The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1876-03-31
The Navy Department. Exposures-The
Cause OF the Evil and the Remedy.

MI. Secretary Robeson OF the causes when
led to his using of the credit of the United
States government TO restore life to the
moribund house of jay Cooke & Co. will be
satisfactory even to those strenuous friends
of the administration who see nothing that
is not admirable in the ways of Grant and
Grantism. There are marked variations
between the narrative with which Mr. Robe
son has favored the committee of the
House and the dispatches which we printed
the other day. These dispatches have dates
and names, and they show that the memory
of the Secretary is not always to be trusted.
Thus, Mr.. Robson fixes the date when he
sent the million and n half in October, 1873,
when the time for the payment of our naval
accounts became due. He says, also, that it
was necessary to send these drafts to pro-
tect a house (which was then car
rying on large and important finan-
cial transactions in the interest of
the government and that he has not
sent any money to the house in London
since the house in New York was declared
bankrupt Now, Mr.. Robeson's own de-
spatches show n different state of things
They show that two days before Jay Cooke
failed-on SeptembeS 16, 1S73-or q month
before October, when these naval payments
became due, Mr.. Robson telegraphed an
order from his home at Long Branch to the
Treasury to send Cooke million Of dollars.
The Treasury, under the cautious manage
ment of Mr.. Boutwell,. who, whatever his
faults as Secretary of the Treasury, was never
disposed to invest the public treasure in
private concerns, declined to send the
money. Mr.. Boutwell, heard of the failure of
Cooke and arrived at his own conclusions us
to the safety of any million of dollars that
might be sent to the London branch of the
firm. But Cattell happened to be in Lon
don-Cattell, the friend and familiar Of
Robeson--and he began telegraphing about
public opinion showing confidence in the
dead house, and hoping that the govern
ment would not "crush" it. The effect of
these moving dispatches upon the tender
heart of Robson was such that he went to
the President and induced him to remove
the scruples of Boutwell, and order the mill
ion and half to London. The money was
sent, and Mr. Robson parades among his
collateral securities" some 'forty-five thou
sand dollars of bonds Of the st. Joe and
Denver Railroad Company"
Mr.. Robson does not explain why he took
the agency of our government from the
mighty house of Earrings, which had been
our agent for nearly sixty years, and which
would have been of more use in strengthen
ing the credit of the nation than million of
Cookies. No explanation is given of this
transaction. All the world knows that the
reason was that Cooke, like Clews, had
become a crony of the President that he
had become ''loyal" to the cause, and that
he did not hesitate to ''bleed" freely when
the election was impending. In other
words, so debased had our politics
become that the financial agency of
the government was treated like
trade-post out at Fort Sill and was made
to "come down with every election. Now,
the Presidents friends may say that it was
an error of judgment (for Presidents are
not infallible), to regard the houses of Clews
and Cooke as solvent as those of Earrings
We have had to excuse so many things that
add this to the list. We suppose if Grant
had known that Cooke was running a house
in London without capital, simply on
"cheek, if he had known that Clews would
fail in little while and not leave more
than enough to pay his bankruptcy fees,
he would not have changed the agencies.
But this excuse will not hold good in the
matter of the million and half serS by his
order and in spite of the opposition of his
careful Secretary of the Treasury to Cookies
London machine. He knew Cooke had
failed. He must have known that it was not
in the power of the government to restore
life TO a house that had once failed in Lon
don. The confession of failure was financial
death. 1t was his first duty to protect the
government.
1t was not his business to ask whether his
action would or would not ''crush" house
that had already fallen. The more we look
into the transaction the more reckless and
shameful it appears. First. Cooke was APP
pointed in place of Barring; then, when he
failed, million and half of good money
was sent to keep him on his English legs.
Of course he stood as long rs the million
and half lasted but he fell there MS he had
fallen here, and as his fall everywhere was
inevitable after he had closed the doors of
his Philadelphia bank.
Is is not for us TO instruct the committee
of tho House as to their duty in this matter
We sincerely trust il may not be made
party question. Let the representatives of
The nation deal with Robson MS with Bel
knap-not MS an offender against the party,
but as an offender against the country. The
republicans will make an irretrievable blum
der if they attempt, even by indirection, to
screen these Cabinet officers from the