COLUMBUS, November 23, 1869.
DEAR GOVERNOR:—I thank you for your efforts in the Leroy matter. I have no doubt he is deliberately trying to levy blackmail on me. The pretext is a deposit claimed to have been made by his son when a soldier in my command. I find abundant evidence that the claim is a fabrication of Leroy. At first I did not know but he was acting in good faith, and that the fraud was in the informants.
Sincerely,
R. B. HAYES.
GENERAL LUCIUS FAIRCHILD, Governor of Wisconsin.
SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 3, p. 74
