Sketches New and Old, Part 2. Read online

  THE CASE OF GEORGE FISHER

  --[Some years ago, about 1867, when this was first published, few peoplebelieved it, but considered it a mere extravaganza. In these latter daysit seems hard to realize that there was ever a time when the robbing ofour government was a novelty. The very man who showed me where to findthe documents for this case was at that very time spending hundreds ofthousands of dollars in Washington for a mail steamship concern, in theeffort to procure a subsidy for the company--a fact which was a long timein coming to the surface, but leaked out at last and underwentCongressional investigation.]

  This is history. It is not a wild extravaganza, like "John WilsonMackenzie's Great Beef Contract," but is a plain statement of facts andcircumstances with which the Congress of the United States has interesteditself from time to time during the long period of half a century.

  I will not call this matter of George Fisher's a great deathless andunrelenting swindle upon the government and people of the United States--for it has never been so decided, and I hold that it is a grave andsolemn wrong for a writer to cast slurs or call names when such is thecase--but will simply present the evidence and let the reader deduce hisown verdict. Then we shall do nobody injustice, and our consciencesshall be clear.

  On or about the 1st day of September, 1813, the Creek war being then inprogress in Florida, the crops, herds, and houses of Mr. George Fisher,a citizen, were destroyed, either by the Indians or by the United Statestroops in pursuit of them. By the terms of the law, if the Indiansdestroyed the property, there was no relief for Fisher; but if the troopsdestroyed it, the Government of the United States was debtor to Fisherfor the amount involved.

  George Fisher must have considered that the Indians destroyed theproperty, because, although he lived several years afterward, he does notappear to have ever made any claim upon the government.

  In the course of time Fisher died, and his widow married again.And by and by, nearly twenty years after that dimly remembered raid uponFisher's corn-fields, the widow Fisher's new husband petitioned Congressfor pay for the property, and backed up the petition with manydepositions and affidavits which purported to prove that the troops,and not the Indians, destroyed the property; that the troops, for someinscrutable reason, deliberately burned down "houses" (or cabins) valuedat $600, the same belonging to a peaceable private citizen, and alsodestroyed various other property belonging to the same citizen. ButCongress declined to believe that the troops were such idiots (afterovertaking and scattering a band of Indians proved to have been founddestroying Fisher's property) as to calmly continue the work ofdestruction themselves; and make a complete job of what the Indians hadonly commenced. So Congress denied the petition of the heirs of GeorgeFisher in 1832, and did not pay them a cent.

  We hear no more from them officially until 1848, sixteen years aftertheir first attempt on the Treasury, and a full generation after thedeath of the man whose fields were destroyed. The new generation ofFisher heirs then came forward and put in a bill for damages. The SecondAuditor awarded them $8,873, being half the damage sustained by Fisher.The Auditor said the testimony showed that at least half the destructionwas done by the Indians "before the troops started in pursuit," and ofcourse the government was not responsible for that half.

  2. That was in April, 1848. In December, 1848, the heirs of GeorgeFisher, deceased, came forward and pleaded for a "revision" of their billof damages. The revision was made, but nothing new could be found intheir favor except an error of $100 in the former calculation. However,in order to keep up the spirits of the Fisher family, the Auditorconcluded to go back and allow interest from the date of the firstpetition (1832) to the date when the bill of damages was awarded. Thissent the Fishers home happy with sixteen years' interest on $8,873--thesame amounting to $8,997.94. Total, $17,870.94.

  3. For an entire year the suffering Fisher family remained quiet--evensatisfied, after a fashion. Then they swooped down upon the governmentwith their wrongs once more. That old patriot, Attorney-General Toucey,burrowed through the musty papers of the Fishers and discovered one morechance for the desolate orphans--interest on that original award of$8,873 from date of destruction of the property (1813) up to 1832!Result, $110,004.89 for the indigent Fishers. So now we have: First,$8,873 damages; second, interest on it from 1832 to 1848, $8997.94;third, interest on it dated back to 1813, $10,004.89. Total, $27,875.83!What better investment for a great-grandchild than to get the Indians toburn a corn-field for him sixty or seventy years before his birth, andplausibly lay it on lunatic United States troops?

