The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-03-24
A CHAPTER ON F0RGERIES.
The Philosophy of the MOrey Letter,
and How to Locate Its Author.
The Writer of the Letter Must Have Had
Some Great Stake in Peril-SOme
PeculiaritieS of FOrgerS.
I'Gath's'' New York Letter.

'Gath's'' New York Letter.
Having had some time to think about the
Morey letter forgery, l venture to make a point
or two upon it.
The man who forged that letter probably had
a large interest in electing Hancock, or he would
not have taken such a risk and given so much
time to it.
The man who forged that letter had access to
the printed paper of Congress, becauset the letter
has a die of the Capitol sunk into the paper, and
the words House of Representatives" in the
usual type, printed across the top.
The man who forged that letter was pretty
we'll acquainted with affairs, because the body
of the letter treats of the Chinese question by a
kind of cunning and plausible regeneration
just sufficient to put the stigma on Garfield
of wanting Chinese labor in this country, and
yet delicate enough to appear to be the hand
of a politician who did not want to commit
himself too much. A fine, welllnformed sneak
did it.
The forger of that letter was an accomplished
scoundrel, thoroughly INSCRIPTIONS, c%owardly,
willing to get the rewards of murder, but not the
hazards thereof. He had probably encouraged
murder or kindred crimes in some worse region
VI SOCltty. III was pEODdbly d udh Wiling " ttth
crime of any kind among the assets to win cleo
tons with. He knew how to poison the public
mind. He located the place of the nondescript,
Henry L. Morey, away off in Massachusetts, and
by this | should Judge that the forger himself
lived in the opposite direction. The forged let
ter was put in the mail and sent to a little paper
in New York, to impose upon it. So | should
draw a line from Lynn. Mass, right through
the city of New York, and about as far in the
| other direction TO find where the fOpgeP sat. |
should therefore locate him in the city of Wash
ington.
There is another reason for locating him in
Washington, because after all efforts had failed
to find any Morey in Massachusetts, there came
from about Washington the suggestion to the
troubled tools in New York that there
was a man down there, near Cumberland, Md,
somewhere, who had been acquainted with
Morey.
Now, if any person around Washington City
can be identified who had a good big stake in
that forgery, who never scrupled to steal, who
was audacious and sly, and had sometime backed
up bloOdshed as a means of political and per
sonal victory, watch him in the next campaign!
Again, this forgery of Garfields name must
have been written by a man with easy access to
Garfields handwriting, a man who knew some
what of Carried. and a man accustomed to writ
ing, who used his pen easily and perhaps pro-
1 fessionally, and was not a book-keeper. He must
have been a man acquainted with newspaper life,
because this or a similar forgery was a little
I With DtlOLC Etlb 4 JIG ANth 1OIh kAu 40 LltC1
all seem to admit around the Sun office. The Sun
was not disposed to throw away its strong posi-
ton and wealth on a queer, anonymous thing
like this, yet there was enough smartness
about the forgery to make them call in their
counsel and friends and study the letter. They
finally resolved to have nothing to do with it.
The fOrger, therefore, undoubtedly meant bust
ness. He did not forge that letter to keep his
hand in, but to elect Hancock. He sent it to a
very prominent paper, which, had it been mis-
led, would probably not have changed the result
of the election, but would have given the forgery
some substantial support in the rest of the press.
The Sun failing to use the thing, and the forger
still being desperate, for some reason. either be-
cause he had some property at stake in the cleo
ton or some prospect of great fortune to come
from Hancock's election, then said to himself:
81 see an ignoramus who will bite at this thing
yet, and who has no lawyers around him decent
enough to check him, and no character to be af-
fected by this thing"
The forgery, therefore, has up to this time
pestered some innocent persons, ruined a public
nuisance, and it has given a great deal of
trouble, no doubt, to the original fOrger.
The scent has probably come very close to him
several times. He knows that a good many per
sons suspect him. Now and then some man will
get drunk. perhaps, who has such suspicious,
and shake him by the hand and say, Hello, old
Moreyt' 1t is seldom allowed to such scoundrels
to benefit by their works. A rich murderer has
seldom been known in this world. He may keep
a concert saloon or a bar-room, or something of
that kind, and have a half rowdy life for a few
years. but on the whole his life will end bank
rupt. His friends will be merely sunshine or
midnight friends. His family will melt away.
Nothing will come to grain or fruit with him.
His head will be full of INSCRIPTIONS schemes
and dreams of riches, and still he will be classed
with the semi-outlaw set, men of whom the peni-
Tertiary is a little more sure than any other in
%stitution of honor. .
PHILOSOPHY AND HISTORY OF FORGERY.
My experience about forgers is that they pos
snca "a diSaasad animal pat1pa which commute
their moral natures. Few forgers have been
men whose masculine powers have been well
conserved. They have in youth lost their self
respect, anticipated the happy settlements of
life, dribbled away their powers and become
thieves by practice. l once knew a young man
who did some work for me, and he was a very
good clerk, and still there was something about
him l never could understand. His complexion
had something iaillike and whitewashy in it.
He was industrious and a remarkable penman,
but he was unreliable. For days he would not
turn up, and l could never tell where he was,
though he said he had malaria / suspected
that he might drink, but that face never
told tit would not bloat; but it seemed
hardly healthy. Something a little queer in his
eyes struck me-, one of them being of a some
what different shade from the other. | finally hit
upon incontinence as the mans snare. The
guess turned out to be nearly true. One day l
found the young man had been arrested for
forgery. Subsequent opportunities to examine
the matter showed that he had forged repeatedly
for small sums of money, and even after the
walls of the Jail had closed upon him he could write
a name to a check again and again and go right
to the bank for the money.
Earlier in life | had seen forgers arrested and
tried, some of them quite noted men in their day.
In short, the forger is a sneak thief with some
education-a man with a sapped physical sys-
tenn, yet not able to be a roue. He generally re
quires to have some address.
Forgery has always been classed next to muir
der in civilized society. 1t has not been extinct
many years as a capital crime. Fauntleroy was,
I think, the last man hanged in England
for forgery. He suffered death in 1924 in Lon
don. There were seven counts on his trial, for
forging a deed for about $25, 900 to rob p woman
of her stocks in the Bank of England. The