Rensselaer Union, Volume 3, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 January 1871 — The Facts in the Case of George Fisher, Deceased. [ARTICLE]

The Facts in the Case of George Fisher, Deceased.

BY MARK TWAIN.

Tan la history. It ia not wild extrava ganca, like “John Williamson Mackenzie's Groat Beef Contract," but la a plain state meat of facta ana circumstance* with which the Congress of the United Staten has interested itself from time to time during the long period of half a century. I will not call thia matter of George Fisher’s a great deathless and unrelenting swindle upon the Government and people of the United States—for it has never been ao decided, and I hold that it is a grave and solemn wrong for a writer to cast slurs or call names when such is the case— but will simply present the evidence, and let’ the Teener deduce his own verdict Then we shall do nobody injustice, and our ooneciences shall be clear. On or about the Ist day of September, 1818, the Creek war being then in progress in Florida, the crops, herds and houses of George Fisher, a citizen, were destroyed, either by the Indians or by the United States troops in pursuit of them. By the terms of the law, if the Indians destroyed the property there was no relief for Fislier; but if the troops destroyed it, the Government of the United States was debtor to Fisher for the amount involved. George Fisher must have considered that the Indians destroyed the property, lie cause, although he lived several years afterward, he does not appear to have ever made any claim upon the Government. In the course of time Fisher died, anil his widow married again. And bv and by, nearly twenty years after that dimly remembered raid upon Fisher’s cornfield, Ms mfote AVsAer’swete hneband petitioned Congress for pay for the property, and backed up the petition with many depositions and affidavits which purported to prove that the troops and not the Indians destroyed the property; that the troops for some inscrutable reason, deliberately burned down “houses” (or cabins) valued at S6OO, the same belonging to a peaceable private citizen, and also destroyed various other property belonging to the same citizen. But Congress declined to believe that the troops were such idiots (after overtaking and scattering a band of Indians proved to. have been found destroying Fisher’s property )as to calmly continue the work of destruction themselves and make a complete job of what the Indians had only commenced. So Congress denied the petition of the heirs of George Fisher in 1832, and did not give them a cent We hear no more from them officially until 1848, sixteen years after their first attempt on the Treasury, and a full generation after the death of the man whose fields were destroyed. The new generation of Fisher heirs then came forward and put in a bill for damages. The Second Auditor awarded them $8,873, being half the damage sustained by Fisher. The Auditor said the testimony showed that at least half the destruction was done by the Indians “ before the troop* darted in purtuit," and of course the government was not responsible for that half. 2. That was in April, 1848. In December, 1848, the heirs of George Fisher, deceased, came forward and pleaded for a “ revision *of their bill of damages. The revision was made, but nothing new could be found in their favor except an error of |IOO in the former calculation. However, in order to keep up the spirits of the Fisher family, the Auditor concluded to go back and allow interest from the date of the first petition (1832) to the date when the bill of damages was awarded. This sent the Fishers home happy, with sixteen years’ interest on sß,B73—the same amount ing to $8,997.94. Total $17,870.94. an entire year the suffering Fisher family remained quiet—even satisfied, after a fashion. Then they swooped down upon government with their wrongs once more. That old patriot, Attorney General Toucey, burrowed through the musty papers of the Fishers ana discovered one more chance for the desolate orphans—interest on that original award of $8,873 from the date of destruction of the property (1813) up to 1832! Result, $10,004.89 for the indigent Fishers. So now we have: First, $8,873 damages; second, interest on it from 1832 to 1848, $8,997.94; third, interest on it dated back to 1813, $10,004.89. Total, $27,875.83! What better investment for a great grandchild than to get the Indians to burn a corn-field for him sixty or seventy years before his birth, and plausibly lay. it on lunatic United States troops ?

