Year: 1874

IL long ago became evident that the case Of
Phelps, Dodge & Co. was to go on record as
a cause celebre in our mercantile and financial
history. and yet notwithstanding all that has
been said and written upon the subject, it is
certain that, except for the facts that have
been dragged to light within the last few
weeks. it would have been very difficult if
not wholly impossible, for the public to form
any clear conception of its history and na-
tiOnal importance. The circumstance that the
great firm compromised and settled has been
with many stumbling block, inasmuch as it
almost necessarily seemed to imply either n
want of pluck on the one hand, or else a lack
of full consciousness of innocence or absence
of fraudulent intent on the other. 1t is there
fore to this very point, viewed in the light of
the new evidence, that we now propose to ask
special attention and we are very much mis-
taken if this part of the history, hitherto OBJ
scured or concealed, does not, when fully un-
derstood. constitute a cause of Offense against
the Government and all concerned in the pros
ecution. which the great general public will
not be ick either to forget or forgive.


1t will be remembered that the dishonest
clerk, whose sense of patriotic obligation, so
highly extoled by Jayne, did not develop ex-
cept under the prospect of large pecuniary
gains, took first his stolen papers to a law
firm of this city of considerable repute and
standing, but not concerned in Custom-hou
or Revenue business. The case as presented
to them was not one of client seeking
protection of the law against oppression, of
wrongs committed, property taken, character
assaied or person injured and redress


i Al
part of penniless adventurer to share an
opportunity for enrichment contingent on o
violated trust. on condition of legal co0pera-
ton aud assistance. By this firm the case was
worked up at the beginning.


The next step was to communicate with B.
g. Jayne and although Mr.. Jayne confessed
before the Committee of Ways and Means that
he knew the papers on which the case rested
were stolen, yet he knew also that the placer
to be worked was rich. the nuggets great in
prospective, and this for him was all sufficient.


For all ordinary cases, Mr.. Jayne has un-
dOubtedly full confidence in his own capacities !;
but in a case promising such unlimited plunder
as this, ordinary instrumentalities cOnld not be
relied on. He accordingly looks about for a
partner, and from the whole country selects
the most crafty, the most unscrupulous, and
from u political point of view, the most inhu-
entail with the President and the Secretary Of
tho Treasury, in the person of General Butler.
The ring thus formed is next enlarged by the
necessary inclusion as participants of the spoils
of the Collector, Naval Officer andl Surveyor,
and later by the addition of the new District
Attorney George Bliss, whom a vision of two
per cent on one million seven hundred thousand
dollars was enough to tempt to tireless exer-
ton.


One would think that here was an array of
agencies and instrumentalties, in the form Of
lawyers, high officials and detectives. amply
sufficient to manage any case 80 monstrous
and yet 80 clear and palpable. a. this of