University of Virginia Library

THE CASE OF GEORGE
FISHER.[1]

[ILLUSTRATION] [Description: 503EAF. Page 109. In-line image; opening image for the story "The Case of George Fisher." In the background of the image a house is burning and two Indians are running towards the foreground with a group of oxen and food. In the foreground of the image are two Indians drinking alcohol out of a large jug.]

THIS is history. It is not a
wild extravaganza, like “John
Williamson Mackenzie's Great
Beef Contract,” but is a plain statement
of facts and circumstances with
which the Congress of the United
States has interested itself from time
to time during the long period of half
a century.

I will not call this 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 so 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 reader deduce his own verdict. Then we shall do nobody
injustice, and our consciences shall be clear.

On or about the 1st day of September 1813, the Creek was being then in progress
in Florida, the crops, herds, and houses of Mr. 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 Fisher; 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,
because, 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, and his widow married again. And by and
by, nearly twenty years after that dimly-remembered raid upon Fisher's cornfields,
the widow Fisher's new husband 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 $600, 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 pay 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 troops started in pursuit,”
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 $100 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 $8,873—the same
amounting to $8,997.94. Total, $17,870.94.

3. For 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 and discovered one more chance for the desolate
orphans—interest on that original award of $8,873 from 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
cornfield 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 re-examine their case. But this time they
stumbled upon the misfortune of an honest Secretary of the Treasury (Mr. James
Guthrie), 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 suffering heirs of dead and forgotten
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 Auditor 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 $3200 all told), and that the Government
troops then drove them off and calmly proceeded to destroy—

Two hundred and twenty acres of corn in the field, thirty-five acres of wheat, and
nine hundred and eighty-six head of live stock! [What a singularly intelligent army
we had in those days, according to Mr. Floyd—though not according to the
Congress of 1832.]

So Mr. Floyd decided that the Government was not responsible for that $3200
worth of rubbish which 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)—

                 

	Dollars.
Corn at Bassett's Creek	3,000
Cattle	5,000
Stock hogs	1,050
Drove hogs	1,204
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 the troops.” He allows that sum to the starving Fishers, TOGETHER WITH

[ILLUSTRATION] [Description: 503EAF. Page 113. Image of a man standing in an archive. He is standing in the center of stacks of papers and is holding one up to read.]

INTEREST FROM 1813. From this new sum total the amounts already paid to the
Fishers were deducted, and then the cheerful remainder (a fraction under forty
thousand dollars) was handed to them, and again they retired to Florida in a condition
of temporary tranquility. Their ancestor's farm had now yielded them,
altogether, nearly sixty-seven thousand dollars in cash.

6. Does the reader suppose that that was the end of it? Does he suppose those
diffident Fishers were satisfied? Let the evidence show. The Fishers were quiet
just two years. Then they came swarming up out of the fertile swamps of Florida
with their same old documents, and besieged Congress once more. Congress
capitulated on the first of June, 1860, and instructed Mr. Floyd to overhaul those
papers again and pay that bill. A Treasury clerk was ordered to go through those
papers and report to Mr. Floyd what amount was still due the emaciated Fishers.
This clerk (I can produce him whenever he is wanted) discovered what was apparently
a glaring and recent forgery in the papers, whereby a witness's testimony as

to the price of corn in Florida in 1813 was made to name double the amount which
that witness had originally specified as the price! The clerk not only called his
superior's attention to this thing, but in making up his brief of the case called particular
attention to it in writing. That part of the brief never got before Congress,
nor has Congress ever yet had a hint of a forgery existing among the Fisher papers.
Nevertheless, on the basis of the double 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,
but allows two dollars and a half a bushel for that half, when there are rusty old
books and documents in the Congressional library to show just what the Fisher
testimony showed before the forgery—viz., that in the fall of 1813 corn was only
worth from $1.25 to $1.50 a bushel. Having accomplished this, 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
Fisher damages, and in this new bill he placidly ignores the Indians altogether—
puts 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 U. S. Senate document):—

The United States in account with the legal representatives of George Fisher, deceased.

           

	Dol. C.
1813.—To 350 head of cattle, at 10 dollars	5,500 00
To 86 head of drove hogs	1,204 00
To 350 head of stock hogs	1,750 00
To 100 ACRES OF CORN ON Bassett's Creek	6,000 00
To 8 barrels of whisky	350 00

                                   

To 2 barrels of brandy	280 00
To 1 barrel of rum	70 00
To dry goods and merchandise in store	1,100 00
To 35 acres of wheat	350 00
To 2,000 hides	4,000 00
To furs and hats in store	600 00
To crockery ware in store	100 00
To smiths' and carpenters' tools	250 00
To houses burned and destroyed	600 00
To 4 dozen bottles of wine	48 00
1814.—To 120 acres of corn on Alabama River	9,500 00
To crops of peas, fodder, etc.	3,250 00
Total	34,952 00
To interest on $22,202, from July 1813 to November 1860,
47 years and 4 months	63,053 68
To interest on $12,750, from September 1814 to November 1860,
46 years and 2 months	35,317 50
Total	133,323 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 his 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 sixty-six thousand five
hundred and nineteen dollars and eighty-five cents, “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 their money. The first
thing Congress did in 1861 was to rescind the resolution of June 1, 1870, under
which Mr. Floyd had been ciphering. Then Floyd (and doubtless the heirs of
George Fisher likewise) had to give up 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 (July 1870), beseeching Congress through that blushing and diffident creature,
Garrett Davis, to commence making payments again on their interminable and
insatiable bill of damages for corn 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.

Now, the above are facts. They are history. Any one who doubts it can send
to the Senate Document Department of the Capitol for H. R. Ex. Doc. No. 21,
36th Congress, 2nd Session, and for S. Ex. Doc. No. 106, 41st. Congress 2nd Session,
and satisfy himself. The whole case is set forth in the first 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 pilgrimages 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 sixty-seven thousand dollars, they said it
was only one-fourth what the Government owed them on that fruitful corn-field),
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 fathers and sons, through the persecuted
Treasury of the United States.