Richmond Enquirer

PARIS, (Ky.) March 14.-We feel a good deal of reluctance against publishing anything respecting the late astonishing elopement. But as many incorrect verbal recitals of the affair, will, no doubt, go abroad-the public seem to demand of us a correct statement of facts, and as its ob't serv't we give the following from one who holds himself responsible for every word therein contained, and whose name will be given on any proper application. IW Citizen. Paris. (Ky. ) March 9. 1820.

SINGULAR ELOPEMENT

On Saturday the 4th inst. Maj. Wm. Trigg, a citizen of this town, and Cashier of the Branch Bank, left home in the evening, pretending a visit to his sister in Fayette county, and representing that his return might be expected on the next day. On the Monday following, Bank hours arrived and no cashier appeared to conduct the business of the institution. It had been discovered in the mean time that a young lady of respectability had disappeared, and no conjecture could at first be formed, either of the cause of her departure, or of her motives in leaving the comforts of her father's house. The major's being still absent, connected with the absence of the lady and some other circumstances recollected by individuals, attached to him a suspicion in the minds of some, which they feared to express.

At the first intimation of suspicion the Directors, alarmed for the safety of the Bank, repaired thither, and examined and counted its funds, and discovered all safe. This, however, only lulled, but did not eradicate suspicion. Further searches were made, and in a pocket book left in one of the desks of the bank, there was discovered a list of his estate with its value, and a list of his debts and credits, exhibiting a large balance in favor of his estate after his debts should be satisfied. He then proceeds to disclose his contemplated flight and the cause of it, in feeling expressions, of which the following is a correct copy.

'I keep no books of accounts, and this is nearly the state of my affairs as I can recollect them. I shall in a few days leave this part of the world, and when to return God only knows. My conduct I know will be condemned, and myself with it. The motives which induced me, no man feels but myself. I am sorry for the effect that will be produced upon the Church of which I have been a member, but it injures not the religion of others, and every one has to render an account for himself.

'I am also sorry for the families, that will suffer in feeling; but they have not me alone to blame. I have for a long time been innocently attached to this female and never should have thought of any other kind, had I not been driven to a different course by the menaces of my family and their satellites. I have left property sufficient to pay all my debts and have a large surplus left to support my family. I take with me three thousand dollars, the clothes on my back and one change two horses and my watch; with this scanty amount, I seek a new country and new employment. The place to which I am going is distant and unknown to any human being, and in all probability shall not be heard of for several years

'I leave a power of attorney for Mr A. Ward, to transact my business and settle my affairs by the sale of my property if necessary; but had rather he would retain the Paris property. (Signed) WILLIAM TRIGG

Then follows the letter of attorney to Mr. Abraham Ward, a merchant of this place. In it he directs, after his debts are paid, the residue of his estate to be appropriated to the sustenance of his wife. At the close of the power, he adds this additional memorandum: The bank accounts and money will be found to stand fair. If there is any deficit, it must be small growing out of miscounting. W.T.

Mr. Trigg is upwards of 50 years of age, and possessed an ample fortune. In former years, he was given to intemperance and extravagance, but had for some years past reformed. He held the commission of Major in the 28th Regiment U. S. Infantry in the late war. Since that period his reformation appeared to be of the most deep rooted character. He ardently and zealously embraced the Christian Religion, and became a ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church. He possessed the most unlimited confidence not only of his brethren of the same society, but of all his acquaintances. He conducted properly as a Cashier and as a citizen. He was surrounded with the esteem and affection of his connections, his neighbors and numerous friends, and in ease and affluence, enjoyed the comforts of a married life with an amiable wife, with whom he had lived for about thirty years, and in whose bosom, by this last desolating act of wickedness, he has planted a thousand goading thorns of pungent grief.

Upon examining his private papers minutely, it is found that he has taken great pains to provide for the payment of all his debts. That his estate is amply solvent, and that few men in the place were more independent or free from the embarrassment of the times. He seems at the time of his departure, so far as regarded his dealings with the world, to have provided strongly against adding minute sins to the enormous crime he was about to perpetrate, and perhaps a similar instance could not be found, of an act so abandoned mingled with such traits of moral honesty. The event has filled his fellow citizens with more than wonder, they verily experience absolute astonishment A CITIZEN OF PARIS.