History - Catching Counterfeiters:
With these meager resources, United States Marshals and their Deputies
combated the legions of counterfeiters. They relied on informants and
their own skills as detectives, sometimes working undercover, to conduct
the investigations. The work of Marshal Daniel A. Robertson
and his Deputies in Ohio exemplified
how the Marshals pursued the illusive
conmen. Ohio was a breeding ground
for counterfeiters. Its rural areas provided
perfect hideouts for the printers: its proximity
to the major cities offered
convenient markets for the passers.
Marshal Robertson, by the winter of
1847, had collected the names of
"upwards of 50 counterfeiters in Ohio.
Many of them are men of property. and
apparent respectability. " According to his
information, most of the printers lived in
"out of the way places: seldom in towns
and cities." They never passed the bogus
money themselves, but used passers who
distributed it in areas far from where it
was originally made. "In brief," the
Marshal reported to the Solicitor of the
Treasury, "they practice their offenses in
the most adroit manner. It is only by
great skill, stratagem, and resolution that
this class of men can be detected and
brought to justice."
Robertson understood the difficulties confronting
the lawmen. The laws against
counterfeiting. in his view, were defective.
They provided no punishment for
selling counterfeit as counterfeit, nor did
they prohibit the passers from having the
bogus money in their possession, even if
they clearly intended to pass it. The
printers, too, were free to possess counterfeiting
machinery and tools and to
make the presses, dies, and other instruments
of their trade. The law only
punished those who actually made counterfeit
or put the money in circulation.
But of more immediate concern to the
Marshal was the reticence of the Treasury
Department to cover the expenses of the
investigations. "The law does not provide
for reimbursing the officer for such
expense." he pointed out. "This is the
reason the counterfeiters of coin have
been hitherto enabled, in a great measure,
to defy the laws." Even after both
Robertson and the U.S. Attorney in Ohio,
G.W. Bartley. reported an extensive network
of counterfeiters in Ohio, the
Treasury Department hesitated to appoint
a special agent to pursue the investigations.
Finally, Robertson volunteered to
undertake the work if the Department
pad his expenses. which he estimated at
$5 a day.
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