Daily Los Angeles herald., 1884-08-26
The camden POSTMASTER.

We stepped into lobby, and | asked
him what the case was; in reply, he said
his name was Merriman, that he was
Postmaster at Camden, Me-, and that he
had been bound over on q charge of ab.
stracting money from the mail. / said,
''if you are bound over. you have had a
hearing before q magistrate; what was
the evidence in that hearingy tell me as
fully az you can" He replied that there
were three witnesses against him; Mr..
Mitchell, the Postmaster at Portland;
Mr.. Piokard, the mail contractor, and
the driver Of the stage.
Mr. Mitchell testiiies that letters con-
tanning money having been several times
lost from the Eastern mail, he was em-
ployed by the Postmast ter General TO de-
tect the offenders; that, for that purpole
he went to Belfast, and there he and
Mr.. Pickard, the mail contractor, pre-
pared letter addressed to General
Mcclellan of Bath, purporting to con.
tain remittance from debtor; that
into this letter they put sum of money
in bank bills, and made it up in such
manner as to appear to contain some.
thing, and be easily distinguished from
ether letters; that they put it into the
mailbag, which was taken by the driver
into the stage; that they Mitchell and
Pckard) took chaise and accompanied
the stage leaving Belfast in the night:
that they arrived at Postotiice, between
Belfast and Camden; that the bag was
carried into the office, and in due
time brought out, and then examined by
all three, Mitchell pickard and the dri-
yer, and the letter to Mcclellan was
found in it; that they then proceeded on
their way till they came to thepostoffice
in Camden; that the mail bag with the
letter to Mcclellan in it was taken into
the office, and, after the usual tire, was
brought out and put into the stage, that
they then drove some distance from the
village. there stopped, took the bag
from the stage and carried II to the
chaise; and there they opened the bag,
took out all the letters aud papers and
placed the letters OH one side of the seat
of the chaise, and the papers on the
other, and then they all examined the
bag; that they took each letter and each
paper by itself and put them back into
the bag, and that the letter to General
Mcclellan was not there.
The bag was then taken by the driver
to the stage, and he proceeded on his
way. Mitchell and Pickard returned to
the village and had the postmaster
arrested for abstracting money from the
mails. Mr.. Pickard testified to the
same facts, confirming Mr. Mitchell in
every particular. The driver also was a
witness, and confirmed all that had been
testified as to his participation in the
business.
In answer to questions, Merriman
stated that all three of the witnesses
swore that the letter to General Nc.
Lellan was in the mailbag when it went
into the office at Camden, and was not
in the bag when it came out; and the
driver testified that there was no one in
the office but the postmaster.
asked my client what evidence he
had. He replied that he had not any
evidence. then asked him what he had
to say; he answered that all he could
say was, he was in his office that morn
ing alone. The mailb bag was brought to
him; he opened it as usual, took out the
letters for Camden, put in those that
were to go forward. closed the bag,
locked it, and delivered it to the driver,
who carried it away, and that was ali
he knew about it,
Such was the case of my client, as
presented by him. What was my duty?
1t is true he denied that he was guilty,
but so can every criminal, and all
do who employ counsel. He admitted
that he had not the slightest evidence to
otfor against the testimony of three re-.
spectacle witnesses, and that he had
not word to say in explanation. Ought
l to have hared up with virtuous indig-
nation, and at once refused to aid man
to escape punishment who was SO palpa-
bly, guilty?
That was not my course: but after re-
hecting few minutes, said: "Have
you ever caused inquiry to be made of
Gen, Mcclellan, whether he received
that letter." He replied, "No; never
thought of such thing" | then adj
vised him to send person Immediately
to Bath and ask Gen. Mcclellan if he
had any knowledge of the letter, and
also to make the same inquiry of the
postmaster at Bath. He sent a man &C.
cordingly, who in due time returned and
reported that Gen. Mcclellan said that
he did receive such a letter, on the day
which he named, and which was short
time only before. When he received
the letter, he had no recollection of the
writer, but supposed it was all right.
The messenger then went to the post
master, who said that he recollected such
letter that it came by the Eastern
mail ON day which he named that he
opened the mailbag himself, and seeing
letter directed to General MeLella, j.
which looked as if it might have money
in it, he did not like to have it lying in
his office, and sent it by his boy to the
general. The time when the letter
reached the postmaster at Bath and Ger
eral Mcclellan, as stated by them, was
the afternoon of the day on which it
passed through Camden.
On receiving this intelligence, | went
to the District Attorney, Mr.. Shepl ey,
stated what information we had OBJ
tanned, and requested him to subpoena
General Mcclellan and the Postmaster at
Bath to go before the Grand Jury. He
did so. aud the result was that no indict-
ment was found and my client was dis
charged. He had been so anxious that,
duridg the absence of his messenger to
Bath, he retained Genreal Fessenden,
and we, after comforting together, ad
vised our client to bring an action a. ainst
Mr.. Mitchell for malicious prosecution.
He did so, and recovered over sixteen
hundred dollars. fudge Peleq Sprague.