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3. For an entire year the suffering Fisher family remained quiet--even
satisfied, after a fashion. Then they swooped down upon the 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 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
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!
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