American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1879-07-26
THE GLOVER REPORT.
An Astonishing Exhibit of Fraud, PecuLk
ton and Acknowledgement in the Nation
al Treasury Department.

X
| al Treasury Department
The report of Hon. j. M. Glover, Chair
man of the Congressional Committee which
investigated the affairs of the Treasury De-
partment, is finally published. The report
which is very long, opens with statement
Of the many ramifications of the Treasury
Department.; and says that since 1861 over
$4,000 600 600 have passed through the
Treasury's hands. In the
| BUREAU OF ENGRAVING AND PRINTING
it was found that shortly before last years
| elections nearly 800 needless employees were
| put on the pay-rolls. Instead of the Bureau
| costing about $3.50 900 in the fiscal year 1878,
as has been publicly represented, 1t really
cost the Government in variotis ways over
100000. The cost of the Bureau for the 10
years of its existence is mixed in the
| Treasury accounts with other matters that
| 1t could not be precisely ascertained with
| out the labor Of a number of clerks for many
months. According to the best .ttainable
| Information at least $2I ,OOO, 900 have been
| spent on it, much Of which has been wasted
| or stolen. The report gives the various
items which go to make up this amount.
The Bureau accounts are not SO kept as to
show the cost of printing any kind Of obliga-
tion, and these facts had to be dug out.
The accounts had also been falsifed in vari-
GUS respects.
1t is remarkable, and somewhat alarming,
that this 8
CORRUPT AND LAw-DEfytNG BUREAU
has, by its showing, printed notes and bonds
for which the Government is liable to the
extent, up to June 30, 1878, of Sc $50 GOO 600,
extreme secrecy. it has done $5,775, 000, 600
within nine years past, and also $4,000 ,O0O,-
GOO OF revenue stamps.
May 1, 1877, there were stored the enor-
nous quantity of IS, 49, 66 sheets of dis
tinctive paper, and the chief of the bureau
says there were stored on the 1st of July last
1924 900 sheets of legal-tender paper, and
there is stored besides a large amount of
\ - IL -
old fractional currency paper; OF the latter
part is being used for national bank notes
and legal tenders. 1t was found that the
stock of paper had been counted but once
room in which it is stored is in the SUBJ base
ment of the building. The corridors lead
ing thereto are poorly lighted and seldom
visited except by workmen employed in
access to the room at any time during work.
ing hours, and any one of the six can open
packages of this paper that have been
counted and stored, abstract from 30 to 100
sheets at time, and place the bundles SO
tempered with where they would not be
reached in years.
What has been said of the paper applies
also, only with still greater force, to the GUS
tody of the dies, rolls, ed-pieces and plates
from which securities are printed in the
bureau.
1t is strange that each of the last three
Presidential elections has been followed
by Treasury announcement that large
amounts of
COUNTERFEIT" NOTES
were afloat. In 1869 tie whole issue of legal
tenders was Withdrawn and replaced, on the
ground that they had been largely and skill
fully counterfeited. In 1878 the whole issue
Of $500 greenbacks-about $35 600, 0O0-was
withdrawn and replaced in the same way.
In 1877 counterfeit 81 600 note was an
nounced. One of the oldest engravers in
the country testifies that when a note is so
-, Alxx.A L.
tected-as these and other counterfeits :"
are said by Treasury officials to bet can
not really be a counterfeit, but must be
genuine note surreptitiously printed from
of these plates. Other experts testified that
a genuine plate, after being secretly made,
can be altered with gravef in small details
enough to make it seem counterfeit to any
non-expert.
The $500 "counterfeit " greenback of 1878
was inspected by experts and compared with
a genuine note for the Glover Committee,
and these expert engravers swore beyond
all doubt that the note came from
GENUINE PLATE
or from a surreptitious reproduction Of one.
The bureau workman who transferred
the plate from the bed-piece agreed with
him.
A brief inspection of the Treasurer's books
revealed the fact that SIS, 900, 900 Of notes
were at one time secretly afioat for some
months, the Treasury statements being false
during that time to that extent; and the
fact of that secret issue remained unknown
till lighted on by the Glover Committee.
The books were falsified, and a balance
forced to conceal this secret issue, by I'M
truly stating that $l9, O0O, 900 had been de-
iosited as temporary loan, when no such
deposit took place.
From 1867 to 1873, while the amount of
greenbacks authorized by law was $356, COO,-
GOO, the Treasurer's books revealed the fact
that repeatedly the amount afioat was 81
.0OO al he af
middle Of the month, enough being turned
over for destruction on the last day of the
month to bring the total down to $356,0O0,-
600, and in other months the circulation was
cut down as much as So, OOO, 900 below the
published figures in the middle of the month,
enough being taken from the unissued notes
on hand on the last day to make up the sum
to the lawful figure on statement day.
GEN. SPINNER SwORE
that the public debt statements did not
agree with his books; that he did not ap
prove of them; that his name was put to
them without his authority; that he was
not allowed to publish truthful statements;
that balances were forced in these state
ments, and that he finally got the law
changed so as to relieve him of the duty he
was not allowed to perform.
In nearly the whole of the fiscal year 1866
the Treasurer's books show that the amount
of compound interest notes outstanding
was from s.. OOO, 900 to $44 900 900 more than
the public debt statements showed. One
month it was $26. OO0, 900 less. Three different
statements of the sum outstanding June 30,
1865, were published, differing by millions,
and none of the three were true.
The first man who was fntrusted with the
destruction of withdrawn notes, Charles III.
COrnwell, Chief the Redemption Division of
the Treasurer's Office, was caught stealing
the notes and reissuing them. The amount
thus reissued is not known. but it is esti-
mated by good judges at over 100000. The
second chief, Frank Jones, was detected in
making false certificate of destruction of
SAC, 600 worth, and Gen. Spinner, Secretaries
Boutwell, and Bristow and others, persist
emily refused to investigate the matter,
though about $500, 600 GOO of notes had passed
| through Jones's hands in perfect shape,
much Of it never even having been issued.
| in destruction are found to have been gross
ly neglected and disregarded in many re-
spects.
THE REPORT SHOWS
that George F. Cutter, by order of Secre-
| tary Robson, was able to make at least
| 500, 900 by the manipulation Of Government
funds. Thousands of dollars, the total not
| investigation, were found to have been OBJ
| tanned from the Treasury as interest on reg
| istered bonds by forging powers OF attorney
| for their collection, the fOrgers in many
| Besides this, Treasury employees, who had
means of knowing to whom this interest was
| due, had confederates outside, who went to
| the owners and told them-the existence OF
| the claim being forgotten or in some way
overlooked or unknOwn-that they knew
| there was money due them, and could pro-
cure it, but must have half for their serv-
| ices. George Shark Jenkins was the man
| most largely engaged in these eXtortions.
| The report shows that
| THIEVES WERE PROTECTED AND SHIELDED
by Treasurer Wyman and other high OFF,