ner possible, made such things permissible. When I found out, however, that not only were counterfeit Confederate bonds and notes freely manufactured at the North, without any interference on the part of the government, but that Federal officials actually made use of this bogus Confederate paper whenever they found it convenient to do so, I had no hesitation in coming to the conclusion that we would be perfectly justifiable in retaliating, and that we had the same right to raid on the Federal treasury, and to injure the Federal credit, that the Federals had to try and swamp our finances.
Bogus Confederate Securities.
It was Colonel Baker who decided me to go into this business. That individual always seemed to have a plentiful amount of bogus Confederate bills on hand, to be used" on occasion. On my Richmond trip, as the reader will recollect, he gave me a considerable sum in this kind of money, to assist in paying my expenses, all of which was just so much saved to the Federal government,—or, perhaps, to Baker individually,—for I was travelling in the capacity of a Federal secret service agent. On numerous similar occasions Baker found it convenient to meet the expenses of his spies within the Confederate lines with promises to pay, supposed to have been issued in Richmond, but in reality manufactured and given to the world in New York and Philadelphia. He seemed to regard it *as quite a proper way of fighting the rebels, to put as many counterfeit Confederate notes as possible into circulation ; and, when I discovered that he was of this way of thinking, I was not long in deciding that we rebels had a right to make the thing even by circulating as many bogus United States notes and bonds as we could, especially as we would serve the double purpose of aiding the Confederate and injuring the Federal government, and as, moreover, we would be assisted by prominent Federal officials.
Having made my arrangements with parties in Philadelphia and New York, and having obtained the information necessary for me to make my initial movements, I went to Washington, and, first of all, had a talk with Colonel Baker, giving him some information—real or fictitious, as the case may have been—which I thought would amuse him, and assist in convincing him that I was overflowing with zeal for the Federal cause. This interview with Baker was in accordance
