American telegraph. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1851-1851, 1851-07-21

attention.
The Gardiner Claim.
AZ TO the question whether the Gardiner claim
and the Mears claim, for which DR.. George A.
Gardiner was agent, are forgeries or not, we
as journalists, take no part and give no opinion
There are many points in the matter which
we aim to lay impartially before our readers.
We give both sides of the subject, from time to
time, as we learn theIdf or find them stated in
the newspapers of the day.
Among those who have done their best to
convince the public that the aforesaid claims
were just and no forgeries, we may name
"Ion," the very intelligent and highly respecta-
BILE Washington correspondent of the Baltimore
Sun, (who, we understand, writes also for the
New York Journal of Commerce and the Charles
ton Comier) and the editors of the Philadelphia
North american. Among those who have taken
the opposite course, we may single out, to-day,
the editors of the New Orleans Crescent. In
late number of their paper they use this Ian
guage:
"If any evidence be wanted at Washington
of the extent Of this DIR. GARDENERS losses in
San Luis Potosi or in Mexico, there are per-
sons here who knew his daily employments in
both places. He was an itinerant dentist and
quack doctor, whose wits were hardly equal
to the procurement of his daily bread. When
his purse was low, and the practice of his pro-
fession improbable, he did not hesitate, it is
said, to put on buskin in pantomime to gain
half an ounce. If he ever possessed silver
mine, or an interest in one to the extent Of q
hundred dollars, it was never known to his init
mate acquaintance in Mexico. If he ever ina
gined himself the possessor of silver mine, it
was discovered and worked in the Doctor s
widest midnight dream, and its revenues could
never have been very substantial, for they never
visibly extended his purse or increased his re-
sources"
In abiding to the rumor, in the newspapers
that the Gardiner claim was a forgery, thu
National Lnteligeneer, of the I'd instant, used
the following language:
ave consider the whole story to be very i'm
probable, especially as the only foundation for
it is said to be the voluntary and uncalled- for
confession of the party himself, that his claim
was sustained and obtained exclusively by fab
ricated papers. Leaving out of view the i'm
probability of such being the fact it is still
more unlikely that such q self-accusation would
have been made by any one, without apparen,
motive, after the fraud had been successfully
contaminated, when no suspicion of the kline
existed, or was likely to exist respecting it
The documents which were before the recen
Board of Commissioners for adjudging tn,
claims on Mexico are of course all on file, with
the other records of that Commission, in the
Department of State, and, if there is any truth
in the report the facts can readily be ascer-
tanned, and will no doubt be promptly inyesti-
gated"
We would remark upon the foregoing as fol
lows: First, it is now understood that it was
not Dr. GARDENERS confession to M. Porte, bu
NJ. Porte's statement of what he himself knew
of Dr. Gardiner and his claim, which caused
the rumor to get into the newspapers that the
aforesaid claim was obtained upon forged pa.
pers; and second, the papers, documents, &C.,
in relation to the Gardiner and Mears claims,
which the Inteltigneer presumed were, on the
I'd instant, filed in the State Department, as by
law they ought to have been, never have beer
and are not now filed in that Department They
were, as late as Saturday last, in the keeping
Of DR.. Davis, the clerk of the late Board O
Commissioners. In the event that some or al
Of the documents should be stolen from the pos
session of DR.. Davis, would not the State De-
partment be censurable in the matter for not
having secured and filed them as the law
directs?
We have already announced that true bills
have been found by the Grand Jury Of this
county against DR.. George A. Gardiner and
his brother, John Carlos Gardiner, for perjury.
The former is in Europe; the latter has been
arrested in this city, and held to bail in the
sum Of $4,000.
During the examination of John Carlos Gar.
hap Gar
testified that ten thousand dollars had been
deposited with his banking house by DIR. Geo.
A. Gardiner, to the credit of John Carlos Gar
diner, and that the latter had not yet drawn
any portion thereof.
This is q new feature in the matter. In al
that we have heard, as coming from Mr.. Cor
coran, respecting the amount of money which
DIR. Gardiner was represented to have deposited
in this city, no lisp was breathed that ten thou
sand dollars had been deposited by DIR. Gardi
ner to the credit Of John Carlos Gardiner
Mr.. Corcoran further testified that he had M
interest whatever in the quarter of the aware
of $428, $50 made to DIR. Gardiner, which wa,
assigned to himself: that this amount, SlO7,
1877 80, with other things, had been assigned t,
him as collateral security. But he did not stat
who the party was nor who the parties were 70
whose benefit the assignment of one quarter Q
DIR. GARDENERS award was made Nor did h
state what amount of DR.. GARDENERS award ha
been, to his knowledge, deposited by DR.. Gar
diner in this city.
story has been sent abroad from Washing
ton and been often published, that DR.. Caroline
had deposited some two or three hundred thou
sand dollars Of his own award, and of the Near
award, in this city.