OHIO STATEWIDE FILES - Lindsay/Stipp Debate #2 
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     Indiana Journal May 19, 1838, p. 3, col. 4

NOTICE
     All persons indebted to the late firm of Wm. Lindsay & Co., either by
note, book or otherwise and also those having medicines on commission, deposite
(sic), or otherwise, are all hereby cautioned against settling their accounts
with Dr. George W. / Stipp

     The said G. W. Stipp has been detected in settling accounts of the firm of
W. Lindsay & Co., and placing the same to his individual benefit,
notwithstanding he has sold his entire interest in the drugs, tools, notes
and all his interest in and belonging to  the late firm of W. Lindsay & Co.

     There has been no notes belonging to the firm, given up by Dr. Stipp; nor
has there been any satisfactory account given of them./ All those interest
will be on their guard.

     I have sold the whole stock of drugs and medicines to Dr. P. Smith
including all the medicines that are distributed on commission or deposit, 
that were not sold on the 5th instant. Those who may have medicines on 
commission, will please make out  lists of the articles now on hand, and 
forward them to Doctor P.  Smith, as all sold by them previous to the 5th 
instant, will be placed to my credit, and all sold after that, none to the 
credit of Dr. Smith. Indy May 19, 1838

May 19, 1838, p. 3, col. 4 (immed. under Dr. Lindsay's "NOTICE')

CAUTION
The public are cautioned against purchasing a promissary note given by me to
George W. Stipp for #650, dated 30th April 1838, payable to the Indianapolis
Branch of the State Bank of Indiana, one year after date, as the note was
obtained by said Stipp by fraud and misrepresentation.

     The note on the face purports to be made by me to James Morrison, and 
was by him endorsed in bank to Stipp. Mr. Morrison in the transcation was and
is really only my security, and had,  nor has any interest except as such
security.  

     The note was made in consideration of the sale by Stipp to me of his
interest in the drug establishment of Wm. Lindsay & Co. to which he was a
partner, and his transfer of the books, accounts, notes &c. of the firm.
Stipp, at the time of the giving of the notes, represented the accounts on
the basis to be correct; whereas it now appears that he had in numerous
instances changed the firm with what it never had, and in as many other
instances received from debtors to the firm the amount of their accounts,
without giving any credit. The avails he has applied to his own private
purposes; and as our settlement, and the giving of the note in question was
based upon the faith of his representations, that the accounts on the books
both against the firm and its customers were correct, and he having been the
bookkeeper, and as errors (and palpably fraudulent ones) have been already
discovered to more than the amount of the note of $650, I am determined not
to pay a cent of it unless coerced by law.
W. LINDSAY
May 19-31
_________________________________________________________________ ___
The Indiana Journal, 26 May, 1838

TO THE PUBLIC, AND THE CREDITORS OF W. LINDSAY
"Facts speak louder than words"

     The false, Libelous and slanderous publication, over the signature of "W.
Lindsay," (a "surgeon of some celebrity,") in the Indiana Journal of the 12th
inst., demand a few facts and passing remarks in self defense.

     With W. Lindsay's private character, his prospects at Richmond, or any
other place, I feel no disposition to meddle, as they did not appear upon the
invoice he exhibited, of his effects, that were put in the firm of W. Lindsay
&Co., and therefore never meddled with, or thought them worth invoicing. And
I would not notice him even now, were it not for the purpose of exposing his
faudulent transactions and further, to convict him of willful falsehood, and
vile slander.

     His pathetic appeal to his creditors for indulgence, effects me not, and
if they think proper, after all the evidence of fraud, that is manifest in 
the disposition he has made of the firm debts, I am sure I am contented. The
communication separate from vanity, egotism, and falsehood is mere flemmery,
in which the public nor creditors can have any interest whatever. This man
(W.L.) is surely his own worst enemy, and appears determined to make himself
supremely ridiculous and highly notorious. the history of this (to me)
unfortunate partnership, I feel well assured, will afford but a dry morsel to
many, but to put things in their proper light, a short and succinct statement
may not be uninteresting to some. About one year ago at the repeated, urgent
and pressing solicitations of W. Lindsay and his friends I was at an ungarded
moment induced to give him an interest in my practice and Drug Stone, upon
the promise and belief that he wuld be able to put in a capital equal to my
own, so soon as he could dispose of property sufficient. How well that
promise was fulfilled the sequel will prove. W. Lindsay on the 3d of last
June put in as capital an assortment of old drugs, Patent Medicnes, furniture
and "Davy Crocket Toothache Drops"  to the amount as by himself invoiced of
$1,600 and drew from the concern since that time about $500 in cash, which
was charged when known, blunders over the money-drawer, excepted. At the same
time I had on hand in a new and well selected assortment of drugs, paints,
&c. a stock of eastern cost and carriage of the value of $2,150. Cash put in
by me since that time upwards of $1200, and house rent, boarding and other
means, to the value of about $1000, making the amount of my investment about
$4,350, and I have drew from the firm about $900, leaving  balance in my
favor of, over that of W. Lindsay of upwards of $2,350. You will perceive by
this statement that all the interest W. L. had in the firm was only $1100. To
have made his capital equal to mine, he, would have had to advance the sum of
$2,350, which it appears from his own honest  confession he was neither able
or willing to do, for he frankly admits that he is not able even now to pay
his private debts, which I have no doubt is true. That I have blended my
private transactions with the firm is true, so far as advancing money to pay
firm debts and no further. 

