Year: 1873

THE ALABAMA AWARD.


The semi official accounts from Washington
of the method adopted by the English and
United States Governments for the transfer
of the Alabama award of S15,5O0OOO in gold
from England to this country are, as usual,
incomplete and misleading. we have been at
some trouble to get at the facts, and the fol-
lowing summary of the arrangement which ls
being carried out can be depended on:


It is the duty of the English Chancellor of
the Exchequer to get the award in gold coin
or United States Treasury certificates for gold
deposited into the hands of Hamilton Fish,
Secretary Of State, by the middle OF next
September. To effect this Mr.. Lowe has made
an arrangement with the banking houses OF
Jay Cooke, McCulloch 81 Co., j. S. Morgan
e. Co., and Morton Rose a. Co. These firms
belong to the Syndicate, but the Syndicate
embraces other firms also. Hence the Wash
ington statement is true that the Syndicate,
as such, has nothing to do with the
negotiations of the English Government,
and, in fact, nothing to do with the
matter at all. Mr.. Lowe has already
paid over to the bankers some ten or twelve
million dollars, of which about seven millions
have been transmitted to this country, and
the remainder invested in five-twenty bonds
of the 1862 issue, which have been called in
for redemption on the 9Th of September. The
bankers named are bound by their agreement
with the English Government to settle with
Mr.. Fish at the same date. Probably half the
payment will be made in the called five-twen-
ties. This, of course. will have no manner of
effect on the gold market.


An act of Congress requires the Secretary
of the Treasury to call in and cancel an
amount of five-twenty bonds equal to the
award, and it is in accordance with this law
that the call of the 9th of June for twenty
millions was made. The odd four and half
millions are to be paid out of the gold already
in the Treasury The whole operation, when
completed, will add four and q half millions
to the commercial supply of gold, and will
probably have a slight unfavorable effect on
the foreign exchanges. But this is not OF conse-
quence as the exchange in September is usually
in favor of this country The transfer during
the last few weeks of about seven million
dollars to this side of the Atlantic gives the
bankers concerned in the operation hand
some profit, since bills on London have been
quoted for some time at q premium OF from
One-half to three-quarters OF one per cent.
The bankers have also the use of the Ala
bama money for the eight or ten weeks dur
ing which it remains in their hands. If they
purchase called bonds thoy receive the accru-
ing interest For this, of course they are in
debted to the English Government, but there
Is one point involved which concerns our own
Government.


The act of Congress which requires five
twenty bonds to the amount of the indemnity
to be called in and Cancelled also requires the
setting apart of like amount in five per cent
registered bonds as a fund out of which the
sufferers by the Alabama and other COnfed-
crate privateer5 are eventually to be paid.
The Syndicate, under the terms Of their con-
tract, have the exclusive right to place the
five per cent bonds of the United States undl
tho close of tho current year. The placing
apart of $f5,500,0OO of money belonging to the
United States as a fund, invested in United
States registered bond of that amount,
is nero entry in an accOunt-bOok.
No money leaves the Treasury. No bonds
go out of the possession of the United States.
Yet, if we may believe recent dispatch from
Washington, the Syndicate will receive COM
mission on this sO-called investment by the
United States of its own money in its own
bonds. 1t strikes us that there is not the
ghost of legal claim for such a commission.
No service, of any nature, is performed by
the Syndicate, and the five per cent registered
bond forms no part of the Public Debt until
it passes out of the possession of the United
States. Aside from the dispatch referred to,
and from the fact that the semi
official explanation sent from Washington
makes no denial of the charge, we have strong
reasons for believing that the Syndicate pre-
tend to be entitled to such gratuity, and no
one need be told that the Syndicate find the
present Secretary of the Treasury a very
pleasant person to deal with. The Syndicate
in our opinion, has not the shadow of title
to One-half per cent commission on this fifteen
and a half millions of Alabama money, and if
Mr.. Richardson pays it he will deserve to be
Ill