The New Orleans daily Democrat., 1878-11-26
CAPT. .EADS.
EsE.Es OF THE STATE NATION
AL BANK OF SIT. LOUIS.
Indicted I'm st. Louis for COnspiracy-New
Work Fighting the Safssissipps
sgetties Through Eas1g.

lSDeGlHl correspondence DI LHS DDHoGEhtsi
WASHINGTON, d. G., November %, 1873.
The troubles Of the State National Bank Of
St. Louis, involving as they do, or rather as
they threaten TO do, the financial character of
CAPT. EADs,
cannot foil TO be q matter Of almost local In
terest to the readers Of the DEMOCRAT. The
immediate details and particulars Of the case
will no doubt be sufficiently kept up for your
columns by your excellent correspondent at
st. Louis But there are some features Of the
affair calculated to avert from the head OF
Capt Eads the odum which would seem to be
implied In the pTinsG fncie presentation Of the
case 50 far made. From advices received at
the Department Of Justice yesterday or TO-
day it appears that
INDICTMENTS FOR CONSPIRACY,
etc. will be returned against Capt. Eads and
tho other directors Of the institution, and, Il
50, there Is every probability that the trials
will be pushed with considerable energy and
acrmony by certain creditors Of and suffer-
ers by tho defunct institution. In order to
reach proper understanding OF Capt Eads'
relations with the Institution, md n fair con-
cepton Of his share in the transaction which
has lately obtained such discreditnble noto-
rety it Is requisite to know the circumstances
under which he went into the concern, and TO
be conversant with his methods Of financial
| operation. The bank In 1866 was already
venerable concern, whose business had grown
to largo proportions In the old State banking
times, but which, since the Inauguration Of
| the national banking Systeu, had been con-
Quoted AS bank Of discount and deposit SIM
ply. IIlds had then just begun to inCubate
his mighty project of
| THE ST. LOUIS BRIDGE
and among the auxiliarics ne deemed nece8-
| sary to tho successful prosecution OF his task
| was the control Of q strong banking fnstitu~
tion. 1t was, for obvious reasons, deemed
better to build upon q foundation already we'll
laid than to found hnew bank, and SO control
ling stock In the old State Bank was nego-
tiated for by Capt. Ehds and his conductors. /
need not consume your space In describing
tho scheme by which Capt Eads and his
friends sought to mobilize tho credit and
command the funds requisite for the purchase
Of this controlling stock. ina5rnuch as that
part OF tho affair is already well known.
, Stripped OF technical verbiage and reduced to
, plain English, the scheme amounted to this:
Capt. Eads proposed to q bank In New York
that If it would advance him the funds he and
his party required, they would secure the
loan by hypothecation Of the stock itself IN
; the form OF O. consol and asoe by their indi-
vidual Endorsements. It must be recollected,
t In Judging OF the morality Of this scheme,
9 that the time was 1866 81 just at the begin
y ming OF what term
j. THE BUBBLE EPOCH OF AMERICAN FINANCE;
the epoch which eliminated in 1872, and ex~
ploded with such terrific crash IN 1873.
| st. Louis was particularly Inflated even
- for that period. The incubus Of the war;
@ which had oppressed her, was then just fair
@ ly lifted and her financial atmosphere was
naturally full of balloons The great. bridge
, was to form the last link necessary to COM
VI pete her communications with sure great
q ness in the future. Every man who owned
u foot Of property was enthusiaStlc, and no
b scheme could have been devised In further
r ance of the one pet project Of the city too
> bold or too sanglne to meet the appreciation
+ Of even her oldest and most conservative
N citizen.
; OF conservatism. His whole history has been
= that OF reckless risk In the prosecution OF
). great enterprises, and, while it may not be IN
n ndeullatc defense against tho charge of rcck-
9 iessness to say that the man always placed
y | his own resources in the front and his own
fortune ut the post Of danger, Still that fact
q demonstrates that he went about his projects
| with q faith in himself and in them which
0 was honest IL not discreet, and which does
u not belong to the character Of the adyenturer
l. or the sharper.
The scheme upon which Eads and his party
U, founded
i i THE NATIONAL BANK or THE STATE or MIS-
~ SOURI,
would not indeed pass muster, for example,
q with tho directors Of the Bank Of England. It
was not o conservative or even prudent
scheme. But for all that it was % piece OF
l. legitimate bOldness, as words were defined in
IA the financial lexicon Of this country at that
" time and had the calculations Of the pro-
!, jectOrs been verified by fate there never
~ would have been any scandal. The whole
L, scheme was based upon the estimates Of the
"a cost and earnings Of the bridge. Eads simply
y, 1nortgaged what be deemed to be the reason
" able possibilities Of his own genius, and the
. fact that, when the dead weight OF the mis-
calculated cost of the bridge began to crush its
l. hackers,
n. EADs' OWN FORTUNE,
A. whatever It was, went to wreck first Of al,
d must be taken as an earnest Of the good faith
" OF his conceptions.
8 to defend Eads against the charge Of reck-
I'd le8sne8s, OF Overrating his own possibilities
le and undertaking the obstacles he had to sur
n mount. He Is, in fact chargeable with all
,r these things. But at the worst, he erred III
v Judgment; the thought Of committing or con-
niving at the commission OF q ,Willful fraud
never entered his mind. The estimates of the
cost Of the bridge were based upon the prices
Of steel and iron In 1866; and no man could
tx foretel the figures which those commodities
reached in 1870, 1871 and 1872. Conversely
s. the earnings Of the bridge were as widely
q, overestmated as its cost was underrated
s. Thus, when the tremendous structure was
completed and opened for traffic, the very
u first years test showed that, however granC
1t might be aS an engineering success It was
q financial failure. We ali know what fol
e, loWed-cIn Darra551nent, bankruptcy and fore
o closure sale at figures that hardly represent
st ed the first cost Of the raw iron employed II
the superstructure! And
THE FINANCIAL FALL OF THE BRIDGE
naturally carried down with it the banking
institution whose destiny had been from the
- first predicated upon its fortunes.
~ Under these circumstances, and Judging Dy
r. my own interior knowledge Of the facts as re-
" CARDS the persons engaged and their motives
I am bound to say that the attempt TO raster
zee even an irnputatOn Of criminal intent upon
IN, Eads is very little short Of utter, basene8s
re- The laws OF the United States and the prac
la tice Of the United States courts have beer
often distorted or strained into instruments
,er Of malignity before this, and there Is appa-
a 'a rentiy no limit assignable to the prostitution
re- re- of them to such uses. II Eads had beer
no weak enough to comply with the demand Of
asf the creditors of the bank and divert for theit