Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1875-07-24
rhe South Carolina Treasury and the
Carpet-Bagger Parker.

The trial OF Parker, formerly reas-
urer OF South Carolina, which is now
going on in Columbia, is one of great
interest. Parker began life as bar
keeper in Haverhill, Massachusetts,.
He went to South Carolina some years
ago, and combining with X. X. Scott,
ID. II. Chamberlain and FL. Ii. Kimp-
ton. they procured themselves to be
chosen respectively Treasurer: Gov
ernor. Attorney General, and FInan-
cial Agent of the State. Then they
took possession of the finances of the
State, and had bills passed by mob
of ignorant negroes, half of whom
could not write their own names. BY
means of these bills they were enabled
to come to this city and sell and hy-
pothecate millions of South Carolina
bonds.
The present Attorney General of the
State is Mr.. Melton, aud Mr.. Melton
is partner of Gov. Chamberlain in
the practice of the law Here is the
account of the situation of the State
Treasury given by Mr.. Melton, who,
from his official position and conf
DENTAL relations with chamberlain,
may esupposed to have full acquaint-
ance with the facts
In order to facilitate and regulate
the financial affairs of the State
financial board was organized, consist
ing of Gov. r. X. Scott, Attorney Gen
eral d. H. Chamberlain, and State
Treasurer Niles q. Parker; and the
| financial agent in New York was III.
II. Kimpton. The work of conversion
went on. Without any
authority of law. gentlemen, this board
took it into their hands to use these
conversion bonds to strengthen the
credit of the State, and instead of con-
fning themselves to the operation of
conversion they had large amount
of these conversion bonds struck off by
the American Banking Association in
New York, and threw them on the
market to the extent of S0,0O0.O00.
While the process of conversion was
going on legitimately and properly,
these conversion bonds, you will ascer-
tain, were numbered in red ink.
You see there were 800 81 900 bonds,
and if they went on numbering them
10 red as they put them out, don't you
see the bonds would soon be numbered
away up in the thousands? That would
scare the bondholders in New York !;
they would know that there were more
bonds being issued than was lawful.
And so In this way, as we expect to
show, this defendant, being associated
with the financial agent in New York,
commenced numbering the bonds in
blue. | will approximate very nearly
the truth when | tell you that all of
those conversion bonds which are num-
bered in red are :onest bonds, and
those numbered in blue are fraud
ulent.
The interest on large amount Of
these bonds which had not been put
out became due, and the agent, as fast
as the coupons became due, clipped
them off and put them away, and re-
turned the good and cancelled coupons
both to Parker, making in all $913,0
coupons paid by Kimpton and turned
over to Parker on two separate &C.
casions. Watch me close just here,
gentlemen, for | have got to the point
where | will show you why we have
sued Mr.. Parker. Mr.. Kimpton, when
he sent in to Mr.. Parker the coupons
which he held, sent in those which
had been matured and those which he
had cut off. Mr.. Parker took them
both, both the valid and the invalid,
and before going out of Office he can
celed the whole of them. But when
he cancelled them he mixed them up,
and we expect to show you that he con-
fused them and put them in such
condition as to render it impossible to
ordinary comprehension to separate
the one from the other. What did he
do it for? Now, we expect to show
you that in those bundles of coupons
in the Treasury, left there by Mr..
Parker, cancelled by him at that time,
only 81, ISL 600 are good. There ought
to be in the Treasury 81 Isl 900 of good
coupons, and about 100000 of bad
coupons, making in all about 81 ,600,-
! 600. But there are 100000 of bad
coupons, and only 100000 of good
coupons. In other words. si5o, 1000 OF
these good coupons. paid by Kimpton
in New York and Parker here in CO.
lumbia, are gone. They are not to be
found, and in their place is large
bundle of invalid coupons. Now, We
feel confident that we can assure you,
by an overwhelming prepondera nee of
testimony, that Parker manipulated
these bonds, and took out this $780,,
900 of good coupons and put them into
his pocket
But how is it that Gov Chamber
lain, who, ever since reconstruction,
has had unlimited control over the
finances of South Carolina, could have
permitted such irregularities in the
use of blue and red ink in the Treasury?
But Mr. Melton is misinformed about
the disposition Of the spoils arising
from funding the fraudulent coupons.
There were FIVE statesmen who partici
pated in that piece of robbery four of
them got 100000 each-the fifth got
only $4,000. We do not believe that
Parker will be permitted to languish
in prison.-N. Y. Sun.