The Findlay Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Hancock County, Ohio) 1870-1881, 1876-08-04

| and indignantly harlngued Al Boss
| Tweedis convention.
A CHECK on THE = ILLEGAL PROCESSES.
Upon the principle that such scheme
as this was constantly cutting very deep
and both ways, there is no doubt that if
it had been let alone by meddlesome
persons until now Tilden might have
made the Democracy happy by sending
| no less than five barrels Of money TO st.
Louis Tilden and the others who were
engaged in these frauds upon labor were
all the time receiving greenbacks for
| their ores, were shaving" their own cur
rency, were selling miners from COM
pany stores goods at shin-plaster prices,
for which they paid greenback prices
| so that their profits were enormous. 1t
is almost incomprehensible that such a
thing as this could last ten years rs it did
but at last it was broken down in 1874.
The first blow came from Robert Nelson,
private banker at Ishpeming, who, in
the course of business had accumulated
several thousand dollars of the notes of
the Jackson FurnaceCompany, which
he presented to the Jackson Iron Com
pany-substantially tbesame concern
at Negaunee They referred him for
redemption to the Furnace Company, at
Delta, seventy miles away. Being an
gered by this he collected specimens of
all the "iron money" including Tildenis
and sent them to Hon b Douglass,
then Commissioner Of Internal Revenue
with the pertinent inquiry if they had
been assessed under the revenue law and
if not, why not. They had not been, but
a special agent was at once sent out, in
vestigatiOns were made, and such assess
ments laid upon the iron money as
would wipe it out entirely and ruin those
who issued it, Panic-stricken, the Til
denites rushed to Washington, and
managed in some way TO get a stay of
proceedings in the collection of the
taxes.
a ttu OflNiON VI hk. lllDrN
MONEY.
But His respite was of little value, for
another and equally heavy blow was
about to fall upon them. JB Crucial, G
Wheeler and Hiram o Peck, three enter
prising firms of Negaunee, seeing that the
iron companies had good thing, deter
mined to share in it, and consequently
issued counterfeits for the notes of the
Jackson Iron Company. The fact was
discovered; the three men arrested and
held for trial, which was called in June,
1874, before Judge O'Grady and jury,
which, before being empannelled, coun-
sci for the defense objected to further
proceedings, on the ground that the
notes themselves, being unlawful, could
not be counterfeited. This view was
strenuously opposed by the prosecuting
attorney, but judge O'Grady, in deciding
the motion, said, concerning Tildens
money:
The court is clearly of the opinion
that the issue of all these notes and iron
currency, So-called, is illegal, contrary 10
the statute, and that they are void upon
their face. They bear not only the ear
marks but all the principal features of
bank note, and are utterly worthless for
the purpose of circulation. They can
not he the subject of forgery: H'ey are
spurious, mOrthless, bastard currency. The
objection is sustained. The court has
been of this opinion for the last five
years, though the question has never
before been presented for its decision.
This kind of paper has driven out bet
ter currency, just as the clipped and
sweated coin of William iii, drove out of
circulation and use the golden crowns
of England"
The decision put an end TO the "iron
money" swindle, but Tilden & Co, still
had the enormous assessments of the In
ternal Revenue Bureau pending against
them. But they were equal to the
emergency, and during the closing
hours of Congress in March, 1875, man.
aged to smuggle through bill by which
they cheated the government out of
everything but merely nominal fine.
Tilden's great talent for administrative
reform, concerning which he is constant
ly cackling, doubtless stood him and his
partners in good stead on this occasion.
He was then the reform" Governor of
New NOrk, and doubtless had much un
deserved weight at Washington, where
his great personal interest in the bill
could not then have been known.
TILDEN EFFECTUALLY SUMMARIZED IN
MICHIGAN
This, in succinct shape, is the story of
Tilden's scandalOus operations in Mich
igan, which has been summarized by
leading Democratic paper in the Westin
this singing way:
l. That Samuel Tilden is and has
been the controlling owner of the New
York Mine.
2. That it could issue no o"iron curren-
cy" without his knowledge and consent.
8. That it did issue it by the million
| dollars.
4. That such issue was Illegal and con-
trary to law.
D. That Samuel J Tlden's influence
helped to swindle the government out of
thousands of dollars of taxes due on this
issue of iron currency.
6. That Samuel Tilden's store
system debases the working men.
z. That Samuel j Tildens hard-money
professions are, in the lights of the facts
presented, a snare and delusion.
8. that the figures have been collected
from the official books of Deputy Inter
nal Revenue Collector Walter Finny of
Marquette, and that he says that they
are far less in amount than they should
be in reality.
g. That we want TO hear Mr. Samuel
Tilden rise up and explain immediate
ly.
CONGRESS-.
JULY 20.-In the Senate, resolution
renuaSfipo Yha Drooidapf 70