  4. Strange as it may seem, the Fishers let Congress alone for fiveyears--or, what is perhaps more likely, failed to make themselves heardby Congress for that length of time. But at last, in 1854, they got ahearing. They persuaded Congress to pass an act requiring the Auditor tore-examine their case. But this time they stumbled upon the misfortuneof an honest Secretary of the Treasury (Mr. James Guthrie), and hespoiled everything. He said in very plain language that the Fishers werenot only not entitled to another cent, but that those children of manysorrows and acquainted with grief had been paid too much already.

  5. Therefore another interval of rest and silent ensued-an intervalwhich lasted four years--viz till 1858. The "right man in the rightplace" was then Secretary of War--John B. Floyd, of peculiar renown!Here was a master intellect; here was the very man to succor thesuffering heirs of dead and forgotten Fisher. They came up from Floridawith a rush--a great tidal wave of Fishers freighted with the same oldmusty documents about the same in immortal corn-fields of their ancestor.They straight-way got an act passed transferring the Fisher matter fromthe dull Auditor to the ingenious Floyd. What did Floyd do? He said,"IT WAS PROVED that the Indians destroyed everything they could beforethe troops entered in pursuit." He considered, therefore, that what theydestroyed must have consisted of "the houses with all their contents, andthe liquor" (the most trifling part of the destruction, and set down atonly $3,200 all told), and that the government troops then drove them offand calmly proceeded to destroy--

  Two hundred and twenty acres of corn in the field, thirty-five acres ofwheat, and nine hundred and eighty-six head of live stock! [What asingularly intelligent army we had in those days, according to Mr. Floyd--though not according to the Congress of 1832.]

  So Mr. Floyd decided that the Government was not responsible for that$3,200 worth of rubbish which the Indians destroyed, but was responsiblefor the property destroyed by the troops--which property consisted of (Iquote from the printed United States Senate document):

  Dollars Corn at Bassett's Creek, ............... 3,000 Cattle, ................................ 5,000 Stock hogs, ............................ 1,050 Drove hogs, ............................ 1,204 Wheat, ................................. 350 Hides, ................................. 4,000 Corn on the Alabama River, ............. 3,500

  Total, .............18,104

  That sum, in his report, Mr. Floyd calls the "full value of the propertydestroyed by the troops."

  He allows that sum to the starving Fishers, TOGETHER WITH INTEREST FROM1813. From this new sum total the amounts already paid to the Fisherswere deducted, and then the cheerful remainder (a fraction under fortythousand dollars) was handed to then and again they retired to Florida ina condition of temporary tranquillity. Their ancestor's farm had nowyielded them altogether nearly sixty-seven thousand dollars in cash.

  6. Does the reader suppose that that was the end of it? Does he supposethose diffident Fishers we: satisfied? Let the evidence show. TheFishers were quiet just two years. Then they came swarming up out of thefertile swamps of Florida with their same old documents, and besiegedCongress once more. Congress capitulated on the 1st of June, 1860, andinstructed Mr. Floyd to overhaul those papers again, and pay that bill.A Treasury clerk was ordered to go through those papers and report to Mr.Floyd what amount was still due the emaci
ated Fishers. This clerk (I canproduce him whenever he is wanted) discovered what was apparently aglaring and recent forgery in the paper; whereby a witness's testimony asto the price of corn in Florida in 1813 was made to name double theamount which that witness had originally specified as the price! Theclerk not only called his superior's attention to this thing, but inmaking up his brief of the case called particular attention to it inwriting. That part of the brief never got before Congress, nor hasCongress ever yet had a hint of forgery existing among the Fisher papers.Nevertheless, on the basis of the double prices (and totally ignoring theclerk's assertion that the figures were manifestly and unquestionably arecent forgery), Mr. Floyd remarks in his new report that "the testimony,particularly in regard to the corn crops, DEMANDS A MUCH HIGHER ALLOWANCEthan any heretofore made by the Auditor or myself." So he estimates thecrop at sixty bushels to the acre (double what Florida acres produce),and then virtuously allows pay for only half the crop, but allows twodollars and a half a bushel for that half, when there are rusty old booksand documents in the Congressional library to show just what the Fishertestimony showed before the forgery--viz., that in the fall of 1813 cornwas only worth from $1.25 to $1.50 a bushel. Having accomplished this,what does Mr. Floyd do next? Mr. Floyd ("with an earnest desire toexecute truly the legislative will," as he piously remarks) goes to workand makes out an entirely new bill of Fisher damages, and in this newbill he placidly ignores the Indians altogether puts no particle of thedestruction of the Fisher property upon them, but, even repenting him ofcharging them with burning the cabins and drinking the whisky andbreaking the crockery, lays the entire damage at the door of the imbecileUnited States troops down to the very last item! And not only that, butuses the forgery to double the loss of corn at "Bassett's Creek," anduses it again to absolutely treble the loss of corn on the "AlabamaRiver." This new and ably conceived and executed bill of Mr. Floyd'sfigures up as follows (I copy again from the printed United States Senatedocument):

