As you were interested in Mr. Parton's money-borrowing item about me, I enclose you the receipts signed & given me by his Attorney at the time, (June, 1857.)2 The sum borrowed by me of Mr. Parton was Two hundred dollars. He had, just before, kindly volunteered the loan himself, without the least request or hint from me. I then declined, but afterward borrowed the money, & gave a short-time Note. I felt soon, & feel now, that it was a great impropriety on my part, & it has caused me much compunction & real unhappiness since. Any how when the time for paying the note came, I had no money. Mr. Parton then put the matter in the hands of his Attorney, Mr. Oliver Dyer, who sued. My recollection is that I confessed judgment, & proposed to Mr. Dyer that he should receive payment in goods. He came by appointment to my room in Classon avenue, Brooklyn, June 17, 1857, talked over the matter, behaved very kindly, positively accepted there & then, & conveyed away, goods to the amount of One hundred and eighty one dollars, and receipted for them, on account. He also, for the balance, conditionally accepted other goods, (which he also conveyed away with him,) on the agreement between us that if they, when more deliberately examined, proved acceptable, they would requite the balance, & the debt would be considered paid; otherwise they would be returned, & the balance would still stand against me. These goods he retained, and subsequently told me that they had proved acceptable, and consented to give me a receipt in full, & satisfaction paper—but, (I think,) said the latter would require the signature of Mr. Parton. This was a meeting either in the street, or on the Brooklyn ferry. On meeting him afterwards in a similar way, once or twice, I mentioned the matter of a receipt in full, but never pressed it—never procured such receipt, nor the original note either.
I consider the debt paid—(though if I had wealth, to-day, I should certainly pay it over again, in cash.) Among the goods rendered I remember an oil painting, an original, of marked beauty & value, by Jesse Talbot,3 illustrating a scene from Pilgrim's Progress, worth from four to five hundred dollars. This I put, if I remember right, at one hundred dollars. I presume Mr. Dyer or Mr. Parton has it yet.
The enclosed receipt, marked 1,4 was, on turning over the goods, written by me & signed, by Mr. Dyer, who then remarked that he would also give me one in more technical form, and wrote, signed, & handed me the receipt marked 25—I presume, (but do not know for certain,) that Mr. Dyer considers the debt fully paid.
(The balance of thirty five dollars mentioned, besides the one hundred & eighty one includes sixteen dollars as Mr. Dyer's fee, or more probably costs of suit, over & above the original two hundred.)
Walt Whitman