The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1879-07-24

OF the G0yermenC III SyHuiCate OPeAo
tions. When he went abroad the list o
claimants disappeared. He staid abroad
till 1877, and when Williams was in dan
ger, returned to defend him. james
H. Robinson, Assistant Solicitor of tht
Treasury declined to aid Moore's investi
CATION, saying, "They don't want it con
tinued up stairs" referring to the Secre
tary's Office; and he co-operated witt
Appointment Clerk Porter in an effort tt
break down Moore's investigation BY
abolishing the force of Inspectors of Gus
toms, to which Moore's assistant in tht
matter-who had first traced the Jones
package-belonged. Robinson suddenly
manufactured an opinion that there was
no law for the existence of this force
which has existed over fifty years
When Moore informed Assistant Secre
tary Conant of Williams frauds, Conant
to Moore's sstonishment, advised him tc
drop the inquiry, and he threw such diff
culties in its way that Moore felt forced
to suspend it the whole time that Conan
was Acting Secretary of the Treasury
When Sherman became Secretary
Moore reported the facts to him, anc
Sherman referred the matter to George
F. Talbot, Solicitor of the Treas
ury, instructing him.to complete the in
quiry in accordance with Moore's sugges-
tons. Moore and Treasurer Gil.
fillan, who had co-operated, con
ferred with Talbot and enabled him to
obtain evidence to establish the facts
They cautioned him against Conant, Big.
Glow, Baker, Robinson and others; but
within forty-eight hours they were shut
out from the investigation, and these very
men, including Williams, were in con-
slant communication with Talbot. The
suspected parties had possession of and
passed round the testimony and re-
ports against Williams, and some OF
them called Treasurer Gillian to
to account for telling what he knew.
Gilfllan went to New York to aid Dis
trict Attorney Woodford to arrest and
prosecute Williams there. Williams
was warned of this, and passed Gilhllan
between New York aud Washington, ap-
pearing before Talbot and saying he was
informed Talbot wanted him. While
Gilfllan was arranging Williams arrest
with Woodford, the latter received tele-
gram from Talbot directing him to act
in concert with Bigelow, Williams friend,
and himself under suspicion, and to try
to have Williams give up the list of own
ers of unclaimed interest to Bigelow
Before the Glover Committee Talbot
swore that he never sent such a telegram,
but the committee obtained copy of it,
with hissignature! This dispatch stopp-
ed Gilfllan. Talbot allowed Williams to
be examined without arrest by United
States Commissioner of Williams choos-
ing. Neither Moore, Gilfllan nor any
other person who knew the facts, was no.
titled of this examination" or allowed
to testify; only witnesses friendly to him
were examined and he was discharged.
When Middleton & Co. were asked to re-
fund the SUMS wrongfully paid to them
on Williams fraudulent account, the let
ter addressed to them at Washington was
answered by Williams from London.
Talbot made a whitewashing report to
Secretary Sherman, devoted mainly to
e5culpating Conant, against whom no
charges had been laid before him; but
Sherman deemed it policy for Conant to
retire; he was sent to London to keep Bige
low company, and the foreign loan opera
tions of the Government have since been
conducted by men who successfully did
their best to shield confessed forger and
swindler, who with the aid of Treasury
confederates stole the money that be-
longed to widows, lunatics, orphans and
foreigners. The forged signatures were
unlike the true ones, and Williams con-
federate, Interest Teller Jones, made no
comparison or test of their reality, viola
ting thus the rules of Office. All these
officials but one, Baker, are still in Office,
and Porter has been made Financial
Clerk of the Coast Survey, while Wy
man and his bondsmen have been freed
from responsibility. The sole punish
ment meted out was that to Supervising
Special Agent Moore, the one man who
persistently tried to expose the wrong.
and who was reduced to subordinate
post.
When the Grand Trunk Railway was
opened the exports from Canada passed
over it through Vermont, New Hamp-
shire and Maine to Portland, where they
we're shipped abroad. This trade soon
grew so large that whole lines of ocean
steamers were built for it, and 100 large
bonded warehouses were set up at Port
land to accommodate it. Under the
Treasury regulations the commodities
were loaded on cars in Canada, the cars
then sealed by the United States Consul
at the starting point, and run through
without opening or delay to the port of
in the States. Thus they pass
ed free of all annoyance by Custom
House officials, not being subject to duty,
az they merely passed through the
country. The Joint High Commission,
which framed the Alabama Treaty, agreed
(Article 20 of Treaty. that this should
90 on. March 80, 1875, the Secretary
of the Treasury issued an order confirm
ing and regulating the practice. With
in a month after he published regula-
tions practically abolishing it. He re-
QulreQ THAI I'll SOouS COmiuS lloM Souo
da should be entered, opened, inspected
and put under bonds for their shipment
abroad, at the first port ofentry they reach
ed after crossing the border. On the Grand
Trunk Railway this was the small town
of Island Pond, VT, where the facilities
for making the entries were 80 inadequate
that the order could not possibly be car
ried out. The penal bonds required,
amounting to millions of dollars at a
time, all had to be executed by two per-
sons who we're worth but few thousand
dollars, which made the bonds worthless
and showed that the stoppage at Island
Pond gave no security against snug
Cling. The first effect Of the order was to
enlarge the compensation of the Collec-
tor of Customs at Island Pond to $40, 900
or $50, 1000 q year, three or four times that
of the Collector of New York; but the
second result was to destroy the in
transitu trade, to drive il out of the
States back down the st. Lawrence Riv-
er, to ruin the owners of hundred
bonded warehouses at Portland, to break