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J ---.! The Shylock of Mount Vernon.i I The following scathing article on the con-. duct of Mr. John A. Washington, in driving his bargain for the sale of Mount Vernon, is j from the Mobile Daily Advertiser. We en-“ dorse every word of it. The sordid spirit jt t he has evinced in this whole transaction ,1j marks him as a man wholly unfit to bear the honored name of Washington. The miser-t5 , ly Shylock disposition he has evinced is utterly contemptible.— Chi. Tri.. 1 “We are pleased that this honored spot 7 has heed secured upon any terms, and well “ appreciate the energy and devotion with ’ which the “Southern Matron’5 and her coad-, jotors have pursued this patriotic object, but 3 we cannot permit the occasion to pass with- j J out putting upon record our detestation of U 3 the conduct of the owner of the property ! j f in thus extorting usurious gain and making . merchandise of the bones of his illustrious I ancestor. The terms he exacted at the final agreement for the sale were such as even 3 Shylock, the usurer of Venice, would have , deemed unworthy of his profession. 1. j For two hundred acres of land, which, disassocisted from the name and without 1 the ashes of Washington, might.possibly be ‘ (worth fifty dollars per acre, lie asked the moderate sum of Iwo Hundred thousand : Dollars—thus making a profit of about $190-1 000 on the tomb of the mighty dead. But l this was not all. He oven haggled about j j the interest upon deferred payments, and this question, it appears, sometime delayed1 the consummation of the arrangement.The terms of the purchase, as will be;] 3 seen by reference to Miss Cunningham’s jj statement, were as follows: Eighteen thousand' dollars of the purchase money was to 3 be paid*down, and the remainder in four an- ( y nuai installments, with interest added, forjc 3 which bonds are to be given, the vendor to j f remain in possession and make title to the ;I property only when the last bond is paid. This j I is really a‘drive’of exceeding sharpness;* * 3 ^a little cuter than we ever before heard of being attempted even in Yankeedom. To ’ demand more than a hundred times the act-2 ual value of property, and then exact the . interest on the deferred pay ments while re-a : taining the title and possession, is certainly “ a most extraordinary procedure—an exac-s r tion to which, with all deference, we think| the managers of the Mount Vernon Associ* ration ought not to have submitted. What B think our readers of sucfr a man—we regret i that he bears the name of Washington—5 after driving such a bargain, actually prating afoout accommodation, magnanimity and pat-B riotism.]
Newspaper Details
Goshen Elkhart County Times
Goshen, Indiana, US
Thu, May 13, 1858
Page 3
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
IN, USA 07 Feb 2024
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