CHAPTER XLII.
BOUNTY-JUMPING.
The Bounty-jumping and Substitute-brokerage Frauds, and their Origin. New York the Headquarters of the Bounty and Substitute-Brokers. Prominent military Officers and Civilians implicated in the Frauds. How newly-enlisted Men managed to escape from Governor's Island. Castle Garden the great Resort of substitute Brokers. How the poor Foreigners were entrapped by lying Promises made to them. How these Frauds could have been prevented by an impartial Conscription Law impartially administered. Colonel Baker arrives in New York for the Purpose of commencing an Investigation. He asks me to assist him, which I consent to do after warning my Associates. How Baker went to work. Striking up an Acquaintance with Jim Fisk. Fisk gives me Money for a charitable Object, and Railroad Passes for poor Soldiers. An Oil Stock Speculation.
HE bounty -jumping and substitute-brokerage frauds arose out of a contest between the efforts of the Federal government to maintain the armies in the field at their maximum strength, and the determination of nearly the entire body of male citizens to escape military duty by any means in their power.
Under the terms of the conscription law, persons drafted were permitted to furnish substitutes, if they could get them, and consequently the purchasing of substitutes became an important branch of industry, in which many thousands of dollars capital were invested, and in which immense sums of money were made. This traffic in human flesh and blood would have been bad enough had it been honestly conducted, but, from its very nature, it held out inducements for fraudulent practices which were irresistible to a majority of those engaged in it.
Anything like volunteering, in a proper sense of the word, had ceased long before my arrival at the North, but each locality being anxious to avoid the conscription, made desperate efforts to fill its quota of men by offering bounties, greater or less in amount, to encourage enlistments. The payment of
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