lion as the sum of all villanies, and who aimed at making the public believe that they were the most patriotic of citizens.
The why and wherefore of all this I do not pretend to understand, and can only congratulate myself on the fact that I was lucky enough to avoid being made a scapegoat of. I well knew the risks I incurred when I consented to become a party to the transactions I have recorded ; but, had I been captured and made to suffer, while my confederates were enjoying the protection of some of the chief officers of the government, I would scarcely have thought that justice was being administered with exactly an even hand. As, however, I was not captured, I presume that I have no cause to complain because other people were not punished as they should have been; only, it seems to me to be a queer way of managing the treasury department of a great nation to permit such men as those I have referred to to hold the positions they did, in the face of such facts as were brought to light concerning them, and -to treat the detective officers who expose their misdeeds as the really guilty party.
Counterfeiting Government Securities.
In the matter of notes and bonds printed from the duplicate plates obtained from the treasury, an immense business was done both in this country and in England. The person to whom I gave the first plate delivered to me printed eighty-five thousand dollars' worth of one hundred dollar compound interest notes from it. These were, so far as appearances were concerned, just as good as the genuine ones issued from the treasury department. Of this batch, twenty-five thousand dollars' worth were sent to England, and we received exchange for them. The rest were disposed of to the banks, and through various channels.
The bankers and brokers, both here and in England, took these bogus notes and bonds without any hesitation whatever, as indeed there was every reason they should for there was nothing to distinguish them from the genuine ones that could avail for their detection by ordinary purchasers.
It is impossible for me to give any idea of the enormous amount of this kind of counterfeiting that was done without apparently any serious effort being made on the part of the Federal government to check it. I and my associates had the handling of bogus paper representing immense sums, which
