CHAPTER XL.
AN ATTACK ON THE FEDERAL TREASURY.
The Bounty-jumping and Substitute-brokerage Business. Rascalities in high Life and low Life. Bounty-jumpers and Substitute-brokers not the worst Rogues of the Period. High Officials of the Government implicated in Swindles. Baker's Raid on the treasury Ring, and the Charges of Conspiracy brought against him by Members of Congress and others. A Committee of Congress exonerates the guilty Parties, and blames Baker for exposing them. What I know about these Transactions. Money needed to carry on the Confederate Operations at the North. Federal Officials countenancing the Issue of counterfeit Confederate Bonds and Notes. I go to Washington for the Purpose of getting in with the Treasury Ring. A rebel Clerk introduces me to a high Official, who, on Condition of sharing in the Profits, introduces me to the Printing Bureau of the Treasury. The Trade with England in bogus Federal and Confederate Securities. Making Johnny Bull pay some of the Expenses of the War.
N my return to New York, circumstances occurred which called my special attention to the operations of the bounty-jumpers and substitute-brokers, and having no other schemes on hand, I was induced to interest
myself in the business of reducing the strength of the
Federal armies in the field, by preventing the re-enforcements demanded by the government from reaching the front.
The efficiency of the services rendered the Confederacy by these substitute-brokers and bounty-jumpers, cannot be over-estimated. Large armies existed on paper; but while the generals in command kept constantly and uninterruptedly calling for more men, they failed to receive them in such numbers as were requisite for keeping their ranks full, and many important movements were rendered ineffectual, and thousands of lives were needlessly sacrificed, simply because the recruiting system adopted by the government was far better calculated for giving abundant employment to rogues of the worst class, than it was for keeping the strength
of the army up to the proper standard.
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