In This Transaction He Did
Not Himself Handle Above 25,000 Dollars.
Then the whole job fell
into the hands of Mr. Cameron's old political friend.
The 2,000,000 dollars, or 400,000l., were paid into the hands of
certain government treasurers at New York, but they had orders to
honor the draft of the political friend of the Secretary of War, and
consequently 50,000l. was immediately withdrawn by Mr. Cummings, and
with this he went to work. It is shown that he knew nothing of the
business; that he employed a clerk from Albany whom he did not know,
and confided to this clerk the duty of buying such stores as were
bought; that this clerk was recommended to him by Mr. Weed, the
editor of a newspaper at Albany, who is known in the States as the
special political friend of Mr. Seward, the Secretary of State; and
that in this way he spent 32,000l. He bought linen pantaloons and
straw hats to the amount of 4200l., because he thought the soldiers
looked hot in the warm weather; but he afterward learned that they
were of no use. He bought groceries of a hardware dealer named
Davidson, at Albany, that town whence came Mr. Weed's clerk. He did
not know what was Davidson's trade, nor did he know exactly what he
was going to buy; but Davidson proposed to sell him something which
Mr. Cummings believed to be some kind of provisions, and he bought
it. He did not know for how much - whether over 2000l. or not. He
never saw the articles, and had no knowledge of their quality. It
was out of the question that he should have such knowledge, as he
naively remarks. His clerk Humphreys saw the articles. He presumed
they were brought from Albany, but did not know. He afterward
bought a ship - or two or three ships. He inspected one ship "by a
mere casual visit:" that is to say, he did not examine her boilers;
he did not know her tonnage, but he took the word of the seller for
everything. He could not state the terms of the charter, or give
the substance of it. He had had no former experience in buying or
chartering ships. He also bought 75,000 pairs of shoes at only 25
cents (or one shilling) a pair more than their proper price. He
bought them of a Mr. Hall, who declares that he paid Mr. Cummings
nothing for the job, but regarded it as a return for certain
previous favors conferred by him on Mr. Cummings in the occasional
loans of 100l. or 200l.
At the end of the examination it appears that Mr. Cummings still
held in his hand a slight balance of 28,000l., of which he had
forgotten to make mention in the body of his own evidence. "This
item seems to have been overlooked by him in his testimony," says
the report. And when the report was made, nothing had yet been
learned of the destiny of this small balance.
Then the report gives a list of the army supplies miscellaneously
purchased by Mr. Cummings: 280 dozen pints of ale at 9s. 6d. a
dozen; a lot of codfish and herrings; 200 boxes of cheeses and a
large assortment of butter; some tongues; straw hats and linen
"pants;" 23 barrels of pickles; 25 casks of Scotch ale, price not
stated; a lot of London porter, price not stated; and some Hall
carbines of which I must say a word more further on. It should be
remembered that no requisition had come from the army for any of the
articles named; that the purchase of herrings and straw hats was
dictated solely by the discretion of Cummings and his man Humphreys,
or, as is more probable, by the fact that some other person had such
articles by him for sale; and that the government had its own
established officers for the supply of things properly ordered by
military requisition. These very same articles also were apparently
procured, in the first place, as a private speculation, and were
made over to the government on the failure of that speculation.
"Some of the above articles," says the report, "were shipped by the
Catiline, which was probably loaded on private account, and, not
being able to obtain a clearance, was, in some way, through Mr.
Cummings, transferred over to the government - SCOTCH ALE, LONDON
PORTER, SELECTED HERRINGS, and all." The italics, as well as the
words, are taken from the report.
This was the confidential political friend of the Secretary of War,
by whom he was intrusted with 400,000l. of public money! Twenty-
eight thousand pounds had not been accounted for when the report was
made, and the army supplies were bought after the fashion above
named. That Secretary of War, Mr. Cameron, has since left the
cabinet; but he has not been turned out in disgrace; he has been
nominated as Minister to Russia, and the world has been told that
there was some difference of opinion between him and his colleagues
respecting slavery! Mr. Cameron, in some speech or paper, declared
on his leaving the cabinet that he had not intended to remain long
as Secretary of War. This assertion, I should think, must have been
true.
And now about the Hall carbines, as to which the gentlemen on this
committee tell their tale with an evident delight in the richness of
its incidents which at once puts all their readers in accord with
them. There were altogether some five thousand of these, all of
which the government sold to a Mr. Eastman in June, 1861, for 14s.
each, as perfectly useless, and afterward bought in August for 4l.
8s. each, about 4s. a carbine having been expended in their repair
in the mean time. But as regards 790 of these now famous weapons,
it must be explained they had been sold by the government as
perfectly useless, and at a nominal price, previously to this second
sale made by the government to Mr. Eastman.
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