of the same, in different sums from time to time as the deposits were made, instead of drawing the coin from the Treasury in payment of their bonds and coupons. On September 9, 1873, all these certificates were returned and cancelled, and one coin certificate for the full amount was issued to the depositors, and made payable to their order. This they indorsed "to the joint order of H. B. M. Minister or Chargé d'Affaires at Washington, and Acting Consul General at New York." Those officers, Sir Edward Thornton, Minister, and Mr. Archibald, Consul General, indorsed the same to the Honorable Hamilton Fish, Secretary of State, at the State Department in Washington, in payment of the Geneva Award; and payment was thus consummated. Mr. Secretary Fish then indorsed and delivered this certificate to the Secretary of the Treasury, who issued to him therefor one five per cent registered bond of the funded loan for the whole amount. There were no engraved bonds of that denomination, of course, and the one delivered was elegantly written out with a pen, in exact similitude ornamentation and all, with the engraved bonds of the same loan. This bond has been photographed at the Treasury Department, and many copies have been called for and furnished to persons who desired to preserve them as curiosities connected with a great historical event, the settlement of the "Alabama Claims." Thus you will see that the whole business was done without the payment of actual coin into the Treasury. The bonds and coupons in Europe were bought up with money paid there, not by the United States Government, and, together with those deposited here, were redeemed without the payment of money, but by the issue of coin certificates, which were paid or redeemed in a bond of the funded loan. The transaction was carried on so gradually, extending over a period of three months, that its effect upon exchange or business was too insignificant to attract notice of any kind, if, indeed, it had any effect whatever upon either the one or the other. As to the arrangements between the British Government and the parties whom it employed to make the transfer of the money from London to Washington, or among those parties themselves, the Treasury Department here had no concern and no knowledge. The United States employed nobody in the business outside of their own officers, and they paid nothing to anyone on account of it. They profited by the operation in funding fifteen and a half million dollars of bonds drawing six per cent interest into a bond drawing only five per cent interest, and this they did without paying commissions or incurring any expenses whatever. All these facts are matters of record in the Treasury Department, and, I have stated only what can be found there by diligent search among the immense archives of that great Department. I am very respectfully and truly yours, &c., FRANK W. HACKETT, ESQ., WILLIAM A. RICHARDSON. The following are copies of the certificate of deposit, with the indorsements thereon, and the bond referred to in the foregoing letter: CERTIFICATE OF DEPOSIT. 15,500,000. Act of March 34 1863. 15,500,000. No.1. It is hereby certified that Fifteen million five hundred thousand dollars Have been deposited with the Treasurer of the United States No.1. TO DREXEL, MORGAN & CO. MORTON, BLISS & CO. JAY COOKE & Co. or their order, Washington, September 9th 1873. Approved William A. Richardson, Secretary of the Treasury. [INDORSEMENTS.] John Allison, Register of the Treasury. F. E. Spinner, Treasurer of the United States. Pay to the Joint order of H. B. M. Minister or Chargé d'Affaires at Washington and Acting Consul General at New York, DREXEL, MORGAN & CO., MORTON, BLISS & Co., Pay to the order of HAMILTON FISH, Secretary of State, EDW! THORNTON, H. B. M.'s Minister, E. M. ARCHIBALD, H. B. M. Consul General, New York. Pay to the order of HON. W A. RICHARDSON, Secretary of the Treasury, HAMILTON FISH, Secretary of State. No. 1. THE Secretary of the Treasury. 15,500,000 AT THE TREASURY OF THE UNITED STATES. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Hon. Hamilton Fish, Secretary of State, in trust to be held Are Indebted To subject to the future disposition of Congress as provided or Assigns No. 1. in the Act approved March 3, 1873, Chap. CCLXI. IN THE SUM OF FIFTEEN MILLION FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS. This Bond is issued in accordance with the provisions of an ACT of CONGRESS entitled "An Act to authorize the refunding of the NATIONAL DEBT, approved July 14, 1870, amended by an Act approved January 20, 1871," and is redeemable at the pleasure of the UNITED STATES after the first day of May, A.D. 1881, in COIN of the standard value of the UNITED STATES, on said July 14, 1870, with interest, in such COIN, from the day of the date hereof, at the rate of five percentum per annum, payable quarterly, on the first day of February, May, August, and November, in each year. The principal and interest are exempt from the payment of all TAXES or DUTIES of the UNITED STATES, as well as from Taxation in any form, by or under State, Municipal or Local authority. Entered G. L. W. Recorded G. H. J. Transferable on the Books of this Office. E.B.MACG. John Allison, Register of the Treasury. INDEX. ABSENT claimant, 16. ACCIDENT preventing filing of petition, 18. ACT OF 1874, section one, 2. two, 8. three, 9. four, 14. five, 14. six, 15. seven, 19. eight, 20. nine, 21. ten, 24. eleven, 26. twelve, 42. thirteen, 111. fourteen, 113. fifteen, 115. sixteen, 116. seventeen, 116. eighteen, 122. See APPENDIX II. whether claims formerly admissible under, are admissible under act of 1882, 89, 90. ACT OF 1882, section one, 1. two, 8. three, 15. to Earl Russell, transmitting claims, 22. notifies Great Britain that she will be held responsible for acts of "Ala- ADJUSTMENT of general average, cost of, in bonded vessel, not recoverable, 32. loyalty of, 73, 74. substitution of, 17. ADMIRALTY, jurisdiction of, over the high seas, 91. ADMISSION OF ATTORNEYS, rule for, 10. whether new motion required for, under act of 1882, quære, 123. ADVANCE WAGES, where owners have paid, 58. ADVANTAGES, PROSPECTIVE, 52. AFFIDAVIT of attorney to petition, 18. of value filed in Department of State, 22. AGENT must show authority to act, 17. AGGREGATE of claims acted upon by court, 20. AGREEMENT of two judges necessary to decide, 8. |