  The United States in account with the legal representatives of George Fisher, deceased. DOL.C1813.--To 550 head of cattle, at 10 dollars, ............. 5,500.00 To 86 head of drove hogs, ......................... 1,204.00 To 350 head of stock hogs, ........................ 1,750.00 To 100 ACRES OF CORN ON BASSETT'S CREEK, .......... 6,000.00 To 8 barrels of whisky, ........................... 350.00 To 2 barrels of brandy, ........................... 280.00 To 1 barrel of rum, ............................... 70.00 To dry-goods and merchandise in store, ............ 1,100.00 To 35 acres of wheat, ............................. 350.00 To 2,000 hides, ................................... 4,000.00 To furs and hats in store, ........................ 600.00 To crockery ware in store, ........................ 100.00 To smith's and carpenter's tools, ................. 250.00 To houses burned and destroyed, ................... 600.00 To 4 dozen bottles of wine, ....................... 48.001814.--To 120 acres of corn on Alabama River, ............ 9,500.00 To crops of peas, fodder, etc. .................... 3,250.00

  Total, ..........................34,952.00

  To interest on $22,202, from July 1813 to November 1860, 47 years and 4 months, .......63,053.68 To interest on $12,750, from September 1814 to November 1860, 46 years and 2 months, ..35,317.50

  Total, ........................ 133,323.18

  He puts everything in this time. He does not even allow that the Indiansdestroyed the crockery or drank the four dozen bottles of (currant) wine.When it came to supernatural comprehensiveness in "gobbling," John B.Floyd was without his equal, in his own or any other generation.Subtracting from the above total the $67,000 already paid toGeorge Fisher's implacable heirs, Mr. Floyd announced that the governmentwas still indebted to them in the sum of sixty-six thousand five hundredand nineteen dollars and eighty-five cents, "which," Mr. Floydcomplacently remarks, "will be paid, accordingly, to the administrator ofthe estate of George Fisher, deceased, or to his attorney in fact."

  But, sadly enough for the destitute orphans, a new President came in justat this time, Buchanan and Floyd went out, and they never got theirmoney. The first thing Congress did in 1861 was to rescind theresolution of June 1, 1860, under which Mr. Floyd had been ciphering.Then Floyd (and doubtless the heirs of George Fisher likewise) had togive up financial business for a while, and go into the Confederate armyand serve their country.

  Were the heirs of George Fisher killed? No. They are back now at thisvery time (July, 1870), beseeching Congress through that blushing anddiffident creature, Garrett Davis, to commence making payments again ontheir interminable and insatiable bill of damages for corn and whiskydestroyed by a gang of irresponsible Indians, so long ago that evengovernment red-tape has failed to keep consistent and intelligent trackof it.

  Now the above are facts. They are history. Any one who doubts it cansend to the Senate Document Department of the Capitol for H. R. Ex. Doc.No. 21, 36th Congress, 2d Session; and for S. Ex. Doc. No. 106, 41stCongress, 2d Session, and satisfy himself. The whole case is set forthin the first volume of the Court of Claims Reports.

  It is my belief that as long as the continent of America holds together,the heirs of George Fisher, deceased, will still make pilgrimages toWashington from the swamps of Florida, to plead for just a little morecash on their bill of damages (even when they received the last of thatsixty-seven thousand dollars, they said it was only one fourth what thegovernment owed them on that fruitful corn-field), and as long as theychoose to come they will find Garrett Davises to drag their vampireschemes before Congress. This is not the only hereditary fraud (if fraudit is--which I have before repeatedly remarked is not proven) that isbeing quietly handed down from generation to generation of fathers andsons, through the persecuted Treasury of the United States.