The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1876-09-28
REPLY TO JUDGE sINNoT.


Hon. Abran S. Helgiu Chairman
MY DEAR SIR have received your note, with
the copy of the Times of Sept. s, in reference tC
Mr. Tildens income return for 1862 and have
taken the earliest time which my official engage
ments would permit to send you the information
you solicit
l was in Mr. Tilden's law Office during the
whole period covered by the allegations Of the
Times, and was more familiar than any other per
son-perhaps even than Mr.. Tilden himself
with his professional services and 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
epitomized and placarded on the front page OF
the Times, where in parallel columns are dis
played fac simile of Mr.. Tildens income tax re-
turn for the year 1862 contrasted with pretend.
ed statement of his real income for that year,
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 Time
which arrested my attention, was the evident in.
tent to mislead which characterizes it, 1t pur
ports to be made up of separate items, the word
ing of which is varied In order to give the reader
the idea that these 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 49,
Fee for Trustees and Master Commissioners
Deed" &C.: but the wording of the second item is
made different, and reads: FEB. 25. Fees and
expenses Oith reference to deed" &C., and the third
item is put in still another and different mode OF
expression, thus: March /. For Drafting, &C.
First Mortgage Deed" while in the fourth item
the word fees (and this time without the ex-
penses') is brought into requisition.
The obvious intent Of these contrivances is to
give color to these bogus items, and the appear.
ance of being copied from some real paper.
The first six items of this statement relate to
matters connected with the Pittsburgh, Fort
Wayne & Chicago Railway, and right under
standing of Mr.. Tildens relations to that enter
prise, prior to and during the year 1852 is import
ant 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 pretended items has ever been made
the subject of a specific 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 Pitts
burgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railroad which
was and is railroad running through four differ
ent States and built In sections by three different
corporations which were afterward consolidated
When Mr. Tilden became counsel for the bond
holders In 1859 1t had outstanding nine different
classes of bonds upon all Of which default had
been made, and its affairs In general were in ap-
parently hopeless bankruptcy and confusion To
rescue this enterprise Mr.. Tilden labored contin-
ually, and much more laboriously than lawyer
ordinarily does in regard to any one particular
case from 1859 to the early part of 1862. The la
Dor was particularly arduous during the years
1860 and 1861.
Suits of foreclosure were instituted early in
each of the States and these had so far progressed
by June 1861 that DEGREES Of foreclosure and sale
were then entered. The road was actually sold
on the oath of October, 1861 and possession taken
under the sale. OF course this could not be &C.
complished until all the conflicting interests-the
nine different classes Of bOndholders the secured
creditors the unsecured creditors, and the stock
holders had been harmonized and satisfied nor
until legislative acts adequate to meet case such
as had never before arisen either here or in Eng
land, had been devised, prepared, and success
fully passed in four different States All this was
accomplished principally under the advice and
with the labor Of Ar. Tilden before the close of
the year 1861 His engagements on account of
this railroad during that whole period were con-
slant and engrossing. Whatever pay he received
was for the entire service as whole-it was not
itomized or apportioned.
The Income Tax law went into effect on the
first of January 1862, and the incomes falling un-
dor its nnpration were those accruinQ from and
after the said first day of January, 1862. Income
which had accrued before that time was exempt
from its operation.
1 do not think 1t necessary to occupy much time
or space in discussing the legal aspects Of this in
come question, or in sustaining the right of cit
izen to receive and retain fee from income tax,
moneys which he had already earned BY his own
labor in years when no income tax existed.