The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1860-09-18
BALTIMORE.
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER IS, 1860


We endeavored yesterday, and we think success.
fully, to expose the worthessness and recklessness
of the denial with which Mr. GARRETT thought
proper to meet one Of the charges had preferred
against him. We must to-day refer briefly to the
other allegation which he so fatty contradicted.
at has been asserted, - he said, ''that the notes
'issued in payment of part of this dividend were
"not entered upon the regular bill book of the
'Company,' and this statement he assured the
Board was 'without the least foundation in fact"
''the notes given were properly entered under
CHS 1.-THE Treasurers) direction, in the regular
''and olly bill book used by the Company" As
we have no direct access to the books of the Com
pany and as the President of the latter has mani
esedeve disposition to blind the public to the real
nature of the transaction in question, it cannot
be expected that we should give the details con-
corning the entering of the notes upon the bill
book with such fulness and accuracy as we would
desire. We can only say that, according to our
information, the only memoranda made of the
notes issued TO the President and Treasurer and
three of the Directors in payment of the arrears of
interest due them on their dividend orders were
upon the margins of the book from which the
notes themselves had been torn. 1t might be pre-
sumed, apart from any special knowledge which
we may have on the subject that a corporation
like the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company
kept such bill book as is used by every mercan-
tile house in this city; and we believe that book
of that kind was in its possession, while at the
same time, we satisfied that the notes we speak
of were not recorded in it. On the contrary,
we have ample reason for the assertion
that the notes were entered in the mutt
lated and unbound book which contained
the blank forms used when the promissory notes
were given, and that they were entered in no
regular bill book, whatsoever. Is such book as
that we speak of "the regular and only
bill book used by the Company" If
not, then what becomes of Mr.. GARRErr's
assertion, supposing always that the facts
here stated are substantially correct? That
we are not much mistaken us to the real state of
the case, we are rs well assured as under the
circumstances it is possible to be. We have our
information from such a source that we cannot.
for an instant, doubt its accuracy in all particu-
lars. So far, it has only been gainSaid by Mr..
GARRETT, and those who will compare our allega-
tions and his denias rs they were contrasted to-
geher in this journal yesterday, will be little likely
to consider his unsupported contradiction as a suf-
fcient answer to the statement to which we al
lude to-day. Our allegation concerning the
manner in which the notes were entered on the
Companys book, is in way material to the
real issue we have made, and the fact was only
mentioned by us incidentally when discussing the
all important matter of the receipt of the notes
by certain officers of the Company; but as Mr..
GARRETT has undertaken to deny the collateral,
as well as the main ISSUE and, as we believe the
one to be as in1isputable as the other has been
shown to be, we cannot hesitate to reiterate both
If we could suppose that we were in error upon
this point we would say so frankly, and drop it
rs altogether foreign to the present controversy,
but the evidence at command justifes us
repeating accusation in the precise language
in which it was cOuched On the 10Th of August. If
we have unfortunately done the Company any in
justice in this minor particular the certificate of the
Treasurer, 10 the effect that these notes
were entered, when given, some other bill
book than the insignificant "botter' to which
have alluded will, perhaps, enable us 10
come to other than our present conclusions
We can then test the value of the proof in our
possession, and submit the dispute to the
determination of the public. But until we have
something more than vague and general DENIAL
from Mr.. GARRETT we are compelled to consider
our position as mistaken.
As the facts brought forward by us have
not therefore been refuted, so the opinions
we heretofore expressed in this connection
have undergone no change. Despite the confu-
sion in which the interested parties have sought to
involve the whole subject the one disreputable fea
ture to which first drew attention still stands out
Ill bold relief. It is this Certain officers of the
Company, being also its creditors, took advantage
of their situation TO procure the Company's notes
for its Indebtedness to them, while they put off the
rest of the creditors with payments of half their
respective claims 1t is too late to protest that, if
the arrangement had been discovered and the
other creditors had demanded notes. they
would have received them. Nobody doubts that
1t is too late to profess willingness to pay
everybody in cash now, if the injunctions are re-
moved and to boast of having stopped the pay
men of the notes. for after the exposure which has
taken place it is the only compromise the implica-
ted parties can offer. But when they took the
notes they expected them TO be paid at maturity,
and they did not expect the public would ever
know anything about the matter. And yet they
were the officers Of great public Corporation,
and to them the public looked for the earliest in
formation concerning its affairs, as well as for the
most active and honest supervision over them
They were trustees to whom the interests of many
thousands were confided, and they were the last
persons who should have attempted to reap by
indirect means, secret and unfair advantages
There is but one view of this business which
community that it is even tolerably honest can
take, and we trust it cannot be necessary here in
Baltimore to point that view out
So much for Mr. GARRETT and the points made
by him in his defence. As he was "first come"
we have regarded him as entitled TO be " first
served We will endeavor in due course to at
tend to our worthy neighbor, The American, in
this same connection.