combination, as early as the month of April, 1869, for the purpose of
forcing the price of gold artificially to a rate far beyond what might
be called the natural price. The committee, of which General Garfield
was chairman, characterized the combination as a conspiracy.
Technically and in a legal point of view the parties concerned could
not be treated properly as conspirators. It does not appear that they
contemplated the violation of any law, but only a policy by which gold
might be advanced from time to time, and out of which advance large
sums of money might be realized by those who were holders of gold.
Upon that theory Jay Gould and James Fisk, Jr., who were the leaders
and organizers of the combination, with their associates, made large
purchases of gold at prices varying from thirty to thirty-five per
cent premium. At the close of the month of April, the price of gold,
not then, as far as known, under the influence of any speculative
movement, was at a premium of about thirty-four per cent. The
indications were that, during the months of May and June, the parties
interested in the combination made large purchases. By the 20th of
May the price had reached a premium of forty-four per cent. From
that time onward, until the last of July, the premium diminished, and
at that date the rate was thirty-six per cent.

When I entered the Treasury Department in March, there had not been
sales of gold nor purchases of bonds by the Treasury Department as a
policy, and but few transactions on either side had been made by my
predecessors in office. As early as the 12th day of May I commenced
the purchase of bonds for the sinking fund and for the reduction of the
interest-bearing public debt. The total purchases during the year
1869 amounted to something more than $88,000,000, for which there was
paid in currency $102,000,000 and a margin over. At that time, the
customs receipts were in gold exclusively, and the purchase of bonds
could only be made by a sale of gold or by a direct purchase of bonds
to be paid for in gold. Suggestions were made by bankers and others
in the city of New York, and perhaps elsewhere, that the purchase of
bonds should be made in gold. This suggestion was not acceptable to
me, and upon the ground that the sale of gold would be limited to those
who had bonds, or who could procure bonds, for the payment of gold.
From the 29th of April, when the first sale of gold was made, until the
31st da