American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1872-07-27
The National Finances.
WE take the following extracts from a
speech recently delivered at Decatur, Ill,
by Hon. LYMAN Trumbull:

WE take the following extracts from a
speech recently delivered at Decatur, I'LL, ,
by Hon. Lyman Trumbull:
I want to call your attention to the finances
of this country. 1 say to you tonight
that the finances are in utter confusion.
say to you that you are losing millions of
money by the mismanagemenI of the
finances. I don't mean to allege dishonesty.
l will not say that General Grant is dis
honest man, or that Mr.. Boutwell, is dis
honest man, but l say, by the way the
finances are managed the people of this
country are losing millions of dollars, which
is wasted on favorites. Let me state one of
these instances. 1t appears by official doc
uments-I have them here-that there has
been in the Treasury ofth United States, lying
idle for the last six years, on an average, one
hundred and sixty millions of dollars. "A
voice, sthat is right.'l That is right, is it,
to keep that money there lying idle? You
have kept more than one hundred and sixty
millions in the Treasury for six years lying
idle. Do you believe that money is kept
there for any purpose? 1t would make you
rich if you could have the use of it for
day. Does it make anybody else richs l
don't know that it does, but a great many
men have got rich. We could have saved at
least nine millions of dollars year for the
last six years. If we had paid out hun
bred millions and kept the surplus sixty
millions, even that would have saved thirty
six millions of dollars, which is lost to the
people by this financial mismanagement.
on the money of the people. 1 will endeavor
to make it as plain as l can in public
speech, without reading from the documents.
law was passed authorizing the Secretary
known as the five-twenty bonds for
five per cent. bonds. The five-twenty bonds
were those due in twenty years, with TIE
privilege of payment in five years; the OBJ
ject being to reduce the rate of interest which
we were paying, as We had the authority to
pay off these hve-twenty bonds at the end
of five years from the date of their issue. AS
the five years had expired 1T was in the power
of Government, if it could get the money, to
pay off the six per cent. bonds and replace
them with five per cents, if we could lead
the holders of the six per cent. bonds to
bring them in and exchange them for five
per cents. The law provided that the entire
expense should not exceed one-half of one
per cent. 1t provided, further, that in no
event should the debt of the United States
be increased. How do you suppose this law
an arrangement with what was known as the
syndicate-J. Cook, Mccullough IL Co.,
bankers, of New York City, backed up by
foreign capitalists, who proposed to buy
was entered into with the Secretary
of the Treasury, by which, if they
would subscribe for these, they might sub
scribe through National Bank-the Ma
tional Bank of Washington was the bank
fixed upon-tkat they should be made the
depository of the money for three months;
that is to say, they might subscribe for these
bonds in August, and be the depository of
this money for ninety days. They were to
have the use of the money for ninety days,
and the six per cent. bonds were to be taken
up when these five per cent. bonds were paid
for, which was not required to be paid in I'M
til the first of December. You paid five per
cent. on the new bonds, and six per cent. on
the old bonds, for ninety days. That amount
ed to a great deal on s1:O, OOO, 600. The fact is
the National Bank of Washington subscribed
A last f<r
They were Immediately entitled to that
amount of bonds bearing five per cent. inter
est. On the first of September the Secretary
issued the notice, that he would call in, not
the amount they had subscribed, but $780,,
600, 900 of it. These six per cents. would be
called in and cancelled. So this bank had
the use of this money; the truth is this Ma
tional Bank didn't have this paid in at all |
Another document shows that Mr.. Boutwel |
stated that there deposited with the |
Secretary of the Treasury an amount of
bonds equal to the amount of certificates of
deposit in the bank, SO the Government was |
secure. The truth is, the five per cent. bonds |
were not delivered to the bank at all The |
banks didn't pay dollar. They went to |
work and got up the six per cent. bonds, the |
Government of the United States holding in |
It's own vaults these five per cent. bonds. |
The amount of money that they made in this |
was at least 10000 Can you
Justify that? Why did not the Secretary pro-
vide that the five per cents. should not be sur
The amount of the transaction is
simply this: The Secretary Of the Treasury
Of the United States, under authority to is
sue a bond bearing five per cent interest and
it for "A bond bearing six per cent,
provided that it should not cost the Govern
nent more than one-half of one per cent,
md the debt of the United States should not
De increased, made an arrangement with II
,ank or syndicate by which he paid eleven
per cent for ninety days, and he has paid it
good deal longer, as he did not receive pay
or the bonds until long after the ninety
lays, by which it has cost several millions,
paid to the favorites of the Treasury Depart
nent. Is such a transaction to be justified
Let me speak of another one. There are
many such cases. A few years ago a man by
The name of ChorpenninS entered into "A con
tract to carry the mails over Western
Continent The indians intcrfercd his teams
and horses were lost. He came to Congress,
which passed a law paying him forty fifty
thousand dollars In two three years
more they passed another law paying him
forty or fifty thousand dollars more. After
ward he brought suit in the Court of Claims
alleging that the Government ought to pay
him something more for the losses on his
contract, the Government not having pro
tected him against the Indians on the road
That suit was filed by lawyer. He claimed
s1O0, 900 and damages. He didn't get that in !