Southern Historical Society Papers, Volume 9.
Reverend J. William Jones, Ed.

[323] formerly of the United States Senate, is it not?

Now, in addition to the testimony just cited, showing that Merritt was not in Toronto, but in Ayr, during all of February, 1865--Mr. Clay was not there, having left Canada in November, 1864, and sailing from Halifax, Nova Scotia, on the 12th of January, 1865, on a blockade running steamer, passing by the Bermudas, and landing at Charleston, South Carolina, on the 3d of February, 1865, and never after returning to Canada. In the testimony herewith filed this is shown by the statements of the Halifax newspapers, Hon. C. A. Pillsberg, and the master of the steamer.

Merritt lived at Windsor in the fall of 1864, removing to Ayr, and living there continuously until the “bearer,” who was authorized by the Secretary of War “to pay all expenses” and to promise “a suitable reward if useful information is furnished,” found him and brought him to Washington.

His reputation and character at Windsor was that of a disreputable swindler and common liar, as is testified by the very best of citizens there, namely: Lewis W. Ashley, banker; James Frazer, jeweler; Robert Rae, distiller; Wm. McGregor, banker; C. D. Grasett, Cashier of the Commercial Bank; Thomas Perkins, Daniel Hibler, and J. C. Lawler, merchants and gentlemen of Windsor. And at Ayr his career of imposture, quackery and lying is testified to by respectable citizens, four Justices of the Peace, Esquires Robert Wylie, John Watson, Joseph Kilgour and John Davidson, and of leading business men. The Toronto Globe, a newspaper conspicuous for its fidelity to the Northern side of the war, in its issue of June 24, 1865, says: “We give to-day the statements, over their own signatures, of three responsible parties, Justices of the peace, residing in the county of Waterloo, respecting the character of Dr. Merritt, late of the village of Ayr, one of the secret witnesses against Jefferson Davis and his Canada agents. This testimony is only in corroboration of what has been said before in various ways and on pretty good authority; but these last statements, taken in connection with previous ones, appear utterly to destroy the value of Merritt's evidence.”

Merritt claimed, when he came to Canada, that he was from Knoxville, Tenn.; that he had been the family physician of President Johnson, Parson Brownlow and other persons of distinction; that he had been surgeon to a regiment of the regular army of the United States before the war; that he had been engaged in the leather business and owned a large tannery at Knoxville, and a considerable tract of land about