     Sometime last Nov., "an idea struck him very forcibly," (and its well for
his brains there was only one) that he could make money by retailing apples
and apple trees in the south part of Arkansas Territory and off he put on a
wild goose chase with a cargo of appletrees and apples, to make his fortune.
In this hazardous business he employed what little individual capital and
credit he had, much to the injury and prejudice of our joint business. I used
my endeavors to dissuade him from it, but all to no effect. You will perceive
by the attention and watchfulness of W. Lindsay, to the business of the firm,
that 

     "his confidence was on the wane, and nearly all gone" when I inform you,
that he was not absent from here more than six months out of the ten, that we
were doing business together, and at no time more than five months. You will
also perceive by his close attention to business, that the interest of the
creditors has been this only wish that is not grateful & now disturbs his
rest. From the time he came to this place first, until his return from his
apple tree trade, he was of no earthly benefit to the firm in any particular,
never being willing to wither attend to practice or adssist in the store, but
took it upon himself to be a gentleman large. This is the same W. Lindsay
that has manifested so much interest to secure creditors in their demands,
and whose "condifdence" in me "had been on the wane for some time," while he
was wasting his time and the money he borrowed, much to the prefjudice of our
business.

     About the first of April last W. Linsay made his second appearance upon
this part of the theatre cane in hand, much worsted in his means. On his return
home, I requested him to comply with his contract and make his capital equal
to mine, and then for the first time I learned that he was unable to meet his
individual debts, and no prospect of his being able or willing to comply with
his engagements to me. Under this state of the case a partner who would not
labor for the interest of the firm, or who had not or was not willing to
comply with his engagaments, I thought was worth but little to me, or any
body else, and therefore propose to buy or sell out, divide the stock and
debts, or if that could not be done, to wind up the concern and close the
firm. To all these fair and reasonable propositions he thought proper to
decline, and on the 12th day of April last under the solumnity of an oath,
prayed for the court to grant him an injunction to say my "further meddling
with the firm effects, that his only object was to secure the payment of our
debts, and that there was sufficient firm effects to do the same and leave a
large surplus for partners."  The court granted his iniquitous prayer, by
which you will perceive that our creditors prospects our good. A few days
after the court appointed a receiver to take possession of the firm effects.
In a few days, I was so well convinced that by this course not more than one
debt of the firm would ever by paid, the effects consumed by the expenses of
the course then pursuing and at the earnest solicitation and request of the
council of Lindsay, I sold my interest to him for less than one-fourth upon
the pledge and promise that the property of the firm would be held sacred for
firm debts, and that in no event was W. Lindsay to sell or fraudulently
pretend to sell the firm property, unless by consent of creditors. In my sale
to W. Lindsay, he obligated himself to save me harmless from the debts of the
firm.

     He (W. L.) complains of my informing creditors of his course and advising
them to secure themselves. In reply to this charge of trying to injure him,
the facts of the case will be my only defence. In less than 48 hours after I
had disposed of my interest, which was upon the pledge of his attorney, for
the faithful performance of his client, that the goods were to remain subject
to the will of the creditors, Lindsay sells out to one Peter Smith, an
irresponsible individual, a jack of all trades, such as a root  doctor,
preacher, cobler, shoemaker, farmer, and gun smith--an individual that is not
nor never will be worth the powder that would blow the hair off his head--who
has been for years unable to pay his debts, and is now some seven or eight
hundred dollars behind; a stock of drugs and Glassware that would invoice Ten
Thousand dollars, for the sum of Three Thousand, payable in four years
without interest and security. What do you think is the character of the sale
to Smith?-- Why I will tell you. The sale to Smith is a foul fraud upon
creditors, and one that I have not the least doubt is not worth sixpence in
law. Peter Smith no more owns the stock now in his possession, than his
namesake Judge Peter the barber. An other low falsehood is stated by Lindsay,
respecting the correctness of the books. This comes with a bad grace from
him, after he "hooked" the books and kept them long enough in his ossession
to make any altertions he liked or wished. 

     I had been sick about six weeks before I sold out, and during that time,
and until W. L. hooked the books, I had no control over them. If the books are
not as correct as books generally are, they have been so made since they left
my possission (sic). I am charged with recklessness in the management of the
concern, to which I neither plead guilty or not guilty, but aver one thing,
that I could have paid all the partnership debts with ease out of the debts
due and stock on hand, but this did not suit the gentleman, as he was
entirely unable to pay his private debts, and thought this the best
opportunity to secure means to pay them. The charge that I was pressed for my
individual debts is untrue, one he will knew to be false, and in no instance
blended my private business with that of the firm, only when I made advances
to pay firm debts. The "fairly inferential" about the "money drawer" comes
with a poor grace from an individual wh had to open it as often as "my late
partner" and some of his family, when either myself or any of the young men
were about the store. If money was taken from the drawer in an improper
manner, he would do well to make the first inquiry at his own house, and of
his own self and others. These are matters that the public are not interested
in, and I only name the circumstances to repel the base, cowardly, and
dastardly manner in which the attack was made. None but a blackguard and
midnight assassin, a slanderer and libeller, would condescend so low.

     I close by informing the creditors of the late firm of W. Lindsay & Co.
that when I sold out my interest in the concern, there was stock on hand and 
debts due the firm to double the amount of debts owing. I offered to guarantee
the payment of creditors, but no, that did not suit his design. P. Smith was
to be his tool, to effect his purpose, and that purpose it is "fairly
inferential," is to swindle creditors. Until the effects are assigned to
secure the payment of the firm debts, I would urge creditors to push their
claims. I urge it in justice to myself as well as them, believing that it is
the firm determination of W. Lindsay and his tools, to swindle creditors out
of their dues. More if required.

GEO. W. STIPP