The Spurious notes case.
--Henry T. Tatum and Louisa Tatum were again before Commissioner W. F. Watson yesterday on the charge of having feloniously uttered false and forged notes purporting to be genuine notes of the Confederate States. After patiently listening to the testimony adduced, the Commissioner sent the parties on for trial in the District Court of the Confederate States for the Eastern District of Virginia. They were offered the privilege of giving bail in $1,500 each, but had not furnished it when we last heard from them. The punishment for counterfeiting Confederate notes is death. Whether this form of the offence — namely, the uttering of notes from the genuine plates, falsely filled up, or rather fictitiously signed — is punishable with the same severity, we cannot say. At any rate, however, the offence is a very serious one, and we trust that the rigor with which the District Attorney is prosecuting this case will serve to deter all other persons from engaging in this most unpatriotic work. The statement of the New Orleans papers that the notes are ‘"undoubtedly genuine,"’ is calculated to mislead the public. The offence is complete if the notes have been falsely filled up and uttered; and counterfeiters would do well to beware of Jack Ketch, who will most assuredly stretch their necks if they counterfeit Confederate notes at such a time as this. The credit of the Government is too sacred a thing just now, when thousand of men are in the field, to be tampered with by scoundrels.Of course, in these remarks we intend to express no opinion as to the guilt or innocence of the parties now under suspicion.
