The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1876-10-05


permit to send you the information you
solicit. l was in Mr.. Tilden's Iaw-ofice
duriEg the whole period covered by the
allegations of the Times, and was more
familiar than other persons-perhaps
even than Mr.. Tilden himself-with his
professional services, ard with the earn
ings of his Office, it being among my
duties to keep such record or memoranda
of them as was preserved. The charges
to which you specially refer are epitom-
lied and placarded on the front page of
the Times, where, in parallel columns, are
displayed fac-simile of Mr.. Tilden's in
come tax-returns for the year 1862, con-
trasted with the pretended statement of
bis real income for that year. l have
examined this statement with care, and
from my personal knowledge find it to be
false in every important particular. The
first thing in this fabrication of the Times
which arrested my attention was the
evident intent to mislead which char
acterizes it. 1t purports to be made up
of separate items, the wording of which
is varied, in order to give the reader an
idea that those items had been taken
directly from bills or accounts which had
been rendered to some one, or had been
entered in some book of account. For
example, the first item reads: "Feb. 10,
fee for trustees and master commissioners
deed,n etc., but the wording of the
second item is made different and reads:
"Feb. 25, fees and expenses with refer
ence to deed" ETC., and the third item is
put in still another mode of expression,
thus: "March l, for drafting, etc., first
mortgage Decd" while in the fourth
item the word "fees" (without expenses)
is brought into requisition. The obvious
intent of these contrivances is to give
color to these bogus items and appearance
of being copied from some real paper.
The first six items of this statement re-
late to matters connected with the Pitts
burg, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railway,
and right understanding of Mr.. Tilden's
relations to that enterprise piror to and
during the year 1862 is important at the
outset. Now, the fact is that no such
accounts as are contained in these six
items ever existed, and no one of these
items has ever been made the subject of
a special charge by Mr.. Tilden against
any individual or corporation whatever.
Mr.. Tilden became counsel for the
holders of various classes of bonds secured
upon the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne and
Chicago Railroad, which was and is
railroad running through four different
States, and built in sections by three diff
ferent corporations, which afterwards
consolidated. When Mr.. Tilden became
counsel for the bondholders, in 1859, it
had outstanding nine different classes of
bonds, upon all of which default had
been made, and its affairs in general were
in apparently hopeless bankruptcy and
confusion. To rescue this enterprise Mr..
Tilden labored continually, and much
more laboriously than lawyer ordinarily
does in regard to any one particular case,
from 1859 to the early part of 1862. The
labor was particularly arduous during the
wears 1860 and 1861. Suits of foreclosure
Instituted in each of the States, and these
had so far progressed by June, 1861, that
deeds of foreclosure and sale were then
entered. The road was actually sold on
the 24th of October, 1861, and possession
taken under the sale. Of course this
could not be accomplished until the con-
ficting interests of nine different classes
of bondholders, secured creditors, unse-
cured creditors, and stockholders had
been harmonized and satisfied, or until
legislative acts adequate to meet a case
such as had never before arisen, either
here or in England, had been devised,
prepared and successfully passed in four
different States.
All this was accomplished, principally
under the advise and with the labor of
Mr.. Tilden, before the close of the year
1861. His engagements on account OF
this railroad during the whole period
were constant and engrossing. Whatever
pay he received was for the entire SER
vice as whole. 1t was not itemized or
apportioned. The income tax law went
into effect on the 1st of January, 1862.
Income which had accrued before that
time was exempt from its operation
I do not think it necessary to occupy
much time or space in discussing the le-
gal aspects of this income question, or in
sustaining tho right of citizen to re-
ceive and retain, free from income
tax, moneys which he had already
earned by his own labors in years
when no income tax existed. The rule
on this subject was early declared and
promulgated by the Internal Revenue
Department itself, and is in full accord
with these views
In 1868 Hon. George S. Boutwell,, the
late Commissioner of Internal Revenue,
prepared Manual of the Direct and
Excise Tax System" which Mr.. Secre-
tary Chase officially approved and au-
thorized under date of May, 1868. The
manual contains. pages 273 and 274, the
following decision of the Commissioner
of Internal Revenue: Merchants re-
turn of income should cover the busi-
ness of the year 1862, excluding previous
years"
Here Mr.. Sinnott cites thirteen items
from the Times statement of Governor
Tilden's income tax returns for 1852,
which he quotes, one by one, and care
fully Sits and picks to pieces, showing
that they are all, or nearly all, distorted
by enemies of Mr.. Tilden before being
put in print. The thirteenth and last
item, "Salary as Trustee and President
of the Balance Bank Company, 81, ,000."
This item of 81 900 is correct, except as
W uhlc. dIu 10 luC Ou1J OhO Vi thO "AOtS
thirteen of which that can be said. At
the outset of these attacks on Governor
Tilden, in regard to his taxable income
for 1862, still another allegation was
made, as if on positive knowledge,
namely, that he had received from the
st. Louis, Alton and Terre Haute
Railroad Company $4,000 in first
mortgage bonds during that year
This charge is unqualifedly false
and now that it has been printed out il
the public journals that the complaint il
the st. Louis, Alton and Terre Haute sui
showed that these bonds were not useC
up to the year 1864, the charge appear
to have been abandoned even by thu
Times, which newspaper, after asserting
the fact in positive terms, subsequent!
published the report of the committee o
that company, also antagonistic to Mr.
Tilden, but which showed that in 1871
these bonds were still in the hands of tn
purchasing committee, and so could no
have formed any part of his income il
} 1862. 1t seems proper to say that re
turn made under oath must be assumed
to be correct unless it can beshown to b
folo Th;, hoe hocD noada h,