Richmond Enquirer

DOMESTIC.

FRAUDS on The TREASURY.—At the last term of the Federal Court, holden at Clarksburg, Va., 37 indictments for forgery and perjury, were found by the grand jury, against certain Pensioners and their Attorneys. Among the Attorneys implicated, are Jonathan Wamsley, Commonwealth's Attorney for Lewis county, and J. Bennet, a Delegate elect from the same county. They have both taken leg bail, left their homes, and taken themselves, as is supposed, to the Province of Texas.

The Pensioners concerned, are generally supposed to be innocent of any criminal or fraudulent intentions whatever. They are believed to have been deceived and imposed upon by their Attorneys in the following manner:—When old gentlemen, who had been more or less engaged in the Indian or border warfare, but not for a length of time sufficient to entitle them to a pension, would apply to their Attorneys, and detail to them, an account of their services, the Attorneys would assure them, that they were justly entitled to receive a pension under the law, and would forthwith draw up the declaration, not of the actual services of the applicant, but of such services as they (the Attorneys) knew would entitle the applicant to his pension; when the declaration was drawn, the applicant was assured that it contained nothing but the facts as he had detailed them, only that they were put in legal form With this understanding and belief, and reposing confidence in their Attorneys, the applicants were generally, easily imposed upon, and induced to take the necessary oaths; without reading or examining the declarations themselves.

The applications were generally successful; and, as a matter of course, Wamsley and Bennet, as pension agents, acquired a great reputation. What proportion or share of the money thus drawn from the Treasury, was usually retained by Wamsley and Bennet, for their services is not known, but it is presumed, that it was no inconsiderable amount.—Wellsburg Rep.