Mr. Bacon Explains

Editor [illegible]: In your issue of last week you copied a couple of paragraphs from the Burlington Hawk-Eye in which my name is used in connection with certain transactions which are made to appear not altogether on the “square,” and you have accorded me the privilege of explaining. I will do so briefly.

The fact may not be known to all your readers, yet it is no less strange than true, that there was one grand swindle concocted in the city of Burlington, for the benefit of the Jay-hawkers of that good city, with the intent of making money out of the Government. The scheme was to raise and equip a company of Lancers to be located in Burlington. Said company flourished to a heavy extent, until it became quite evident to all that the object of the company was more for the purpose of placing money in the pockets of the citizens of Burlington that it was for the good of the country. – When the Government saw fit in its wisdom, to disband this company, then came the rush for the “loaves and fishes.” Bills were made out for all manner of articles, each one striving to make out the largest – and Dunham, of the Hawk-Eye, was among the balance, to ring in one as large as possible – and all urging their claims to be paid by the Government without a why or a wherefore. But Col. Chambers, the General Paymaster of the State, appointed by the Government, was sent to Burlington to audit said claims; and because he refused to allow each and every claim, the wrath of many, and Dunham among the balance, was showered down upon him, and a great cry was heard among the victims of “misplaced confidence.” And when they found they could not succeed in swindling the Government to their heart’s content, they commenced on each other, and undertook to swindle those whose claims had been allowed. – When we visited Burlington the other day the highest price paid for these claims was 70 and 75 cents on the dollar payable in goods, and because we saw fit to offer 80 and 85 cents for the same, we were cried down, and posted in that exemplary sheet, the Hawk-Eye as endeavoring to skin the citizens. Now sir, if paying 85 cents on the dollar for these clams is ‘skinning,’ how are they to escape who paid but 70 and 75? Dunham speaks of an “Ethiopian” (which I judge to be a latin word for a “Nigger in a wood pile” being concealed in this matter. I can’t “see it,” from the fact that we made no secret of our business at Burlington, knowing that we were engaged in a legitimate business. I must conclude, therefore, that the nigger lies concealed at his own door, as it is evident that he has taken this method to score Col. Chambers over our shoulders, because the Colonel did not allow his claim.

And here let me add that I exonerate Colonel Chambers from any blame that can be attached to him in this matter, as I have not seen or corresponded with him since said claims were audited. I consider the insinuation in the Hawk-Eye as a low, gross insult to Col. Chambers’ integrity and emanating from a man who has never been charged with having a high and noble character, but on the contrary from a low debased and unprincipled demagogue ready to sell himself, body and soul, for the “Almighty Dollar.”

As for myself, I will inform Mr. Dunham that it is pretty well conceded that “Bacon knows his Biz,” and he will endeavor to attend to his own affairs without the aid and assistance of said Dunham, and if paying 85 cents for an article that others are paying but 75 cents is swindling, why, so mote it be.

Yours truly,
J. H. Bacon

REMARKS. – The above explanation is a very pretty document, take it as it stands. Every statement in it is false, from the first to the last. Unless he can do better than this he should let Capt. Chambers take care of himself and save his own “bacon.” The citizens of Burlington had nothing to do with the getting up of the Lancer regiment except to be outrageously swindled by it. The editor of this paper never presented an account to Capt. Chambers for printing for the Lancers, nor to the government – never had an account except for so trifling an amount that he did not care to present it. Col. Pleyel came to Burlington having in his pocket the letter of the Secretary of War authorizing him to raise a regiment of Lancers. Upon this letter the regiment contracted many debts, a very small part of which Capt. Chambers audited and allowed. Bacon and his companion, who, we take it is a better and more sensible man because he holds his peace, came to Burlington with a list of these audited claims, and undertook to buy them up at 15 to 20 percent discount, upon the lying pretense that they wished to use them in buying Government horses and Rock Island.

The reason why citizens of Burlington suspected there was something wrong in this matter we will again state with the disclaimer that personally we had not one dollar’s interest in it and not a single personal feeling or grievance connected with the Lancer business. Mr. Warley, who came with this fellow Bacon, is known to be an intimate acquaintance and friend of Capt. Chambers, being a clerk at the Burtis House, where Capt. C. makes or made his home or headquarters. These persons, Warley and Bacon, had a list of the audited claims; and not only a list but had a knowledge of one fact that must have been obtained from the auditing officer. There was a small error in an account of a citizen of South Burlington, discovered after it had been audited. Unable to see this person and take up his erroneous account, Capt. C. made a new and correct one and left it at a business house for this man, leaving word that he would not pay the old one. Bacon and Warley had a knowledge of this circumstance and refused this first claim although it was upon its face, as legal and just a claim as regularly audited as any of the others.

These are the suspicious circumstances. They are not conclusive and positive evidence against Capt. Chambers and we did not and do not wish to be understood as saying so. But they are suspicious circumstances which out to be explained. No amount of abuse of the people of Burlington or of the editor of this paper will make the matter look any better. We want to know, and a good many people here want to know, how these men came by the list which they had, how they came to know the circumstances above narrated, and why they came here to buy Government claims. There are several interesting facts which have not yet been published that will come out at the proper time.

– Published in the Burlington Daily Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Wednesday, April 9, 1862