The Daily Cincinnati Republican, And Commercial Register

Springfield Gazette
WITH
PRESS?

will Place IN FRONT.—We refer our readers to an
account of a trial which recently took place in this
place, for a further development of the means em-
ployed by the Bank of the United States or its
agents to secure the support and recharter of that
institution. It presents one of the strongest cases
of abuse of power which we have yet seen; and it
cannot, we think, fail to astonish even those who
had the least confidence in its management. In or-
der fully to appreciate the importance of the dis-
closure made, it should be remembered that the de-
fendant, John E. Hinman, Esq. was, at the time and
long after the transaction referred to took place, a
director in the branch bank here! and with this fact
in view, let us see how the case stands. Mr. Spear,
the printer of the Lever, swears—and the accura-
cy of his testimony was not questioned—that he
was a federalist; that he came to this place to es-
tablish a paper disconnected with party politics;
that his prospectus was written, but that at the so-
licitation of the defendant, Mr. Hinman, who rep-
resented to him that such a paper as he, Spear, de-
sired to print could not succeed, he was induced to
change its character, and devote it, as Mr. Hinman
wished he should do, to "put down the Albany Re-
gency, and the Utica Regency, and to write up the
Bank." And what does he swear the inducements
held out to him to pursue this course were? Polit-
ical preferment? No. The justice of the cause?
Certainly not. But he swears he was told by Mr.
Hinman, who was then a director, that the bank
would pay six hundred dollars towards his printing
establishment; and further he swears that in pursu-

ance of this arrangement, he obtained $250 from
the bank, for which he gave his note endorsed by
the defendant; that he did not at the time ever ex-
pect to be called upon for the payment of it, and
that he has never been asked for it; and that the in-
ducements held out to him by the defendant, Hinman,
to give the note, was that "so much noise had been
made about the purchase of the Courier and Enqui-
rer by the Bank, it was important to give this the ap-
pearance of a business transaction."—These are
the prominent facts disclosed on the trial, and no
attempt was made from any quarter to rebut them.