The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1907-10-21

WASHINGTON Oct. .2--Document-
airy evidence has just been discovered
in Fairfax County, Va, to prove that
George Washington was not always
regarded by his neighbors as a model
of veracity. At the May term of the
Fairfax County Court in 1760 he was
publicly presented by the Grand
Jury for swearing to a false list OF
his taxable property. In other words,
~ citizens of his home county official
ly branded him as a liar and a tax
dodger
The discovery of this record was
made by Captain S. r. Donahoe, edi-
tor of the Fairfax Herald. While seek
| ing data Tor a history of the country.
which he is engaged in writing, Cap
| tain Donahoe had occasion to exam
inc the ancient records of the county
court, and there he unearthed, a day
or two ago, startling proof of the fact
that in 1860 criminal proceedings were
instituted against Washington for not
entering his property for taxation
| agreeably to law, an offense which in
volved the making of a false oath.
On page 463 of a volume entitled
'Liber A." the minute book of the
court, Captain Donahoe found the re-
port of the Grand Jury of Fairfax
County, Colony of Virginia, rendered
to the Court on May 2, 1850, and in it,
in company with presentments for
thievery and indictments for landing
Quakers, was the following:
1--WE present George William Fair
fax, George Washington, John Car
lyle, Daniel French, Robert Bogges,
Catesby Cooke, Townshend Dade.
Sybill West, Garrard Alexander, Je-
NINA Minor, William Ramsay, Ben
jamin Grayson, George Mason, John
Plummer, Daniel McCarty and Abra-
ham Barnes for (no) entering their
wheeled carriages agreeably to law,
as appears to us by the list of deliv-
cred to the Clerk of the County"
The word present" as used in this
report carried in those days only
slightly different meaning from that
of the word "indict," a difference
largely technical.
"The old laws of the Colony or Vir-
ginia,' today said Walter T. Oliver of
the Virginia Legislature and a prom
inent lawyer of Fairfax, provided for
criminal proceedings in two ways; by
indictment or presentment. In case OB
indictment the Kings counsel initiated
the prosecution, bringing the facts
before the Grand Jury, who then re-
ported an indictment to the court in
case of presentment, however, the
Grand Jurors proceeded on their own
initiative without the assistance or
Intervention of the counsel. They
summoned witnesses, and, if to the
minds of the twelve, the facts showed
the suspected person guilty of a crime,
the case was presented to the Court,
whereupon proper writs of apprehen-
sion were issued for the accused and
the Kings counsel ordered to prose-
cute the case. So that, so far as the
legal Specification of the word means
a grave criminal charge by an author
lied jury, present has, in this in
stance, the same force as fndict.'"
Further" said Mr.. Oliver, that an
owners failure to enter any property
should have been dealt with as a crime
rests upon the meaning of the word
enter in the formal presentment I'm
der Colonial law an owner, unless he
was willing to permit the county Off
cial to make a schedule of his taxable
property, made out list of it himself
To protect the public revenues against
fraud, the law provided that, subjoin-
ed to the list of property, should be
the following oath, taken by the own
err:
4, -, do solemnly swear that the
property entered in the foregoing list
is all, both real and personal, subject