Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1858-06-11
THE ALLEGED PENSION FRAUDS
IN VERMONT.

A person signing himself Z" Not Boston,"
wrote lately to the Boston Journal on the sub |
.ject ofthe alleged pension funds, lately inquir-
ed into at Bellows Falls, by the United States
District Attorney, Mr.. Stoughton, putting the
matter under different face from the one
which at first it was made to wear by "Bos-
tom writing to that paper. According to
him land he writes as if he understood the
CASEY the allegation of fraud rests entirely on
a question of how the pension law should be
construed-not on one of fraudulent intent
which he says there is no reason for imput-
ing to any one
The whole pith of the charges against
these three men, Wallace, Boswell and Bick-
ford, consists in aiding d" Plattspurgh Volun-
teers' to procure their Bounty Land, under
the law Of March, 1855.
The applicants declare on oath that they,
90 on or about the - day of September, 18Th,
volunteered at the invasion of Plattsburgh.
The proof not showing them to have started
out betorethe battle, the Commissioner OF Pen
sions decides that they are not entitled, and
refuses to issue warrants, although these vol
| untecrs may have travelled 100 miles under
arms before getting news of the retredt.-
| This it seems is not all. The United States
are attempting to create constructive CRIME
| out of even asking for this bounty. The
| government claimed on these hearings that it
was crime to swear they " roiunteered at the
,nrasion Of Platsburyh," in case the Com
missioner of Pensions afterwards decided that
such men were not volunteers, within the act.
In other words, ian act strictly innocent
when done, may be made perjury by the or
der of the Commissioner of Pensions" 1t is
not pretended that land warrants have been
obtained, but only that such declarations as
above have been forwarded.
d" Boswell, - says Boston, " has forwarded
upwards of four hundred claims to the depart
ment." He might have added, with proprie-
ty too, they will all be allowed in the end
for no other sensible construction can be given
to the act Senator Foote of VT, in his let
ter of May II, 1857, says, " If they were er
route for Plattsburgh whether they reached
that place or not, they come within the pro
visions of the act, and are entitled to bounty
land" At that time the Commissioner o.
Pensions held the same construction.
Opposed to this view of the matter there
appears long and carefully written article
in the same paper of the eth inst, by q" B. ,
He says:
son the examination, it was conceded by
the government attorney that in order t.
hold the respondents to trial the government
must show,
LIST. That the respondents transmitted o
caused to be transmitted the papers;
I'd. That said papers were false;
Sd, That respondents knew them to b
| false at the time Of transmitting or causing
them to be transmitted
4th That said papers were false in poin
material to the right of the claimant, il
, whose clsc they were transmitted, to bount
land"
, One of the respondents, " Moses Wallace,
+ he says, waived an examination, plea
, guilty by consent Of the government and wa
discharged on his own racognizance." Th
! others, Walters, Boswell and Bickford, h
says were charged with sending false an
forged afidavits and muster rolls-and tina
many aged witnesses, whose names appeare
in the said affidavits or rolls came forwar
and swore that material facts which the
| stated to the respondents as the grounds {
e their applications for bounty land, wer
G without their knowledge mlsstated or SUI
pressed in the aforesaid fraudulent or forge
: papers Upon such facts " B" says, tn
commissioner found the papers to be false an
that the respondents knew them to be so i
\ mlterial points, and the respondents WEI
held to await the action of Grand Jury
n Z" b. = intimates his belief that Not Boston,
: is the legal counsel of the respondents. Frol
: the tenor Of Bsn communication we suspeC
r him to be connected with the prosecution
What the truth of the whole matter
4 must be left to be found out by trial.