With the other
$175,000 he has a notion of buying out the New York _Tribune_, and
setting it right on free trade, and other matters of the sort.
I, and his friends owned a fine fleet of merchantmen when the war
broke out. The aggregate burden of the vessels was nearly a million of
tons, and they were worth $40 a ton. When the rebel cruisers commenced
their operations, there were no United States cruisers prepared to
capture them, because our best vessels were on blockade service. This
being the case, insurance on American merchantmen rose very high--so
high that I and his friends were reluctantly compelled to sell their
vessels in Great Britain and elsewhere, and convert them into cash.
They brought $40,000,000, and this sum was invested in merchandise,
which netted a profit of ten per cent. to I and his friends. They thus
gained $4,000,000 by these transactions. The entire proceeds,
$44,000,000, they then lent to the government with which to carry on
its war of existence with the Southern insurgents. Profitable as these
transactions clearly were to I and his friends, and to the government,
Mr.
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