Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1865-03-09
Pleasant Dealings with the
Treasurer OF the United states
How Certain SeCessiOntsts
started Out for Wool and Came
Back ShOrn.
dependence Of the Cincinnati q saeue.
WASHINGTON, Februnry 81.

The biggest tools in the United States
have been discovered. They are secessionists
of course, they live in Nashville, Tenn; and
they do business under the firm name of"J
G. French & Co."
These worthless had one hundred and twe,-
ty.three u. =. bonds, the coupons of which
worth 81 s3 cach) had just fallen due
They carried them to National Bank,
threw them down, and demanded payment
The bank said certainly, but there seems
to be quite quantity of them; please to
make up a schedule of numbers and
amounts" The holders refused; gathered .
up the coupons in great WRATH started
straigbtway to Notary Public and had
separate notice of protest made out FOR each .
one of the hundred and twentythrce clu-
pons; affixed to these one hundred and |
twenty three notarial papers, as many
| twenty five cent Internal Revenue Stamps;
tied up the whole package and sent it by
mail, placing several dollars worth of post
age stamps on it, when it entitled to come
Free and modestly demanded of the Treas
urer Of the United States the payment ofthe
coupons, with the notaral fees, cost of stamps
postage, etc, amounting in all to over double
the value of the coupons themselves?
The beauty of the whole transaction lies
in three points, that the Bank never refus.
ed payment, and therefore there could bo
no protest st-that the payment by the Bank
would at any rate have been matter not
of legal requirement hut of pure courtesy.
and therefore there could he no protest;
and that the Government cannot be sued
and therefore protest was useless!
u. s. Treasurer Spinner replied to the
modest request for the payment of these
costs in model official letter as follows:
TREAURY THE UNITED STATES.
WAsliiNGroS; Feb. .5. :
GENTLEMEN Your extraordinary letter
Of the 10Th inst, the very extraordinary
papers that were attached to the coupons
; that came inclosed with the letter, as well
as the very extraordinary other one hun
dred and twenty-three missives, that pre-
ceded the letter, are all before me.
You say "they were protested in accord
; ance with law, as we (you) understand it. :"
I Now, it is very evident that you do not un-
: derstand law at all. You should have con-
J = suited good lawyer. 1t is not necessary
that a maker of commercial or other pc
cuniary obligation should have notice Of the
. non payment of his own paper. 1t is only
|. necessary that indorsers of such paper
+ should be notified OF the non payment of
J, the obligation of their principal 1t should
have occurred to you, that there was no in
o dorser in these cases; that the United States
s was the principal, and that government
IT cannot be sued. Then why attempt to pro.
u test at all?
I, Then, too, you forgot that the debtor wa:
u entitled to grace. You, in your eagerness
., to do a right smart thing" jumped on, OF
y the instant that the day of payment came
II. in sight; and, to cap the climax, of absurd
III ties, you presented the papers for payment
10 IN nortv that tpaS ,,pdar M Inpol op ~ l. n,
!, obligations to make such payment
d should certainly be led to think that yor
/ we're secessionsts of the Indignant kind
'e that is grown at the North, and had done
RS this thing with view to bring the credit
e Of the United States into bad repute, were
J. the idea not precluded by the fact that yor
n paid "a heap OF postage gratuitously ant
% unnecessary, on the packages addressed t,
me, which, by the law, as II understand
81 it," might as well have come free of post
70 age. And then, too, your unnecessaril,
r liberal expenditure Of one hundred ant
70 twenty-three one quarter OF dollar revenu
'e stamps proves that you are really anxiou
to aid the Government in its endeavors t
crush rebels
The amount of the coupons you state cor
le amount, with half cent additional, by m
draft on New York; or return you all tn
papers, as you may elect. As TO the othe
80 and larger claim that you make for costs
u u the less said about it, and the sooner 20
~ charge it to profit and loss" the better
X Respectfully yours, &C.,
Signed L. A. SPINNER,
w Treasurer U. s.
iG Messrs. j. z. FRENCH & Co., Nashville
~ Tennessee.
le 1t has since been uscertained that thes
n parties are malignant Seoessionists, an
~ that they have been engaged in such plea
,f ant efforts to discredit the United State
d currency as making discrimination of te
sr per cent. between il and Kentucky notes
i. in favor of the latter. Would it be amis
# to commend Messrs j. Q. French & Co. t
{. tho watchful care Of the military author
: ties at Nashville? Meantime they have tn
,r pleasure of knowing that they have sper
n. between throe and four hundred dollars 70
r. nothing in supid effort to protest Unite
10 States obligations, and collect little owe
t, one-half that sum.
IN Gen. Spinners letter to the Nashvill
Is fools calls up another performance OF his
le Shortly after the passage Of the first ia
Ii bill, Judge Merrck, then OF the Distrit
r. Supreme Court, (son in-law to vinegary ES
OF Governor and would be-Governor Wickliff
ge of Kentucky wrote to complain of the de
I'D duction of his tax from the amount Of hi
~ salary, and entered into an elaborate argu
Nj ment to drove that Congress had no righ
sn to diminish his salary during his incum
sn bency of the office. About the same tim
Gen. Spinner received letter from De-
aware Judge, suggesting that there wa
!. some mistake in deducting his tax, as b
p didn't think enough had been taken out.
The General sent copy of this letter I
ne Judge Merrick, simply saying that h
as ''wanted to let him see the difference be
tween loyal and a disloyal Judge an
that, while he wouldn't enter at all into tn
question whether Congress could or coul
not diminish his salary during his term
!. Office, he begged to suggest to Judge Mel
D. rick that Congress might upset his d
Court ~
OF The Judge was immensely indignant, an
q gr sent the letter to the President The Pre-,
u ident referred it in due course to Secretar
81 Chase. The Secretary sent for the Trea:
a., a., urer. When the bluff, grizzly ustache
= = old fellow entered the Office looking for a
AS the void like great good humored bull
:, dog. Mr. Chase quietly handed him tn
IL III III al II