Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 1.

“ [144] unless we are too quick for him.” ¹ He then urged the seizure of the forts, Sumter particularly, without a moment's delay. Neither would the conspirators fully trust each other. William H. Trescot, already mentioned, a South Carolinian, and then Assistant Secretary of State and who for years had been conspiring against the Government, was thought to be tricky. The writer just quoted said:--“Further, let me warn you of the danger of Governor Pickens making Trescot his channel of communication with the President, for the latter will be informed of every thing that transpires, and that to our injury. Tell Governor Pickens this at once, before matters go further.” ² And the elder Rhett commenced a letter to his son, of the Charleston Mercury, by saying:--“Jefferson Davis is not only a dishonest man, but a liar!” ³ These politicians seem to have had a correct appreciation of each other's true character.

While the excitement in Washington because of the doings at Charleston was at its hight, it was intensified by a new development of infamy, in the discovery of the theft of an enormous amount of the Indian Trust-Fund, which was in the custody of the conspirator, Jacob Thompson, the Secretary of the Interior. The principal criminal in the affair was undoubtedly Floyd, the Secretary of War. He had been chiefly instrumental in getting up a military expedition into the Utah Territory, in which about six millions of dollars of the public treasure were squandered, to the hurt of the national credit, at a critical time. The troops were stationed there at a point called Camp Floyd; and the Secretary had contracted with the firm of Russell, Major, & Waddell for the transportation of supplies thither from Fort Leavenworth, and other points on the Missouri River. For this service they were to receive about one million of dollars a year. Floyd accepted from them drafts on his Department, in anticipation of service to be performed, to the amount of over two millions of dollars.⁴ These acceptances were so manifestly illegal, that they could with difficulty be negotiated. The contractors became embarrassed by the difficulty, and hit upon a scheme for raising money more rapidly.

Russell had become acquainted with Goddard Bailey, a South Carolinian and kinsman of Floyd, who was the clerk in the Interior Department in whose special custody were the State bonds composing the Indian Trust-Fund. He induced Bailey to exchange these bonds

July, 1860.

for Floyd's illegal acceptances. These were hypothecated in New York, and money raised on them. When, as we have observed, the financial affairs of the country became clouded, late in 1860,⁵ these bonds depreciated, and the holders called on Russell for additional security. Bailey supplied him with more bonds,

December 13.

until the whole amount was the sum of eight hundred and seventy thousand dollars. When the time approached for him to be called upon by the Indian Bureau for the coupons payable on the 1st of January, on the abstracted bonds, Bailey found himself in such a position that he was driven to a confession. Thompson, his employer, was then in North Carolina, on the business of conspiracy, as Commissioner of the “Sovereign State of Mississippi.”