
Ing largo measure of the confidence of their
fellow citizens anu at times quite PROMINENT in
puolic ife,procured the insertion in these certi.
neo lists OF nearly fourteen hundred names
imoSt oil them fictitious and representing not
even the shadows ofmen actually in tn. Army.
Navy or Marine Corps from this or any other
State tor which they were paid from $50 to
$500 each, realizing in the aggregate, as the
commissioners of 1870 say, at least half a
million dollars. These ghostly squadrons
marched straight through all such obstacles as
were interposed by National or State author
lily, survived in good health and condition
the war and the Investigations ordered bv the
Legislatures o. 1865 and 1866, and would
perhaps have passed unchallenged into his
tory, a patriotic and gallant corps of men, as
II they had been real objective existences
and not the subjective creations of
substitute brokers and volunteer recruiting
agents, had it not been for the investigations
of James A. Millken, D. L. Millikan and
Nathan Dane, who made their report on the
equalization of the municipal war debts to the
last Legislature. They very properly refused
to reimburse towns for money paid to unauthor-
lied parties for shadows more unsubstantial
than those that Charon ferries over the Stvx
To the commotion excited by this report and
the energetic action of Mr.. Hume, to whom
much credit is due for the persistency with
which he demanded an investigation, we owe
the report just made to the Legislature
report which appears to us to throw a great
deal OF light upon the transactions of which
we are speaking.
But the report does not, as some have
seemed to suppose, do anything more than at
tempt to fasten the responsibility of these
frauds upon Provost Marshal General FRYE.
Whether he was guilty of anything more than
an error of judgment in misconstruing the
law by which naval credits were allowed. and |
10 trusting to the board organized here, with
the details of whose dolngs he could hardly
be conversant, to make truthful and eauit-
able return to him OF the men with whom the
several towns and cities of Maine were legally
entitled to be credited, we do not know. But
II is certain that the commissioners make ont
but poor case against this man who is re-
quired to carry into that wilderness where he
now dwells in neglect and oblivion, the sins
OF our people. Those who are acquainted
with the career of Delaney who testifies to the
only really damaging circumstance, the allep.
ed payment Of $1,000 to the Provost Marshal. |
will not wonder that the Commissioners "do
not appear to attach full credence to the state
ments OF this witness" Frye may be as |
wicked as an abandoned wretch can be. but
of this we have no certain proof But of the
following lamentable facts, for the recital of |
which 1t is to be hoped it will. be remembered
that not we but the commissioners are re-
sponsibe, the proof is only too certain and
convincing. Instead of showing that "no-
body is to blame" it may be said with more
propriety that they show that everybody is to
blame.
J. Il. Marley, Daniel T. Pike, G. P. Coch-
rane, G. NJ. Delaney and others mentioned in
the report, were guilty of most unpatriotic
and diahonorable conduct in procuring the in
seltion of fraudulent names in the municinal
returns, knowing them to be fictitious. or at
anv rate not represenfinp mon 10 |