Let us survey the field carefully and thoroughly, and see how these
commissioners have got away with the savings of the scrubbers and the
washers, the widows and the orphans of the very poor and the very
ignorant. And I will begin this by turning to the testimony and report of
Hon. Beverly Douglass’ Investigating Committee, made to Congress May 9th,
1876. That investigation developed:
First: A chapter of fraud unparalleled in the history of crime.
Second: Shameful dereliction of duty on the part of the
commissioners.
Third: That J. A. J. Creswell was too much engaged in other
business, to give any of his valuable time to the bank. That he
paid Leipold $500 for attending to his part of the business,
and quietly pocketed $2,500.
Fourth: That the colored man Purvis, followed the example of
Creswell—paid Leipold $500 to excuse him.
Fifth: That Leipold was the great Republican high priest, who
ran the bank according to his own methods.
Sixth: That the remaining funds were fast disappearing into the
pockets of the commissioners and their favorites.
Seventh: That the commissioners were appointed on the 4th of
July, 1874, and that no report of their management has been
made, as was required by law.
Eighth: That more than sixty thousand dollars had disappeared
in a single year, for what was called “expense account.”
Ninth: That there was at least a suspicious connection between
Leipold, Senator Howe’s man, and lawyer Totten, a son-in-law of
the same Senator.
Tenth: That G. W. Stickney succeeded D. L. Eaton, as Actuary of
the bank; that some of the very worst frauds on the bank were
committed during his administration, and with his knowledge.
Not only this, but that he was found to be individually
indebted to the bank to the amount of $2,680.
Brother G. W. Stickney, sometimes called Colonel Stickney, is well known
in Washington, alike for his praying propensities and sharp practices.
He is, if I may be pardoned for using the phrase, an outwash of the war,
a Christian statesman of the Schuyler Colfax type. He is one of those
persons who could, at any time, get a certificate of good character from
those illustrious friends of humanity, U. S. Grant and Boss Shepherd.
Let us turn to page 50 of Mr. Beverly Douglas’ report and see what
Brother J. W. Alvord, at one time president of the Freedmen’s Bank, says
of Brother G. W. Stickney:
By the Chairman (Douglas):
Q. I want you to tell the Committee, without any evasion or
concealment, whether, during your administration as president,
or your connection with the bank as trustee, there was, to
your mind and your comprehension, a fair, faithful, and honest
administration of its funds?
A. I can answer in the language of Saturday last. There was I
would not say dishonest, but improper loaning to men who were
not responsible; loaning upon insufficient security; loaning
on illegal security, such as city scrip and personal chattels;
and permitting employees at the branches to loan without the
knowledge of the trustees. The Actuary [Stickney] gave them
such permission as that. They quoted him as authority for such
loans. I do not think that the trustees ever stole any money.
[Credulous Alvord!] The matter of Vandenburgh is one of the
marked instances that I would range under insufficient security.
Q. You seem to be very well acquainted with Vandenburgh, from
your boyhood up. Do you know whether there was any business
connection in the street paving business between Vandenburgh
and Alexander R. Shepherd at the time these loans were being
negotiated?
A. I do not know that there was any business connection.
Q. Tell us of any other connection that there was between them.
A. I know that they were acquaintances, and that Mr. Shepherd
was at the head of affairs here, while Mr. Vandenburgh was a
contractor.
Q. Contractor under him?
A. Contractor of him; he contracted to do his work in the city
for pay....
By Mr. Bradford:
Q. Where is this Mr. Stickney, the actuary? Does he live in
this city?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. What was his pecuniary condition when he entered the service
of the Freedmen’s Bank?
A. He was a man without any appearance of any considerable
amount of means—not very large amount of property. He is a
wide-a-wake, active, business real estate broker.
Q. How much property has he got now?
A. I cannot tell.... I think he has an interest in a good many
pieces of property; how large that interest is, or how well
secured, I cannot say.
The above will serve to show what kind of a man this G. W. Stickney was.
The simple truth is that, when he took charge of the bank’s affairs,
about all the property he had was his pretensions to being a high church
Republican, and his stock in trade in religion of an assorted kind.
Old man Alvord was an unwilling witness. He could have told the Committee
much more than he did of the connection between Stickney and Shepherd,
Vandenburgh and Shepherd, John O. Evans, Lewis Clephane, and Hallett
Kilbourn. Vandenburgh is a free and easy, good natured, open-handed
man, and not naturally dishonest. And yet he was, during the reign of
Mr. Shepherd and his Ring, a sample sheep, of which Clephane, Evans,
Kilbourn, and Shepherd constituted the flock. He was associated with
them in the paving business, and the very large amounts of money he was
permitted to draw from the bank from time to time, and while Stickney
had almost absolute control of its funds—nearly $200,000—convinces me
that there was not only collusion, but that Vandenburgh was used as an
instrument by his more designing confederates. These “Vandenburgh loans,”
as they are called, are regarded as bad as any made by the bank. That
Vandenburgh never could have used so large an amount of money in his own
business, the Committee were satisfied. This, too, must be said, that Mr.
Beverly Douglas was very decidedly of the opinion that Vandenburgh was
“used by the master spirits of the ring to pull their chestnuts out of
the fire.”
Stickney was responsible for these bad loans. They were made with his
consent, perhaps not criminally. I have, however, given enough proof to
convince the candid reader that he never should have been employed as an
officer of the bank again.