4. Strange as it may seem, the Fishers let Congress alone for five years—or, what • is, perhaps, more likely, failed to make themselves heard by Congress for that length of time. But at last, in 1854, they got a hearing. They persuaded Congress to pass an act requiring the Auditor to reexamine their case. But this time they stumbled on the misfortune of an honest Secretary of the Treasury (Mr. James Guthne) and he spoiled everything. He said, in very plain language, that the Fishers were not'only not entitled to another cent, but that those children of many sorrows and acquainted with grief had been paid too much already. 5. Therefore, another interval of rest and .silence ensued—an interval which lasted four years, viz., till 1858. The “ right man "in the right place ” was then Secretary of War—John B. Floyd, of peculiar renown! Here was a master intellect, here was the very man to succor the Buffering heirs of the dead and suffering Fisher. They came up from Florida with a rush—a great tidal wave of Fishers, freighted with the same old musty documents about the same immortal cornfields of their ancestor. They straightway got an act passed transferring the Fisher matter from the dull Aditor to the ingenious Floyd. What did Floyd do ? He said “it was proved that the Indians destroyed everything they could before the troops entered in pursuit.” He considered, therefore, that what they destroyed must have consisted of “ the houses with all their contents, and the liquor ” (the most trifling part of the destruction, and set down at only $3,200 all told), and that the government troops then drove them off and calmly proceeded to destroy— Two hundred and twenty acres of coni in the field, thirty-five acres of wheat, and 986 head of live stock! [What a singularly intelligent army we had in those days, according to Mr. Floyd—though ,not according to the Congresss of 1832.] ‘ So Mr. Floyd decided that the government was not responsible for that $3,200 worth of rubbish w hich the Indians destroyed, but was responsible for the property destroyed by the troops—which property consisted of (I quote from the printed• United States Senate document): Corn at Bassett's Creek $3,000 Cattle 5.000 Stock bogs 1.050 Drove hogs 1.904 Wheat 350 Hides 4,000 Corn on the Alabama River 3.500 Total $18,104 That sum, in his report, Mr. Floyd calls the “ full value of the property destroyed by troops.” He allows that sum to the starving Fishers, together with interest from 1818. From this new sum total the amounts already paid to the Fishers .were deducted, and the cheerfill remainder (a fraction under $40,000) was handed to them, and again they returned to Florida in a condition of temporary tranquility. Their ancestor’s farm had now yielded them, altogether, nearly $67,000 in cash. 6. Does the reader suppose that that was the end of it? tDoes he suppose those diffident Fishers were satisfied ? Let the evidence show. The Fishers were quiet just two years. Then tM? came swarming up out of the fertile swamps of

