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Further evidence in proof of the validity of this transfer is on record with Col Justus Q. McCarty - 295 "F" Street, Washington D.C. who was my legal correspondent - and who was promptly notified of the change, and who was directed by me to transfer all of my interests in our business either present or prospective to the credit of my successor, I having sold the same to him and received the stipulated remuneration therefor.

Possibly it might be considered as unbecoming in me at the present time to cast any reflection upon the Author, or comment upon the origin of the accusation which has occasioned my temporary suspension.

I trust however I will be pardoned in hazarding the surmise that this charge has had its origin and inception indirectly in the fact that Claim Agents here had made a fruitless attempt to bribe me into their interest before I have yet entered upon the cuties of my office.  The supposition is strengthened by the fact of the "protest" having been made by Mr Cyrus Hamlin a prominent Claim Agent of this City, and while I do not accuse Mr Hamlin of complicity in an attempt to corrupt an officer of this Bureau, still the indications are strong that he has surrendered himself an easy dupe to the machinations of his brother Claims Agents.

I am in possession of evidence that is sufficient to convict some of them of perjury in their "Affidavits of Advances."  Others who have received Certificates "payable to order of Claimants" have succeeded in getting them cashed by Paymasters, and then have charged as high as thirty per cent for collection.  In one instance of this character the claimant was paid in depreciated, and incurrent City Notes.

Fraud and rapine and robbery have been successfully practiced under the shield of the claimants ignorance, until emboldened by success; attempts have been made to subsidize the local agents of the Bureau in the rural sections of the State into the interests of the Claim Agents, in securing for them the prosecution of Claims in the place of transmitting them for collection through this Bureau.

I am firmly of the belief that a well grounded fear that I would expose them, has solely influence the men who