The misplacing of the dot to the “i” in the signature to the left of the “f” and over the “r” is a mistake quite natural to a hand unaccustomed to making it, but a very improbable and remarkable mistake for one to make in writing his own name.  Another noticeable feature in the Morey letter is the conspicuous variations in the sizes and forms of the letters.  Notice the three “I’s” in the fifth line.  Variations so great in such close connection seldom occur in anything like an educated and practiced hand.  The “J” in the signature of the Morey letter has a slope inconsistent with the remainder of the signature and the surrounding writing.  It is also too angular at the top and too set and stiff throughout to be the result of a natural sweep of a trained hand.

The Morey letter was written in January, 1880, and made public in October of the same year.  If Mr. Garfield wrote the Morey letter in January there was at that time no motive to write it in any other than his ordinary and natural hand.  The letter of denial is in his perfectly natural hand; these two letters should therefore be consistent with each other.

The signature of the Morey letter is a clumsy imitation of General Garfield’s autograph.  Observe the stiff, formal initial line of the “F”—­its sharp, angular turn at the top, absurd slope and general stiff appearance, while the shade is low down upon the stem, and compare with the free, flowing movement, round turns and consistent slope of the same letter in his genuine autograph.  We might extend the comparison, with like result, to all the letters in the signature, and to a multitude of other instances in the writing of the body of the letter.

Many persons, and some professed experts, have remarked what appeared to them striking and characteristic resemblances between the Morey letter and General Garfield’s writing.

It should be borne in mind that if the letter is not in the genuine handwriting of Mr. Garfield it was written by some person whose purpose was to have it appear so to be.  That being the case, we should naturally expect to find some, even more, forms than we do, having a resemblance to those used by Mr. Garfield.  All these resemblances appear to be either copied or coincidences in the use of forms.  There are no coincidences of the unconscious writing habit, which clearly, to our mind, proves the Morey letter, as Mr. Garfield well characterizes it, a very clumsy effort to imitate his writing.  Indeed, the effort seems to be little more than an endeavor, on the part of the writer, to disguise his own hand, and copy a few of the general features of Mr. Garfield’s writing, adding a tolerable imitation of his autograph.

CHAPTER XXIII

A WARNING TO BANKS AND BUSINESS HOUSES