was again derelict of its duty. When the gang organized to rob the bank
had finished its nefarious work, and its doors were closed in bankruptcy,
one would have supposed that the most important question to be decided
was the quickest and most economical method of winding up its affairs, to
the end of saving as much as possible to the poor, deluded depositors. A
Republican Congress did exactly the opposite of this.
Instead of authorizing the President to appoint a receiver, a man of
well-known integrity and business capacity, it authorized him to appoint
a board of three commissioners, each at a salary of three thousand
dollars a year, to be paid out of the funds of the bank. This was
virtually giving the commissioners a long lease of the funds.
Grant, in making these appointments, charmingly illustrated what is known
as Grantism. Creswell, who resigned his position in Grant’s cabinet
to escape impeachment, and with whose official and political record
the country is already familiar, was his first choice. Money is Mr.
Creswell’s fetish, no one has ever accused him of doing a charitable act,
and as for political convictions, he has about as much use for them as a
savage has for a time-piece. When a Senator, a true friend of the race,
remonstrated against this appointment and predicted the result, Grant
said Creswell was a lawyer, and as such could make himself useful in
managing the legal affairs. We shall see what kind of legal service this
lawyer has rendered.
Grant’s next choice was an aged black man, with a very benevolent
face, named Purvis. Of law, banking, finance, poor Purvis knew just
nothing. His knowledge of medicine even was slender, and he resided in
Philadelphia. These qualifications, however, were satisfactory to Grant,
who said the Board would not be complete without “one nigger,” whose
presence was necessary to inspire confidence in the plundered depositors.
He doubtless meant the poor devils, the washers and scrubbers, the very
poor and the very ignorant, who had been plundered by his cronies.
Grant’s third choice was R. H. T. Leipold.[1] His qualifications were
that he was a Hessian by birth, had lived in Wisconsin, was a favorite of
Senator Howe of that State, and had been a clerk in that great American
penal colony, the Treasury Department. I want the reader to make a note
of this Senator Howe part of the business, as I shall have something to
say on it hereafter, when a son-in-law of that Senator figures somewhat
numerically.
To men of Purvis’ and Leipold’s type, this salary of three thousand
dollars a year was a god-send of no mean dimensions. But placing them in
charge of the bank’s money was a very dangerous power to intrust such
men with. Grant, I am told, used to allude to these commissioners as
representing Europe, Africa, and America. That it was a charming blending
of colors must be confessed. The sombre clouding, however, hung around
America, represented by the man Creswell.