  GENERAL O. O. HOWARD, THE GREAT CHRISTIAN SOLDIER, COMES UPON THE STAGE AS A SPECULATOR. THE WASHERS AND SCRUBBERS. THE MEN WHO ROBBED THEM. BY Author of the Siege of Washington, Story of a Trooper, and other books. WASHINGTON, D. C.: “WHITE MAN BERY UNSARTIN.” “NIGGER HAINT GOT NO FRIENDS. NO HOW.” THE BLACKEST CHAPTER IN THE HISTORY THE MEN WHO ROBBED AND COMBINED TO ROB WASHINGTON: THE WASHERS AND THE SCRUBBERS—THE MEN WHO ROBBED THEM.The last report of the three Commissioners for winding up (this is a misnomer) the affairs of the bankrupt Freedmen’s Bank, brought out in response to a resolution of Congress, introduced by the Honorable Nicholas Muller, of New York, is one of the most remarkable documents ever given to the American people. It is remarkable as illustrating the heartlessness of man; remarkable as illustrating the amount of scoundrelism there is in our social and political organizations; and remarkable for its exemplification of those trite sayings so common among the slaves of the South before the war, and which I have placed at the head of this article. “White man very unsartin.” “Nigger haint got no friends, no how.” I again approach this black chapter in the history of the great—perhaps I should say once great—Republican party with feelings of sadness. Here, in this remarkable report, we have man’s inhumanity to man portrayed in all its darkest colors. Just here let me pause for a moment to thank kind, generous-hearted Mr. Muller for introducing the resolution which brought out the strange chapter of scoundrelism contained in this remarkable report. And I do this the more cheerfully because he is a Democrat and I am an old time Republican, perhaps I should say Abolitionist, and had failed in three attempts to get a Republican to introduce it. Before proceeding to dissect this remarkable report, however, I propose to say, as a matter of history, something in regard to the formation of the plot concocted by, to use a vulgar phrase, Boss Shepherd and his Ring to rob this bank for the earnings of the poor. Even high-toned robbery has its vein of romance, and there was something romantic in the early stages of the history of this gigantic robbery. One cold, stormy November night, in the year 1871, my rooms were invaded, and my reveries broken by a man I regarded as an intruder. He threw off his wet coat, put his umbrella in the coal box, and I invited him to take a seat. “I am here,” he said, “on a very important mission.” He was considerably excited, and for some minutes spoke with a tremulous voice and somewhat incoherently. At first I thought he was under the influence of liquor, but I remembered that he was not given to the cup. I begged him to concentrate his thoughts, and tell me in the fewest words possible what he had to say. “Mr. Adams,” he said, after pausing a moment, “I know you are a true friend of the colored man.” “Well, never mind that,” said I, “proceed with what you have to say.” He did proceed, and disclosed to me the most monstrous plot for getting possession of the money deposited in the Freedmen’s Bank, and that by men who had been prominent Republicans and professing Christians. There was something so monstrous, so heartless, and so at variance with the laws which ordinarily govern human actions, as to create a doubt in my mind of the truth of what he said. The name of this gentleman was John R. Elvans, a member of the Examining Committee of the bank, who informed me that he had protested, in the name of honesty and humanity, against the contemplated robbery, and had resigned rather than have it appear that he had countenanced so monstrous a wrong. (Just here I desire to put on record this acknowledgment of Mr. Elvans’ honesty.) The substance of the plot was that the six millions of hard earnings of the slaves, constituting their lifetime savings, were to be got by the conspirators on worthless securities, such as bogus paving company stock, second mortgage bonds, and stock of the Seneca Sandstone Company, shares of the Young Men’s Christian Association, and other stuff even more worthless. He also insisted, with considerable emphasis, that the Seneca Sandstone Ring had got complete control of the bank’s money. In reply to a request that Mr. Elvans would give me the names of the men prominent in so dastardly a conspiracy, he gave me those of A. R. Shepherd, Hallett Kilbourn, William S. Huntington, Doctor John L. Kidwell, Lewis Clephane, O. O. Howard, and D. L. Eaton. He also asserted with some vehemence that the officers of the bank, professing Christians and pretended friends of the negroes, were “deepest in the fraud.” In order to be sure of my ground, and not to be misled, I requested Mr. Elvans to get me a transcript from the books of the bank, of the loans he had asserted had been made on those worthless securities. Two days afterwards he brought me the desired transcript, which is now before me in his own handwriting. The following is an exact copy of it: 1. “$20,000 Seneca Sandstone Quarry Company, at 90 cents, to Dr. John L. Kidwell. Loan, $18,000.” 2. “Loan to M. G. Emery of $25,000, on corporation coupon certificates, par value of $50,000.” Mr. Emery was mayor of the city at the time, and it is only right to say here that the loan was a legitimate one, and ultimately paid, with interest. 3. “Loan to H. K.” (which meant Hallett Kilbourn.) “on 300 shares of Metropolis Paving Company, $14,000. The par value of stock $30,000, only $3,500 paid up.” The stock of this concern of which Lewis Clephane was president, and at the same time one of the Finance Committee of the Bank, was at the time it was hypothecated utterly worthless. This Lewis Clephane was what we shall call here, a high society Republican, and twenty years ago was book-keeper for Doctor Guilmel Bailey, editor of the National Era, an ultra anti-slavery journal. Mr. Clephane is now a man of wealth, lives in a thirty thousand dollar house, pretentiously located on the corner of 13th and K streets. How he got the money to build such an elegant house, to ride in his carriage, and fare sumptuously every day, is not a matter for so humble an individual as myself to inquire into. Washington has its laws, socially, legally, and morally, and I have sometimes thought that the bigger the thief the greater were his immunities. The difference between the big thief, in Washington, and the little thief, was beautifully illustrated a few weeks ago in the sentence of one of our judges who sent a black man of the name of George Washington to the Maryland penitentiary for six months, at hard labor, for stealing a goat. Yes, for stealing a goat, commonly regarded as a public nuisance. With so righteous a sentence, staring us in the face, who will dare say justice is jobbed in this District? As to the matter of Mr. Clephane’s wealth, so suddenly acquired, I can safely leave that as a matter to be decided between his conscience and himself. Enough of this. Let us return to Mr. Elvans’ transcript. 4. “Demand Note, of Scharf Paving Company, collateral, 200 shares, of $100 each. (Worthless.) Loan, $3,000.” This Scharf Paving Company was an offshoot of the rascally Metropolis Paving Company, of which John O. Evans, Kilbourn, and other congenial spirits, were the managers, and Lewis Clephane the president. And just here I beg the innocent reader not to forget that during all this time Lewis Clephane, the high society Republican, described above, was a member of the Finance Committee of the Freedman’s Bank, made such, because of his supposed friendship for the colored man. 5. “Loan to John L. Kidwell, apothecary, and President of the Seneca Sandstone Company, 20 bonds of $500 each. Loan. $4,000, at 10 per cent.” These bonds were not worth the paper they were printed on. |
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