Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1907-10-03
WASHINGTON AUAR,
SHY The RECORDS
Proof of the First Presidents
NIendacity Dug Up in Vir-
ginia Court House
INDICTED AS A TAX DooeER
Musty Records Belle Tradition and
Spoil Moral Of the Story Books =
Father Of His Country Fibbed to
Escape Payment of Taxes, Like 9th
ers Who Came After Him.

Washington, Oct. 3.-Documentary
evidence has just been discovered IN
Fairfax county, Virginia, to prove that
George Washington was not always re-
garded by his neighbors as model OF
veracity.
At the May term Of the Fairfax
county court in 1860 he was publicly
'presented" by the grand jury Tor
swearing to false list Of his taxable
property. In other words twelve citi-
zens Of his home county officially
branded him as liar and tax dodger.
The discovery Of this record was
made by Capt. s. r. Donahue. editor OF
the Fairfax Herald, the weekly paper
of Fairfax Courthouse. While seeking
data for history of the county which
he is engaged in writing. Capt. Dona-
hue examined the ancient records of
the county court. In the musty depths
of pages yellow with age, he unearthed
a day or two ago proof of the fact that
in 1850 criminal proceedings were IN
stituted against Washington for not
entering his property for taxation, an
offense which involved the making OF
q false oath.
On page 463 of the volume entitled
"Libe1a,' the minute book of the court.
Capt Donahue found the report of the
grand jury Of Fairfax county, colony
of Virginia, rendered May Il, 1860, and
there, in company with presentments
for Indictments for landing Quakers
the following:
eve. present George William Fairfax,
George Washington, John Carlyle.
Daniel French, Robert Bogges. Gates
by. C,,cke, Townsend Dade, Sylbill
West, Garrard Alexander, Jemima Mi
nor, William Ramsey. BENJAMIN Gray
son. George Mason, John Plummer,
Daniel Mccarthy and Abraham Barnes
for (not) entering their wheeled car
riages agreeably to law as appears to
MS by the list delivered to the clerk of
the county"
The, word present" as used in this
report carried in those days only a
slightly different meaning from that OF
tho word ''indict," difference largely
technical.
"Tfle old laws of the colony Of Vir-
sinia," said Walter Oliver of the Vir-
ginia legislature. prominent lawyer
of Fairfax, today, provided for Grim
inal proceedings in two ways-by In
dictment or by presentment In case
Of Indictment the kings counsel in
itiated the prosecution, bringing the
facts before the grand jury, who then
reported an indictment to the court.
In case Of presentment, however, the
grand jurors proceeded on their own
Initiative without the assistance or in
terveltion Of the counsel
''They summoned witnesses, and If,
to the minds of twelve, the facts
showed the suspected person guilty Of
q crime the case was presented to the
court, whereupon proper writs of ap-
prehension were issued for the accused
and the kings counsel ordered to pros
ecute the case. So that as far as the
legal sfgnification Of the word means
a grave criminal charge by an au-
thorized jury, present has, in this in
stance, the same force as indict'
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
cials to make schedule of his taxable
property, made out a list of it himself.
AS a property holder he was presumed
to be man OF responsibility and
truth.
.Nevertheless, to protect the public
revenues against fraud the law provid-
ed that subjoined to the list of prop
erty should be the following OATH talk
en- by the owner: do solemnly swear
that the property entered in the fore
going list Is all, both real and personal
subject to taxation of which am
seized and possessed In the county of
-, in the colony of Virginia.
"1'his oath was duly made and at
test,sd before an authorized official
The offense of swearing falsely to
property list was made a separate of
fense by act of the house of burgesses.
Thus it was that Washington was
crinlinally charged not with perjury
but with not entering certain prop
erty."
In short, the greatest of Americans
was believed, on judicial inquiry and
examination by twelve substantial men
of his county, to be guilty of what is
today termed tax lodging"