Dr. A. Smyth, Superindent of the U.S. Mint at New Orleans.
"REVISED STATUTES SECTION 350" "The Supt's of the Mint shall give bond with one or more sureties for the fauthful and diligent performance of the duties of their office, also providing that similar bonds may be required of the assistants or clerks in such sums as the Sup't shall determine with the approbation of the director of the Mint : but the same shall not be construed to relieve the Sup't or other officers from liability to the United States for acts, ommissions or negligence of their subordinates." A fire occurred in the cashier's vault in the Mint at New Orleans in the year 1893, and the Government indicted James Dowling, the cashier in a criminal prosecution, and and failing to convict him came back upon Doctor Andrew W. Smyth, the Superintendent as responsible. This was an injustice as the criminal suit prevented the Government from bringing a civil suit against Dowling's bond. If the fire which occurred in the cashier's vault was accidental, then Doctor Smyth could not be held accountable for the missing moneys. If it was not accidental Dowling, being the criminal, should not have been acquitted. His acquittal was an acknowledgement that the fire was accidental, and, if the fire was accidental, and the paper currency burned, then, the United States lost nothing. If, on the other hand, the fore was a criminal act on the cashier's part, and certain moneys were lost to the United States, the acquittal of dowling was an error of the Court, and it cancelled Dowling's bond to the Government. Dowling had given a valid bond with sureties for twenty thousand dollars. In Doctor Smyth's case is presented the anomalous instance of the courts of the United States giving diametrically opposite decisions on the same question : expert testimony. In the criminal prosecution against Dowling the jury was admonished and instructed by the Judge not to rely on expert testimony and Dowling was acquitted. In the second suit, brought against Doctor Smyth as Sup't, the court, but not the same judge, held in effect that the expert evidence of Mrs. Rosenberg, who had been sent down by the Government to examine the burnt currency, was sufficient proof that Dowling had abstracted large notes in the amount of twenty thousand dollars before the notes of smaller denomination were burned. The court there for (sic) held Doctor Smyth responsible as Sup't on expert testimony, after acquitting Dowling on the very same plea. The First decision of the court was wholly ignored. Therefore an appeal is made to Congress to redress this wrong and to relieve Doctor Andrew W. Smyth, and by direct appropriation to refund him such sums as he has been obliged to pay through his bond to the United States, and which he has repaid to his bond, viz : $23,897.70. Furthermore, an appeal is made to Congress that Doctor Andrew W. Smyth, by his eminent success as a surgeon has rendered to the Unites States such services as should receive the recognition which all great countries pay to trhe men who have contributed to their fame and lustre. For his has been the honour to lead the world's record in the forst successful operation for sub-clavian aneurium, after at least a score of failures by the most eminent surgeons to grasp the obstacle to success. By his original treatment of an ailment, the operation for which was considered, in its fatal results, by Sir Eric Erichsen and others as an "unjustifiable operation" Doctor Andrew W. Smyth has led the way to the alleviation and cure of suffering humanity. This successful operation has an international fame ; but at home, here in the United States, in the whole wide South, his name is still remembered. The poor have blessed it for his charity and no sect or race but recalls with sorrow that the great surgeon was made to suffer such an injustice. An old man of nearly eighty he awaits the decision that shall show him he was wrong to have tarried so long to lay his case before his countrymen, and to ask Congress peace and happiness in the closing years of his life.Close