These gentlemen ask us to give them credit for, after more than two
years, paying a dividend of 10 per cent., (making 30 per cent. in all,)
and affect to regret that they could not, indeed had not the means
to make it ten more. And yet they admit the fact that their “expense
account,” in three years, reaches the enormous sum of $179,437.20;
$62,536.22 of this was for their own salaries and the salaries of clerks,
and $23,008.92 for fees paid to favorite lawyers. In other words,
eighty-five thousand and five hundred and forty-five dollars and fourteen
cents ($85,545.14) went into their own, and the pockets of the type of
lawyers I have described in another part of this work. Well might Mr.
Beverly Douglas exclaim: “The Commissioners regard what there is left
of this sad wreck as a legacy for the benefit of themselves and their
retainers.” That the money is fast disappearing into their own pockets,
and that in two or three years more there will be but very little of
it left for the washers and the scrubbers, the very poor and the very
ignorant, who were so cruelly robbed, we here have ample proof.
A glance over the salary list referred to will show with what heartless
regularity these well-paid Commissioners came up to the bank’s counter
on the _last_ day of each month and drew their salary. I here insert a
few specimens:
January 29, 1875. Sundry persons by N. Y. drafts 391 00
J. A. J. Creswell 250 00
Robert Purvis 250 00
R. H. T. Leipold 250 00
George W. Stickney 250 00
A. M. Sperry 208 33
G. W. Clapp 116 66
H. S. Nyman 100 00
C. A. Fleetwood 166 66
G. H. Bruce 55 00
C. H. Jones 70 00
Henry Mason 60 00
John T. Green 45 00
E. A. Wheeler 125 00
W. E. Augusta 100 00
A. F. Hill 100 00
D. A. Ritter 100 00
--------
$2,637 65
=========
February 27, 1875. John A. J. Creswell 250 00
Robert Purvis 250 00
R. H. T. Leipold 250 00
George W. Stickney 250 00
A. M. Sperry 208 33
G. W. Clapp 116 66
H. S. Nyman 100 00
C. A. Fleetwood 116 66
C. H. Jones 70 00
G. H. Bruce 55 00
Henry Mason 60 00
John T. Green 45 00
E. A. Wheeler 125 00
W. E. Augusta 100 00
A. F. Hill 100 00
--------
$2,096 65
=========
March 29, 1875. John A. J. Creswell 250 00
R. H. T. Leipold 250 00
George W. Stickney 250 00
G. W. Clapp 116 66
H. S. Nyman 100 00
C. A. Fleetwood 116 66
C. H. Jones 70 00
G. H. Bruce 55 00
Henry Mason 60 00
John T. Green 45 00
E. A. Wheeler 125 00
W. E. Augusta 100 00
A. F. Hill 100 00
Horace Morris 100 00
New York drafts for agents 256 00
--------
$1,994 32
=========
The wonder is that Creswell and Leipold did not ask us to credit them
with generous intentions for not waiting until the first day of each
month. These worthy gentlemen, so true to themselves, are Republicans,
holding front seats in the church of Christian statesmen; they are loud
to preach and strong to pray, and they thank God of a Sunday that they
are not as other men. And yet amidst all the suffering and distress,
all the poverty and want, the class of poor robbed by the officials
of this bank here in Washington have been afflicted with for the past
two winters, and which the good and the generous so worthily came
forward to relieve, it does not seem for once to have occurred to these
Commissioners, who were enriching themselves on the money of the washers
and scrubbers, that even one month’s salary would have purchased fuel
and bread enough to feed a thousand starving and shivering families for
a month. There is no charity on that side of Mr. John Andrew Jackson
Creswell’s ledger. He is deaf and dumb when humanity speaks. His name
is not down in charity’s album; at least I have not seen it there. Nor
have I seen Leipold’s mite recorded. And I am sure Attorney-at-law Totten
would regard it as a libel on his reputation to be accused of giving for
charity’s sake.
Let me end this sad story by saying that I want no better proof of the
prudence, docility, and deference of the negro race to the white man than
the fact that they did not rise up and take summary vengeance of the
scoundrels who so cruelly robbed them of their hard earnings.