General Fremont Had No Authority
Himself To Make Such A Purchase, And When The Money Was Paid For The
First Installment Of The Arms, It Was So Paid By The Special Order
Of General Fremont Himself Out Of Moneys Intended To Be Applied To
Other Purposes.
The money was actually paid to a gentleman known at
Fremont's headquarters as his special friend, and was then paid in
that irregular way because this friend desired that that special
bill should receive immediate payment.
After that, who can believe
that Stevens was himself allowed to pocket the whole amount of the
plunder?
There is a nice little story of a clergyman in New York who sold,
for 40l. and certain further contingencies, the right to furnish 200
cavalry horses; but I should make this too long if I told all the
nice little stories. As the frauds at St. Louis were, if not in
fact the most monstrous, at any rate the most monstrous which have
as yet been brought to the light, I cannot finish this account
without explaining something of what was going on at that Western
Paradise in those halcyon days of General Fremont.
General Fremont, soon after reaching St. Louis, undertook to build
ten forts for the protection of that city. These forts have since
been pronounced as useless, and the whole measure has been treated
with derision by officers of his own army. But the judgment
displayed in the matter is a military question with which I do not
presume to meddle.
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