AUTOGRAPH LETTER, SIGNED, FROM THE U.S. SENATE CHAMBER, 15 DECEMBER 1865, TO AN UNKNOWN RECIPIENT, EXPRESSING "HOPE THAT PAYMASTER BINNEY MAY HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY TO VINDICATE HIMSELF."
[Washington]: Senate Chamber, 1865. Letter written and signed, "Charles Sumner," in ink script on the first page of a [4] page bifolium. Folded, inner pages blank, docketed in a different hand on the last page. Very Good.
"My dear Sir, | I hope that Paymaster Binney may in some way have an opportunity of purging himself from the suspicions under which he has fallen. I know not how this is to be done, & I only ask for justice. | Faithfully yours, | Charles Sumner."
Col. Amos Binney [1830-1880] was Chief Paymaster of the United States Army during the Civil War. According to the Alexandria Gazette, Binney was "a paymaster of long standing in the service, being entrusted with several millions of dollars. . . [He] converted three millions of it into seven-thirty bonds and deposited them in the Norfolk and other banks. Complaints being made to the Paymaster General that the bank of Richmond were charging soldiers who had been paid off in these bonds a heavy discount, which resulted in the instant transfer of Colonel Binney to the National Capital for examination." [Alexandria Gazette, Volume 71, Number 177, 26 August 1865, page 1.]
Newspapers around the nation reported that Binney was suspected of having made thirty or forty thousand dollars by buying up these heavily discounted bonds. Binney was given the option of restoring the funds unlawfully in his possession and being honorably discharged, or appearing before a court martial. Seventeen other implicated paymasters had already been cashiered. Binney, according to news reports, had decided to take his chances at trial. But Paymaster General Brice informed Secretary of War Stanton, on 26 December 1865, that Binney had made restitution; though the restitution was an admission of the criminal malfeasanse alleged, Brice opined that prosecution was not appropriate. Binney was mustered out of service. [Cleveland Daily Leader, 20 Nov. 1865, Page 1; The Daily Phoenix, 15 Nov. 1865, Page 1.]. Item #37959
Price: $500.00