The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 27, July 1923 - April, 1924 Page: 260
344 p. : maps ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
Oetling and Company entered into a contract with him to sell the
bonds in Europe and hold the proceeds subject to his order. The
bonds were shipped to William Droege and Company of Manches-
ter, England, of which firm the Matamoras house was a branch.
Swisher also went to England to make his purchases. One hun-
dred and forty-nine bonds were sold to George Peabody and Com-
pany of London, who were to pay for them in installments. Just
before the last installment was paid, Peabody and Company heard
rumors that the United States Treasury would reject these bonds;
thereupon further payment was refused unless Droege and Com-
pany would agree not to withdraw the money from the bank until
the validity of the bonds was clear. But Droege withdrew the
whole deposit and paid it to Swisher, who redeposited it. Peabody
demanded restitution of the whole amount with interest, and when
it was refused, instituted suit in the Court of Chancery and ob-
tained an injunction which prevented Swisher from withdrawing
from the bank any of the money already paid. Peabody, of course,
kept possession of the bonds. Swisher had already made consid-
erable purchases for the Military Board in anticipation of the
sale of the bonds. Since he was now unable to pay for them, the
Matamoras house assumed the obligations for them and shipped
them with the understanding that cotton would be sent to Mata-
moras to pay for them upon arrival. That firm still had posses-
sion of the other lot of bonds, one hundred and fifty-one, and as it
was now defendant in the chancery suit and subject to consider-
able expense, Swisher was induced to agree that this second lot
should be held as security for the expenses of the suit.'
The frontier merchant had been no match for the astute English
bankers, and the third adventure of the Military Board in bond-
selling had ended disastrously. Some $300,000 in bonds and in-
terest-coupons were tied up in an English chancery suit without
one cent in return. To make the comedy of errors complete, when
the goods which Swisher had contracted for arrived in Matamoras
in the fall of 1862, there was no cotton to exchange for them, and
although the board protested, Droege, Oetling and Company sold
them on private account. The board for a variety of reasons had
"The correspondence covering this transaction is in the "Military Papers,
1862-65," Package 55, Texas State Library.260
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 27, July 1923 - April, 1924, periodical, 1924; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101086/m1/266/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.