Wilmington journal., 1876-06-16
ROBESON'S RICHES.
His Mysterious sEIse Grom Poverty
tO AffIuence

NGtbTpe W IGODtStIn WAS uDIOinIP
Secretary of the Navy through the in
Huence of 4. Il. Borie and A G. Cat
tell. He entered the Office on Jun
%, 1869. atd was then Attorney Gen
efal OF New Jersey, with a salary q
81 500 per annnm.
He was engaged in no business, ont
side OF his profession. by which. IN tin
small town of Camden, he wa,s enable,
t. exc out living, With the aid O
81, 800 salary AS Attorney General
which he received for IL short tinjt
before going to Washington. Tn
salary of IS, 600 year as Secretary a
the Navy, was regarded as n God seno
by the friends who knew his llmitet
1ucome and narrow meauS. He ha
held This place for seven years, livct
prodIGally. and occupies !. house til,
rent of which alone consumes neArl,
half his salary.
With these fucts to start upon, :
glance at his bank accounts, i'd re
vealed before. the naval committee, i
IN order, He seems to have thriycd
marvelously and to have handled vast
sums of money. First of all, the
Camden bank claims attention.
Between July 3, 1869, and November
7, 1871, he deposited, in those two
years and four months. Ss52, l43 1S
and the ry first money passed to his
credit, after becoming Secretary. was
Il note of A. &. Catteil & Co, for $40,
900, less discount of $l7S 80, on the
Sd day of July, 1863, That sum was
probably for his outfit at the capital.
At that time A. G. Cattell was Pres
ident of the Corn Exchange Bank of
Philadelphia, which he had organizei
OF the total deposits in the Camden
bank. say $52, 600 in round numbers,
Catt"1Ps notes AID checks from the,
| Corn Exchange bank sum up over
$40, 600 He doubtless, also endorsed
| notes of Kobeson which were dis
counted and put To his credit. though
| the name Is not entered on the tran
script furnished to the committee.
Iu order not to attract too much ats
! tention Robeson kept three bank
accounts i'll Washington, one with Jay
| National, and one with Riggs & Go.
He deposited with Jay Cooke &, Co,
between April 4, 1872, and June 16,
trustee, E. M. Lewis. The transcripts
of the First National and Riggs & Co.
are now in the hands of the printer,
and may be approximately stated.
With Riggs & Co., from October, 1873,
{ to April l, 1876, he deposited say, in
round numbers, 1927, 900; with the
First National, say 100000. In addi-
ton to these he had an account with
DrexeT, Morgan & Co., of this city,
with a credit of from $4,000 to $780,
900. OF this amount RobesoL deliver
ed to Paymaster Quits $4,000 i'll
gieenhacks at Washington, to be de-
posted in New York to his credit
lie preferred that way to a check or
draft, which would pass through
bankers books.
Most of the great deposits were
made after the Virginius excitement,
which was evidently gotten up pun
posely to cover the transactions with
Jay Cooke & Co., subsequent to their
failure, and to furnish means for job
berry by which millions of the public
money were stol IL, under the fraudu-
lent pretext of equipping the navy for
an emergency. These expenditures
aggregate an enormous sum and can
not be explained on any other theory
than Addition, Division and Silence.
Let rs recapitulate from tbs amounts
published by the committee, and from
the estimates of those which will soon
be officially laid before the House, as
follows:
Bank of Camien (ofliciaD S 80, 123 Is
Jay Cooke &1 Go. (of1iciaD. 2S, OS6 80
Riggs Il Co. (repOrted) -. 227, 900 90
First National (reportcd).. 10000 90
Drexel, Morgan Il Go. (rep't) $4,000 90
Total ...........S S443, 129 56
The reported figures are pu' down
low, and are believed with the others
to Aggregate nearly half million.
Now, it may properly be asked, where
did all the money come from Large
as the total is it does not represent by
any means, all the money which Rob
eson received and used. A man who
hands over ten Thousand dollars III
bank notes to one of his pay1nastcrs to
he put to his credit in New York while
he has regular accounts i'll Washing
ton, had II motive for this roundabout
way Of doing business. He kept
stock of grecnbacks on hand, and only
used checks when they were necessary.
The testimony taken before the inves-
tigation, the relations between Robe
son, the CattelIs, Roach and tho other
parties, tho bare faced prostitution
of the whole patronage of the navy,
and the corrupt conclusion which
stands ont everywhere leave no doubt
concerning this sudden wealth, OF how
aud from whom it was acquired.
Living Through the Years Again.