, 1865-03-18
TIRE BELEElS EFT,
4 Singular nnd Very Foolish Trans
Nctt0ns

A finn OF Tennessee secesstonfsts, doing
business in Nashville under the style Of ]. c.
french 4 Co., lately made a malignant mud
marrelously foolish effort to discredIt the
national currency by protesting some coupons.
It appears TINT these parties had one hundred
and twtnty-three Enited States bonds, the
coupons ii which, worth 1.63 each, had just
fallen due. The coutEe pursued BY them Is
thus narrated By the Washington correspon-
dent Of the Cincinnati Gazrtte:
*sThcy carried the coupons to Eational
bsnk, threw them down, aud demanded ply
ntut. The bank said, certainly, hut there
seems to be quite quantity Of them Please
to make up 8 schedule Of the number and
amonnte.' The holders refused, gathered up
the coupons In great wrath. started straight
way to notary public, and had a separate
notice Of protest madeo for each one of the
hundred and tTenty-three coupons; affixed
to these one hundred and twen'y-thlee
nofarial papers, Us many twenty.dye
cent internal revenue Stamps; tied up the
whole package and sent it By mail, placing
several dollars worth Of postage stamps IN
it, when 1t was entitled 10 come free and
modestly demanding Of the Treasurer Of the
United States the payment Of the coupons,
with the uotarlal fees, costs Of stamps, post
age, &C., amounting In all to over dou6!c the
value Of the coupons themselves"
MIR. United States Treasurer Spinner replied
A++%N~>'~
terse and vigo1 ous manner:
*'TnkAsuRx or THE UNITED STATES,
WAeH1S0ToS, Feb Is, 1865.
Your extraordinary letter ofthe 10th inst,
The very extraordinary papers that were at
tachcd to the coupons tbat came enclosed
with the letter, Us well ns the Way eItraoItl-
nary other cnc hundred and twenty three
n,issices that preceded the letter, arc nil be-
lore RE.
"You eay they we're protested in accord
ance with law as we (yoD understand ill.,
Now, it is very evident that you do not un-
defstand law at all. You should have con-
suited eotd lawyer. It Is not necessary
that q maker Of q commercial or other pecu-
niarv obligation should have notice Of the non
sary that indossers Of such paper should be
notified Of The non-payIneDt OF the obligation
OF their principal. II should have occurred
to ycu that there was no indorser il these
cases that the United States WAS the princi-
roi, ard that government cannot be eued.
lbcn Why attempt to protest ut 21le
Then, TOO, you forget that the deb: was
cntititd to gracc. You, in .eagerness to
do fright smart thing jumped on the in
| slant that the day Of payment came In sight,
| End, TO clap the climax Of absurdi:ics, yon
| presented The palsets Tor payment to party
that wes under no legal Of other obligations
TO make such payments should certainly
be led 10 think that you were secessiontsts Of
the malignant kind, 44hat Is grown Ut the
Nortb, and had done this thing With view
to brlpg TIC credit OF the United States into
had ,cputc,. were the idea not precluded by
the fact that you paid heap Of postage gra-
| tuitoukly- and unnecessarily on the package
addressed to me, which BY law, as under
stand 1t, might as- well have come free of pos
| tage. And then. too, Jour unnecessarily lib
! crM ex1 1end,ture of one hundred and twenty
three one-quarter ofa dollar revenue stamps,
proves thai JOE sre really anxious to aid the
Government in ite enneapoE to crush the
! rebels.
"lbe amount Of the coupons you state COT.
rccuy at Se7o.22H: I VIII send you this
amount, with . half cent additional, by my
draft on New York. or return you all the
papers, Us you may elect. As to tbs othe1
md larger claim that you make for costs, the
less said about 1t, and the sooner you charge
It to profit and loss,' the better
Respectfully yours, SC.
'sF. E. SPiSNEB, Treasurer Q. g. :,
q 1fnsrrk I G. French & CO. NaRhYile, TENN