Sacramento Daily Union, Volume 59, Number 134, 28 July 1888 — UNCLE SAM WANTS IT. [ARTICLE]

UNCLE SAM WANTS IT.

Thirty Millions of Confederate Property Sold to Englishmen. Washington, July 27th.—

In response tc a Senate resolution calling upon him for any evidence in the Treasury Department relating to property of the United .States to which the United States has a valid claim, and which is held in adverse possession, the Secretary of the Treasury to-day transmitted to the Senate reports of the Solicitor of the Treasury and the Commissioner of Internal Revenue on the subject. The most interesting of the documents returned is a letter from Littlepage, lately employed as ua agent of the treasury to assist in the prevention and detection oi frauds upon the customs revenue." In a letter dated November 11, IS«7, he state: that he went to his home in King William county, Va., to examine his old Confederate papers, made and received while in Europe, under order of the then Confederate States Government, to obtain accurate data. He says h* found that in the winter of 18C4 he was ordered to the Confederate ship The Texas, alias The Pompeiro This vessel was built at Glasgow as a No. 1 sloop-of-war and was to have received hei armament and equipment, while lying off the coast of England, by another vessel.

NOW A MERCHANTMAN.
Captain Henry Sinclair of the Confederate States navy superintended the construction of the vessel, her cost being $1,400,000 all of which was fully paid by the Confederate Government. The vessel, he says started to sea, but having been reported a Confederate cruiser, was seized. Captain Sinclair, rather than carry her through the Courts, secured her release by guaranteeing that she should not go into the hands o! the Confederacy. He then chartered her and when, a few months after, the Confederacy collapsed, she was sailing under the same charter. He adds that this vessel was fully paid for by the Confederate Government, and should belong to the United Slates. She is still valuable and is now trading between Edinburgh and Copenhagen. He adds that Theodore Clyde built steamers constructed by Confederate Government money, and similarly disposed o! by their agents or captains, which should now belong to the United States. There were also two powerful rams built by Baird & Company Co. on the Mersey, ostensibly for the Chinese Government, but inspected and tested by Confederate officers. They were he says, seized by the British authorities and were finally disposed of by the Confederate agents in charge, and are

NOW IN THE BRITISH NAVY,
Having recently been seen by Admire] Luce at Bermuda flying the British Hag. Littlepage also speaks ol certain powerful Clyde-built steamers and rams built for the Confederate Government, and also states that parties who recently visited Captain Sinclair's house say that its linen crockery, cutlery, etc., bore the letters, " C.S.N.," which are supposed to have come from the Texas. He adds that two new Clyde-built steamers, the City of Petersburg and the Old Dominion, which were built for the Confederate Government and paid for by it, are now running between Liverpool and Dublin.

$30,000,000 of Confederate property iii ENGLAND.
Littlepage files an itemized statement ol Confederate property unreoovered by the Government, amounting to $30,000,000. most of which is in English hands. He estimates that there are $6,000,000 worth in tbe United States, not including the value of many million dollars' worth of cotton belonging to the Confederate Government, shipped from Brownsville, Galveston and Matamoras since the war.