true
that in one instance a dishonest plate printer took an impression of
a bond upon a sheet of lead for use in counterfeiting. The possibility
of such an act was due to a lack of system and not to any want of
fidelity in Mr. Clark. One of my first acts was to remove Mr. Clark,
and then to open a new set of books. The printing of the old issues
was suspended permanently, and new plates were prepared. Mr. Clark had
had control of the manufacture of the paper, the control of the
engravers, the control of the plates, the control of the printers, of
the counters, and he had had the custody of the red seal. The postal
currency was printed under his direction. The pieces were not
numbered, they were due bills only. At the end of twenty years the
books showed an issue of about fifteen million dollars in excess of the
redemptions.

His power was unlimited as there were no checks upon him. He once said
to me when a committee of Congress was investigating his bureau, during
Mr. McCulloch's administration:

"They will never find a five cent piece out of the way."

After the discharge of Clark, I ordered an account of stock to be
taken. I appointed a custodian of the plates after a full inventory
had been made, whose duty it was to deliver the plates each morning
to the printers, to charge them to the printers, to receive them at the
close of the day, and to settle the account of each man. A special
paper was designated and public notice was given under the statute by
which it was made a crime for any person to make, use or have in his
possession any paper so designated. The paper was manufactured under
the supervision of an agent of the department, who was authorized to
count and receive all the paper at the mills and to answer the orders
for its delivery to the printers. The paper making machine was
equipped with a register which numbered the sheets of paper. That
record was compared daily with the number of sheets received by the
agent, and thus the Government was protected against any fraudulent or
erroneous issue of paper. Registers were also placed upon each
printing press. Each morning one thousand sheets of paper were
delivered to each plate printer, and at the close of work his printed
sheets were counted and the number compared with the register before
the printer was allowed to leave the office. In like manner there was
an accounting with each counter. The same system was extended to the
managers o