Among the Southern merchants who owed considerable amounts to merchants and manufacturers of the North were those of Alexandria. What may have been the gross amount of their indebtedness to the North is not definitely known, but certainly tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of dollars.
Soon after the provost-court had been established in Alexandria, manufacturers and merchants began to come there to look after debts due them from the merchants of that city. Such as had not fled made such response as they could--paying in money if they had it and desired to continue in business, or returning to their creditors so much of their remaining stock as would satisfy their claims. Only in one instance, where the debtor remained in Alexandria, was the creditor obliged to call upon the Provost-Judge for assistance. In that case the debtor pleaded, as an excuse for non-payment, the act of the Confederate Congress of May 21st, heretofore spoken of. He wanted, he said, to pay--"of course he wanted to pay; but, being a Southern man, and with that act staring him in the face, he did not see how he could." The creditor called upon Judge Freese and acquainted him with the facts as above stated. The Judge sent for the debtor to meet the creditor at his private office. He there told the debtor that "the excuse he offered for nonpayment was no excuse at all--indeed, worse; for, besides being a mere subterfuge, it was a virtual acknowledgment of his own disloyalty; that it mattered not at all what laws the Confederate Congress had passed or might pass, they could not be recognized by the citizens of Alexandria so long as it remained in possession of the Union troops, and that was likely to be so long as the war continued; and that if he had the means to pay his creditor, the sooner he did it the better!" Within an hour the debt was paid, and it was the last of that kind of cases in which the Judge had to interfere, as within twenty-four hours the facts of this case were known to every merchant of Alexandria.
But there was another class of cases which came thick and fast, and for awhile gave the court a vast amount of trouble. To relate the origin, the incidents, and the results of a few of these will be the object of this chapter. The first was as follows:
