15927. Grant & Ward (New York, NY)

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who claimed to be and posed as his warmest friends was one of the many causes of our earliest embarrassment. When the public contrast the treatment of such men as Gen. Gordon and Gen. Porter of the Grant family with what he received at our hands they will not be slow in discovering that his only enemies were not those with whom he was openly associated. General Grant was induced to connect himself with concerns that basely betrayed him, and the firm of Grant & Ward was obliged to bear the brunt of the strain caused by these betrayals. General Grant told me that General Porter had induced him to take $200,000 of West Shore bonds on the assurance that no more than 10 per cent. would ever be called, when in reality the whole $200,000 was called, and Grant & Ward were obliged to find the money and also furnish $60,000 for debenture bonds, which made $260,000. where he supposed he would only have $20,000 to pay at the outside. General Grant was drawn into all sorts of schemes by supposed friends who wanted his name to float their enterprises on the promise of enormous dividends without risk or the expenditure of any considerable sums of money. These schemes almost invairably turned out disastrously and the firm was called upon to foot the bills. EXTREMELY RISKY TRANSACTIONS. Instead of being one to induce him to enter into extremely risky transactions I was really a restrainer, and in many cases persuaded him not to go into ventu es which he brought into our office and in which he had implicit faith, born of the assurance of friends who knew that even with his connection they were extremely doubtful and without it absolutely hopeless. One of the most coolly audacious things connected with the whole business was the alacrity with which the directors of the Marine Bank to a man repudiated the hazardous risks and denied all knowledge of the large loans made just before the failure of that concern, when in truth these loans were approved of and voted by a full board of directors, who knew all the ins and outs of the transactions in question. When the real danger came they retreated behind an absurd and un true claim of ignorance, which would in itself be criminal in any body of men in trusted with the care of large sums of money by depositors Prior to the pardoning of Mr. Fish he made the statement that he would have to come out of prison and go to work. This was the main argument when his friends sought executive clemency for the financier His poverty was at that time absolutely appalling, but we have no well authenticated account of his having en gaged in either physical or mental labor since returning to the city. By referring to the foregoing schedule it will be seen that there is small probability of his ever applying to any of the street railway companies for employment. LACK OF REPORTS. A Why is it we hear nothing concerning the affairs of Grant & Ward now? Possibly my seclusion prevented my reading the reports of the receiver, and possibly the failureof the receiver to publish any prevented any or many other interested parties from reading them. There should have at least been a show of some dividends from the securities of the concern, as in one case alone one of these securities brought the handsome sum of $1,000,000. I refer to the old Booth's theater property, at the corner of Sixth avenue and Twenty-third street, which, I am informed, sold for the above price. Possibly these questions are leading, but they are of interest to the clients of Grant & Ward, as well as myself. While on the subject of the receiver it may be well to recall the appointment of a man who was interested in all of Grant & Ward's schemes to act as receiver, as additional protection to the Grant family, but it may possibly escape the notice of the public that it has been in the power of the same receiver to thus far completely cover up the transactions of the firm with Gen. Horace Porter, Gen. Gordon, Work, Warner and others, whose interests and connections with the firm will make interesting reading when published. NOT THE ONLY SUFFERER. Had I been the only sufferer by and through the failure of Grant & Ward and the Marine Bank I would have been undoubtedly open to the charge of seeking both sympathy and redress long after all interest in the affairs of these two concerns had ceased to be of moment to all but those most intimately connected with them, but as several members of the Ward family have been accused of aiding me in the concealment of the millions have beencharged with making and saving it is but justice to the people thus accused to show how impossible it was for me to be the possessor of the sums I was supposed to have placed to my own credit during the time the two establishments in question were in existence. can only clear those unjustly accused by showing where the $5,000,000 deficit of the defunct firm really went and how the disbursement was made. While it is possible for those most deep ly involved in any questionable transac tion to cry, "Stop thief!' and point to the one member of a company which the public selects as the most guilty party as "the hardened criminal and be loudest in the demand for his punishment it ill becomes people SO deep in a transaction as to be completely submerged in the whirlpool made by the sinking ship to use the first breath gained after coming to the surface in loud cries for the arrest and punishment of one of their fellows with whom they were associated in every detail of the business that was to make them all rich men. THE CRIME WAS IN FAILURE. Had the firm of Grant & Ward been successful- it would have been but for an entirely unforeseen and unlooked for circumstance, and a circumstance that no management could avert-those interested in the house would have been proud to claim every dollar made by the transactions in which we were engaged, and not one of them would have been able to see anything wrong in the methods of the arch fiend who led them all by the nose. The crime then consisted in my failure and not in my methods, as all innocent men connected with the firm were after the profits made by the transactions, in which they could see nothing wrong until they failed then they all suddenly discovered enormity of the entire thing