propose to make them public, as it has been the general impression almost every where that Barnum and myself were associated in defrauding the community. I wish to have it understood that I never saw P.T.  Barnum, while he was connected with the Company of which I was a member, have never seen him but once since, and that was in February after the failure.  About this time law suits were being brought against him, and as some supposed, by his friends.  He was called upon, or offered himself as a witness, and I believe testified that he was worth nothing.  The natural effect of this testimony was to depreciate the paper which his name was on.  At the time when I saw him, he told me that the Museum was his just as much as it ever was, and that he received the profits, which had never been less than twenty-five thousand and were sometimes thirty thousand dollars per annum; and yet, he was publicly stating that he was worth nothing!  He also, as I supposed, held securities of the Jerome Manufacturing Company, to a large amount, (as I suppose about one hundred thousand dollars,) for I know that such papers had been in his hands.  There were many persons who were interested in the revival of the business, who were in some way flattered into the belief that Barnum would re-purchase the whole clock establishment and put them back into the business again.  Several men were sent by some one to examine the property and estimate its value, and those persons who were anxious for a restoration of the business were in some way led to believe that Barnum intended to re-commence the business of clock-making.  For myself, I do not suppose that Barnum ever seriously contemplated any such thing; but the belief that he did, made some men quiet who might otherwise have been active and troublesome.

The manner in which this matter has been represented would reflect dishonesty upon the Secretary, which would be untrue.  No one who knows him will, or can accuse him of dishonesty.  I love truth, honesty and religion; I do not mean, however, the religion that Barnum believes in:  (I believe that the wicked are punished in another world.) I ask the reader to look at my situation in my old age.  I think as much of a good name, as to purity of character and honesty at heart, as any man living; and very often reading in the New York papers of speeches that Barnum has made, alluding to his being defrauded by the Jerome Manufacturing Company, I wish the world to know the whole facts in the case, and what my position was in the Company which bore my name.  After many years—­ years of very active business life—­I had retired from active duty in the Company, although I took a deep interest in every thing connected with it, and also a great pride, as it was a business that I had built up and had been many years in perfecting.  The manufacturing had been systematized in the most perfect manner and every thing looked prosperous to me.  I owned stock as others did, but did not know of its financial standing, and was always informed that it was all right, and that I should be perfectly safe in endorsing.  I wish to have it understood that I did not sign my name to any of this paper, it being done by the Secretary himself, that therefore I could not know of the amounts that were raised in that way, that I did not find out till after the failure, and then the large amounts overwhelmed me with surprise.