es, this contract was signed by Assistant
Secretary William A. Richardson. Sanborn had already been
employed to work up certain whiskey cases for which he had
been paid $3,000 by the Government, and these cases were included
in the foregoing contract.

On the 25th of October, 1872, Sanborn made application to
have added to his contract the names of 760 persons, alleged
to have withheld taxes imposed on legacies, successions and
incomes. An additional contract for that purpose was signed
by the Assistant Secretary Richardson. On the 19th of March,
1873, Sanborn applied to have the names of more than 2,000
other like persons added to his contract, which Mr. Richardson
permitted. On the 1st day of July, 1873, Sanborn again asked
to amend his contract, and Assistant Secretary Richardson
signed the contract by which the names of 592 railroad companies
were included. That was substantially a complete list of
the railroad companies of the country. Some of them had been
examined by Government officials before the day of the contract,
and the claims had been brought to light and found due. Sanborn
had no knowledge of any delinquency, except as to about 150
of them. When he so represented to the officers of the Treasury
Department he was told that it did not make any difference,
and to put them all in. Thereupon he took oath that they
were all delinquent, and had them added to the contract.

The form of this contract was taken, in part, from one prepared
by Secretary Boutwell, which he had carefully considered with
Mr. Kelsey, a subordinate in the Treasury, in June, 1872.
That prepared by Mr. Boutwell, if adhered to, would have amply
protected the Government. But it was departed from in essential
particulars. Under Secretary Boutwell's contract only a small
number of claims was included. Sanborn collected, in the
course of a year or two, $427,000, on which sum he received
50 per cent.

The unanimous report of the Committee of the House who investigated
the matter was written by Charles Foster of Ohio, afterward
Governor, and Secretary of the Treasury. The Committee comprised
the following gentlemen: Henry L. Dawes of Massachusetts;
W. D. Kelly of Pennsylvania; Horatio C. Burchard of Illinois;
Ellis H. Roberts of New York; John A. Kasson of Iowa; Henry
Waldron of Michigan; Lionel A. Sheldon of Louisiana; Charles
Foster of Ohio; James B. Beck of Kentucky; William E. Niblack
of Indiana; Fernando Wood of New York.