Augusta: John D. Imboden to John Marshall McCue,
February 1, 1881
Summary:
Imboden responds with scorn to McCue's suggestion that he put money into a
venture to claim $50 million that the Confederacy supposedly stored in Europe.
He reminds McCue that the Confederate Government had no money in 1864, and notes
that the U.S. Government would no doubt claim the money for itself if such a sum
existed. Finally, he suggests that rational businessmen see plenty of economic
opportunities in the natural resources of the southern states but would not be
interested in searching the "vaults of a defunct, starved out, naked &
ragged psuedo nationality."
State of North Carolina,
Senate Chamber
February 1st 1881.
Raleigh, North Carolina
Dear Major,
Your letter of the 20th from New York is to hand, and I reply from here. We are getting some very important legislation here to reach the sea with our coals. Hope to have it all right in a few days.
Touching your request to join the searching party after supposed Confederate [added: metaphorically] "buried" treasure in Europe, I have simply this to say why I can't possibly even think of it.
1
st
My entire time, and all my energies and capacity for labor are the
property of my Company, by Contract. I have agreed to engage in nothing else of
a business nature whatever. This one reason is enough so far as I am concerned.
But as you desire me to enlist friends in the scheme to the extent of putting up
$10,000, I ought to state further why I can't undertake
to do so. My reasons are, First: That I
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have no faith in the alleged
fact that the Confederate
government had $50,000,000 - or even $5,000,000 or
one million in Europe in money or property when it collapsed. I know of my
personal knowledge that Mr. Seddon Secretary of War
late in 1864 had neither credit nor money to buy two ship loads of supplies at
Liverpool when we were starving & freezing, & in the dead of
winter [added: he] shipped 2 cargoes of cotton from
Wilmington to buy supplies, & Ben Ficklin got the proceeds, &
the Government got nothing. It is all m[added: o]onshine about this $50,000,000. But suppose it possible, do you
think that a man who had spent $150,000 of his private fortune to unearth it,
has not the credit amongst his own friends to raise a
paltry $10,000 more to insure his success? Why John
Sherman would put it up. Any gambler in New York would
put it up on half a show of winning. But suppose good reasons to exist for
applying to you to help in the last moment, do they
offer you enough interest in it? I understand Nicholas
is to have $500,000. This is only 1 per cent on the $50,000,000. And if you can
raise $10,000
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you are to have $250,000, which is only 1/2 a per
cent, or 50 cents on the $100 [deleted: dollars]. To get the $10,000
you would have to give away the larger part of the $250,000.
Major! Mr Nicholas may be honestly duped in this matter, but the whole thing is
so preposterously ridiculous as I view it, that if
I had $100,000 idle cash lying in bank to day, I would not give $100 for a half
interest in all that will ever be recovered. The war has been over 16 years. The United States
Government has pursued the defunct Confederacy like a beadle for the last
dime to be found anywhere, at home or abroad, & has taken even private
property in some cases, and is grudgingly making restitution. If a stray fund
should now be found, it would take years of litigation to establish the Government's claim to it, and then years of diplomacy
to get it into the United States treasury, and then
more
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years to get Congress to pass an act to divide the "swag" with
the detective who now only wants $10,000. See the
course of Congress on the Geneva Award and the Alabama Claims. The Government recovered $15,000,000 from England ostensibly as a guardian
& trustee of her loyal Citizens whom Semme's,
the hero of the seas despoiled. England paid it over 8 years ago. And the larger
part of it remains in the Treasury to day, undisposed of. If there was the
possibility of any truth in the story of the $50,000,000 life is too short for
you & me to take
a hand in its recovery. We might begin it, but the
next Centennial will be celebrated before we or our heirs would realize from the venture. With these views, it is
unnecessary for me to write to Mr. Nicholas, for under no circumstances could I
go into it, nor would I be willing to commend the scheme to any of my matter of
fact business men in Pittsburgh, who see money in Coal & Iron in the late Confederate States, but none in the
misty vaults of a defunct, starved out, naked
& ragged psuedo nationality.
Hastily Yours
J.D. Imboden
