Union and American. [volume] (Greeneville, Tenn.) 1875-1877, 1876-03-30
PENSION ROBBERlES.
Four Hundred thousand Dollars
stolen.

committee on invalid pensions yes
terday examined Gel. Seaton, late
chief clerk of the pension bureau,
who was removed last June upon
the advent of the late commissioner,
Mr.. Atkinson. He testified that
during the administration of Com
missioner Van Arnum there was
an organized conspiracy to defraud
the government and rob soldiers in
the matter of land warrants. Three
attorneys, namely: Van Metee, Of
Lyon, New York; Hill, of Durkirk
New York, and Cheney, of Orange,
Massachusetts,, were the principals
in this conspiracy, and Colonel
Seaton AYERS that DIR. Van Arnum,
the commissioners, was priyy to the
frauds. AS the law formerly stood
these land warrant were considered
as personal property. and hence an
administrator could be appointed
from another state than the one in
which the decedent lived The
modus operandi of the fraud was
as follows: The information in re-
gard to unissued warran;s would be
communicated by some one in the
pension bureau to. one of the law
yers above named, who would rep
resent himself as the administrator
of the soldiers estate to whom the
warrant was due and would obtain
possession of it and then transfer it
TO one of his confederates; who
would sell 1T in the market. The
letters of administration were forg-
ed, as well as all The accessory
papers. Col. Seaton said that he
had examined enough of the cases
to satisfy himself that the fraud
was an organized and systematized
one. and that he laid all the facts
r before the then commissioners, but
no action was ever taken to bring
the parties TO justice. In several
instances when these conspirators
had represented parties to he dead
they afterwards appeared in per
son and denied that they were
dead, but they were treated as i'm
posters and that the records of the
court could not be disregarded.
The amount of the frauds success
fully perpetrated amounted to
nearly 100000. In many cases
the bounty law did not cover them,
and in this way thousands were
hung up IN the department. The
law was subsequently so amended
as to cover them, and then many
of the parties never presented
their claims. These were ali hun
ted up by the confederates Of Van,
Meter, Hill and Cheney, in the
pension bureau, so they got up let
ters of administration and obtained
on them the amounts. 1t is known
extensive frauds have been practic-
ed in collecting soldiers warrants
in the Western States and Terrific
ries, and it is possible that this Or
ganization to obtain the warrants
fraudulently was an adjunct of the
gang o. low thieves which has long
been in existence at Chicago and
St. Louis. Colonel Seaton was
an unwilling witness, and the com
mittee had a good deal of trouble
to obtain his abundance here.
WASH NGToN, March 2S.-Judge
Clifford dissented from the opinion
and not from the Judgment in the
Grant. Parish case. Judge Waits
opinion does not declare the En-.
forcement Act unconstitutional,
but the motive of race and color
must be averred in the indictment
and established to secure verdict
Exclusion or conspiracy 10 exclude
whites and blacks indiscrminatly
from the polls, with no other mo-
tive than to prevent them voting a
certain ticket, does not come within
the law. Whites and blacks alike
must look to State laws, hut where
negroes who wish to vote the Dem
ocratic ticket are pI ed on the