Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1873-11-04
RE-ARRESTED.
| w. e. wade Arrested i'm st. Louis and
brought Rack To Nashville

Brought Back to Nashville.
The following telegram was received at
this Office last night:
81. Lofts, Nov. 3i--1W. Is. Wade, form
erly clerk in the office Of the Secretary IF
State OF the State of Tennessee, was arrest
ed here Saturday night, Charge with forging
$4,000 State bonds. He left for Nashville
last night in charge of an officer.
There are two mistakes in the foregoing
dispatch. Mr.. Wade was a clerk in the
Comptrollers office, and his offence consisted
in abstracting coupons to the amount, Gas
since ascertained), of about $4,000.
The crime was committed two years ago
last September, at which time Wade was
arrested, but was released upon giving Sc
curity. Soon after, he removed to St!
Louis, where he has since resided. He was
present for trial in the Criminal Court here
during the summer, but the case was con-
tinued.
His re-arrest was brought about at the
instance Of Mr.. f. Kline, one of his securi-
ties, who declined to act longer in that ca
pacity.
The following
HISTORY OF THE CASE
appeared in our columns on the 18th of
Sept, 1871:
Several days ago we had information of a
confidential character that the clerk Of the
Comptroller was suspected of having been
guilty Of abstracting a large amount, Of
coupons belonging to the State bonds. I'M
til further developments could be made, we
were requested to say nothing of this sus-
picion in our columns. Some intimation
having been given in the public prints of
what we had formerly heard we yesterday
called upon Mr.. Thomas S. Mari, banker
in this city. to learn of him what had actu-
ally transpired in this case, having previ-
oJIsly heard that he was the banker through
whom the coupons were attempted to be
put upon the public. Mr.. Mar expressed
himself perfectly willing to give any infor-
nation which he had, and yet unwilling to
throw himself unnecessarily before the pub
lie Having, however, heard from
some of our oldest citizens and
most reliable, regular bankers, that
Mr.. Mari had detected the fraud in its
incipiency and pressed it to the conclusion
from which the guilty party could not es-
cape, we asked Of him full and free inter
view, and disclosure of any and everything
which he might know. He said:
''AbOut the 18th of this month my clerk,
in whom have every confidence, informed
me that lot of coupons were for sale, and
wished to know how much he could offer
for them. / gave him the rates and asked
him who had them, suppOSing that the
amount was small He informed me that
they belonged to Mr.. Wade, whom l knew
to be one of the clerks in the COmptrollers
office, and Mr.. Wade had informed him
that they had been left with him by a gen
tleman from West Tennessee. l heard no
more of them; thought no more of them for
several days, till my clerk informed me
that he had bought the coupons which he
mentioned aa8few days previously. L
asked him where they were, and he replied
that they were at the Maxwell House;
that Mr.. Wade had delivered them to him
the evening previous at Dir. Kline's tailor
shop on Cherry street, and that he my
clerk) had deposited them in the Maxwell
House vault for Safe-keeping for the night.
told him to 90 and get them. He i'm
mediately did so; and when l received
them, was rather astonished to find that
they amounted to almost $4,000 instead Of
few hundred as l had expected. | was
surprised both at the amount of the cOG-
pOns and that so large an amount should be
III JllC lktlUS VI illC CitIh VI tllt NOutItIOi-
Ter for sale. | was further surprised that |
could not hear of SO large an amount being
| upon the market, for when parties who
have large sums to offer to bankers and
| brokers they generally make inquiries be-
| fore sale and | had not heard of these be-
| ing on the market.
But if this surprised me. | was thunder
| struck when on examination | found that
over eleven thousand of these coupons were
what bankers call ..fundable" coupons; that
is such coupons as by former acts of the
| Legislature the Comptroller is required to
issue in bonds upon their presentation.
| This funding act was passed several years
ago, and the market has hence been strip
| ped of these coupons. In fact, so much so
so that it usually takes a Nashville broker
| six months to get a thousand dollars of
them, the amount required for funding.
| The more l reflected on the matter the
more confident l was that something was
wrong, or if nothing was wrong, an eXpla-
nation could easily be given for such an
amount of coupons. l had a bankers
eagerneSs to make a small profit, and still l
was fearful Of paying over so large an
amount unless l was thoroughly satisfied
| the coupons were all right. After some re-
! Election determined to lay the whole mat
ter before the Comptroller. l accordingly
went to the capitol and told the COmptroll-
| er the whole case. He seemed to think
| that something was wrong, though
| he could not suspect the clerk, Mr.. Wade.
Without going fully into the details as to
! what tranSpired between myself and the
| Comptroller, will say that he asked Mr..
! Wade how he came in possession of these
| coupons. He said that j. r. JOynes, of
Memphis, had left them with him for sale.
| The Comptroller agreed with me that the
| circumstances were very suspicious. An
| other very suspicious circumstance beth to
| him and me was that $3.50 of these cOu-
pOns dated back to in 1853, long previous
| to the funding act, and long previous to
| the date when the State ceased to pay its
| interest. Mr.. Wade promised to write to
| Mr.. JOynes at Memphis, and get from him
| an explanation of the delay in the presenta-
| ton of these coupons, so as to remove all
suspicion. In a few days the Comptroller
| forwarded to me the following letter, which
| pluports to be from j. r. Joynes. 1t was
mailed in an envelope with the stamp of
! NIessrs. Toof, Phillips d Co. The direc-
| ton of the envelope was in a different hand
writing from the letter which it contained.
The letter was as follows:
MEMPHIS, Sept. Is, 1S71.-Dear VIII: L
received your letter Of Sept. II, and was
| disappointed and much surprised at its
| cOntents.d disappointed because l expected
to find a check for the amount Of the cou-
pons, and surprised that the banker should
think there was anything wrong in them.
| can't imagine what he means, and hardly
know what to say to relieve you Of the
| trouble you seem to be in. Had the time
| to spare | would come at once, but | am
too busily engaged at present to leave. |
will, however, state that said coupons are
all my own personal property, purchased
with my own money, and that l purchased
most of them from brokers in New York,
while | was there, little more than a year
ago. At that time they were low in the
market, and thought L could make some
thing by selling them, with the aid of some
of my friends here, to the Memphis and
| Charleston Railroad, but when l attempted
| to do so was informed that they had
made arrangements with banker in Nash
vile to buy for them and pay over for the
rOad-perhapS the same banker that says
there is something wrong in those l left
you.
Those falling due in July, 1870 and II,
| l purchased from different parties here, and
saw some of them cut from the bonds. l
say they are all mine; l will modify that
| 4a,r,, opI co,- oil I,,,+ oI,,-,,, fl,,E J,,a