Rensselaer Gazette, Volume 2, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 October 1858 — FALSEHOODS REFUTED. [ARTICLE]

FALSEHOODS REFUTED.

[For ttie <j*7.ctte.

Editor Gazette: I see in the last week’s Expositor, in an article headed .“Public Ex- ~* pendit Ures —Figures won't lie,” the following statement. “In addition to all this the Board have refunded of taxes to R. 11. Alilfoy. an especial pet, near,-SIOOO, on taxes commonly assessed against non-residents, and then re I used to refund to citizens of the county.” It is true thai “figures” theuu. selves, in the hands'of tfuth-teiiing persons, on t lie, hut in the hands ol liars,’futures can he. made to lie as readily as who use them. The whole article from which the tt hove extract is taken, is a tissue of falsehoods from beginning to 'end, and I - shouhhnot have noticed it had not mv nam • I been mentioned in the above extract’, which contain- two ties. Ihe word “commonly,” in the above extract is doubtless a mistake in the printing, ami should have been erroneously. The fir t, lie in this extract is about me receiving “near SIOOO, on taxes erroneously.assessed,. upon hinds entitled to lice years exemption from taxition. 1 have received upon such orders just $7.8.75. At the December term of 1856, I brought the lirstca.se (d this kind before the Board of ('ommissmners, of Jasper county, and then showed the Board, that according to a decision of the Hinted States Circuit Court, for j!:e district of fil'di ann, all lands in this State, bought of the United States, prior to the taking effort of our present R.-vised Statutes. (Aliy 6. 187)3) were entitled to an exemption tor tlie term of five years from the date of entry, and that all taxes assessed on such lands belore the expiration of five years from the time off entry, were erroneous, and got the Board to make an order (see Order Book, page 383) in-fav,ir of J unes Francis, . ot Tippecanoe county, for the sum of $30.1 7 lor taxes that In? had (according to said decison) been erroneously assessed against 1 him on land-in Jasper county. The 7u>rtn|f ot Commissioners, afterward finding that they were, and won d he frequently troubled by applications for special orders in favor of persons who had so erroneously paid taxes at the September term, 1857, (see Order Book, pages 127-8,) made a general order that all persons who had so erroneously paid taxes, should be entitled to orders refunding ; ll,e same. Under this general order, I made application last winter for Wm. A. Hotter, j ot La layette, and procured county orders in his lavor, to tire amount of $48.58. The ! second lie in the aforesaid extract, is that usI u ' r refunding to me near SIOOO, fornon-res-iuents, the Board “then refused to refund to | citizens of the county.” Th- truth is that [ every person who made application to the Board or Auditor, after I procured the firs* order, as before stated, and showed that th.-y liad paid taxes, so erroneously assessed against them, obtained orders at once for the refunding of such taxes. Hundreds of citizens ot this county obtained such orders, as j will be seen by reference to the reo-frter of | or L tier - s «n the Auditors office, and no person | who made application, fand«,the necessdrv | proof, was refused suet/orders, until about the Ist ot Apiil, 1858, when the-Board, having learned the fact that an appeal had been taken from the aforesaid decision of the United States Circuit Court to the Supreme Court of the United States, and might there be reversed; made nn order that no more such taxes should be refunded till the case upon said appeal was decided. There is one other item in this collection ot falsehoods, so grossly false, that being personally conversant with the matters alluded to, I must notice. It is ns follows; “Some ten suits 'have been commenced against the former Treasurer, (Markle) in «// ol which they (the Commissioners) have suffered non-suitor dismissal, rather than go to trial, and this at a cost of not less than SIOOO Attorney’s fees, &e„ to support the Itebublican clique of Rensselaer.” There has been but one suit commenced by order • . M° m^ ,i T! oners of Jas P° r county, against Mr. Merkle, for county revenue In U.»t Mr. Merkle .„„k o\V lute county. It was there discovered - that sever .1 items of Indebtedness, some of w-hich had occurred after the commencement ot that suit were not embraced in it, and that it would be best to discontinue them, amend and begin the suit he e again, which was done, and that suit is still pending j n our Circuit Court, and will he tried next month, it not again taken away on a change of venue; and to iny certain knowledge, neither the county of Jasper, nor the Commissioners, have yet paid one cent of “Attorneys tees” in this case. ; Commeiut upon such glaring misrepresentations is unnecessary. R. ||. Milsot.