Florida with their same old documenta and besieged Congress once more. Con greaa capitulated on the first of June, 1860, and instructed Mi. Floyd to overhaul those papers again, and j>ay that bill. A Treasury clerk was ordered to go through those |«apersand report to Mr. Floyd" what amount was still due to the emaciated Fishers. This clerk (I can produce him whenever he is wanted) discovered what was apparently a glaring and recent forgery in the papart, whereby a witness testimony as to the price of com in f lorida in 18U| was made to name double the amount which the witness'fliail originally specified as the price! Tiie-clerk not only cal,e d his superior’s attention to this thing, but in making up his brief of lhe case called particular attention to it in writing. That part of the brief never got before Congre**, nor has Congress ever yet had a hint of a forgery.existing among the Fisher papers. Nevertheless, on the basis of the doubled prices, (and totally ignoring the clerk’s assertion that the figures were manifestly and unquestionably a recent forgery,) Mr. Floyd remarks in his new report that “ the testimony ( particularly in regard to the corn crops, demands a much higher allowance than any heretofore made by the auditor or myself.” So he estimates the crop at sixty bushels to the acre (double what Florida acres produce), and then virtuously allows pay for only •half the crop, blit allows two dollars and a half a bushel for that half, when there are rusty old books and documents in the Congressional libraiy to show just what the Fisher testimony showed before the forgery, viz: that in tine falFof 1813 corn was only worth from $1.25 to $1.50 a bushel. Having accomplished thia, what does Mr. Floyd do next? Mr. Floyd (“with an earnest desire to execute truly the legislative will,” as he piously remarks) goes to work and makes out an entirely new bill of the Fislier damages, and in this new bill he placidly ignore* the. Indians altogether—nuts no particle of the destruction of the Fisher property upon them, but even repenting him of charging them with burning the cabins and drinking the whisky, and breaking the crockery, lays the entire damage at the door of the imbecile United States troops, down to the very last item! And not only that but uses the forgery to double the loss of corn at “Bassett’s Creek,” and uses it again to absolutely treble the loss of corn on the “.Alabama River.” This new and ably conceived and executed bill of Mr. Floyd’s figures up as follows (I copy again from the printed United States Senate document) : The United States In account with the legal representatives of George Fieher, deceased: 1813. TohSOhead of cattle at >lO $5,500 00 Toß> head of drovehog* 1,20-1 00 To HOO head of stock hoga— 1,750 00 To l"oacree of corn on Bmusetl’B Creek 6,000 00 To 8 barrels of whisky 350 00 To 2 barrels of brandy ■ 2-80 00 To 1 barrel of rum , 70 00 To dry goods and merchandise tn stores a. 1,100 00 To 85 acres of wheat. 7. 350 00 To 2,000 hides 4,000 00 To furs and hats in store 600 00 To crockcry ware in store 100 00 To smith’s and carpenter’s tools.. 250 00 To houses burned and destroyed.. 6‘o 00 To 4 dozen bottles of wine 48 00 1814. To 120 acres of corn on Alabama river.oo To crops of peas, fodder, etc..... 3,250 00 • —i T0ta1.......' $31,952 00 To Interest on $22,202, from July, 1818, to November, 1800, 47 years and 4 months 63,053 68 To interest on $12,750, from Beptenber, 1814, to November, 1860,46 years and two months.. 35,317 50 T0ta1..5133,823 18 He puts everything in this time. He does not even allow that the Indians destroyed the- crockery or drank the four dozen bottles of (currant) wine. When it came to supernatural comprehensiveness in “gobbling,” John B. Floyd was without his equal in bis own or any other generation. Subtracting from the above total the $67,000 already paid to George Fisher's implacable heirs, Mr. Floyd announced that the government was still indebted to them in the sum of $66,519.85, “which,” Mr. Floyd complacently remarks “ will be paid, accordingly, to the administrator of the estate of George Fisher, deceased, or to his attorney in fact.” But sadly enough for the destitute orphans, a new President came in just at this time; Buchanan and Floyd went out, and they never got the money. The first thing Congress did in 1861 was to rescind the resolution of June 1, 1860, under which Mr. Floyd had been ciphering. Then Floyd (and, doubtless, the heirs of George Fisher likewise) had to give up i financial business for a while and go into ■ the Confederate army and serve their country-. Were the heirs of George Fisher killed? No. They are back now at this very time, beseeching Congress, through that blushing and diffident creature; Garrett Davis, to commence making payments again on their interminable and insatiable .bill of damages for com and whisky destroyed by a gang of irresponsible Indians, so long ago that even government red-tape has failed to keep consistent and intelligent track of it. [And before this number of the Galaxy reaches Washington, Mr. Davis will be getting ready to resurrect it once more, and alter his customary speech on finance, war, and other matters, so that it will fit it.] Now, the above are facts. They are history. Anyone that doubts it can send to the’ Senate Document Department of the Capitol for H. R. Ex. Doc. 21, 36th Congress, 2d Session, for S. Ex. Doc. No. 106, 41st Congress, 2d Session, and satisfy himself. The whole case is set forth in the fiist volume of the Court of Claims Reports. It is my belief that as long as the continent of America holds together, the heirs of George Fisher, deceased, will still make pilgrimage to Washington from the swamps of Florida, to plead for just a little more cash on their bill of damages (even when they received the last of that $67,000, they said it was only one-fourth what the government owed them on that infernal cornfield) ; and as long as they choose to come, they will find Garrett Davises to drag their vampire schemes before Congress. This is not the only hereditary fraud (if fraud it is—which I have before repeatedly remarked is not proven) that is being quietly handed down from generation to generation of father and sons, through the persecuted Treasury df the United States.— Galaxy.