Portland gazette and Maine advertiser. (Portland, Me.) 1805-1818, 1816-08-27


III in darkness, and had not courage to meet
The light, like an assassin to make this attack
upon The Treasurer and his report.
This ignorant creature of darkness first
aomplans that the Treasurer has not brought
into bis report the ordinance, stands of arms
md military stores of The State. We would
merely ask what theT reasurer of the Common.
wealth has TO do with TINS property be-
longs exclusively to the Quarter-Masier- Gen
erals department, and be reports it to the
legislature The Treasurer could not Off
ciaIly have any more knowledge of this SUBJ
;ect. than the Quarter-Master could OF the
state of the Treasury. All the Treasurer could
know was the amount appropriated by the
legislature, and paid out If the Treasury for
The Quarter sterGeneral's department, and
that he has stated in his report. The man
Who could have fabricated such charge must
be stupid indeed. ~
The mex, charge is that The Treasurer has
wholly omitted in his estimate Of annua! ex-
penditures The pay for the attendance of Rep
resentati,es. This is FALSE. The Treasur-
erhas not omitted he pay for the attendance Of
pay rolls for the last five years is S $1,000"
And this sum includes the whole average am
nua expense OF trd0el end attendance of the
Senate aud House Of Representatives for the
last five years Now if this sum, does not in
slude the attendance, il must be altogether for
hapsl; but hare before me a statement under
hehaad Of the Treasurer in srhich he Says,
"ths travel Of the members Of The GeneralC Court
for de three gears terminating scih the last
January session (say for the Senate and House
r9 4 42,809.' One third Of this sum is The
whole annual trauel, and amounts to only
Sl4,269 Gland still it is contendeI by the
ignorant Argus writer that the above sum of
$4,000 is merely the expense of traucl ottie
members of the General Court, and does not
include any thing for daen ieacc-and the
same absurd taisehood is ;c,roduced into the
proceedings OF lie Gray Convention. What
manoi cor.;Gon understanding is there who
can sse!ieve that the trarel of the members of
eGeneral Court amounts TO SIS, 900 year.
The Treasurer expressly tells US that this sum
includes the average annual amount of travel
snd attendance for the whole state. But still
men who are base enough TO contradict this
EVIDENT fact and TO endeavor'to convince the
people that the Treasurer's Report is not en-
tilted to credit-and among these are some
men uho kao1C better, and IF eshom ne haze
night 70 erpscf better things ord more hoaesfy-
The next charge is for not including the amount
assessed on the towns for the pay of the Lee
galature in the statement of the revenues OF
theShie. Here i Should be recoliec;sd that the
Treasurer is stating the future revenues of the
she And twas impossible for him to know
what amount would be annually assessed for
h pay OF Representatives, as that must de-
Pend on the number Of Representatives and
number of sessions in year, and this was on
gto be brought into the account when asses
M and collected. Not so with respect to
tbe ordinary State tax, that has remained the
sue for so many years, that it may be cal
slated upon with certainty.
One other complaint remains 10 be consid-
ssd and that is the omission of the Treasurer
Dstate the revenues arising from the sales
eastern land" If the author Of these char
gesPossessed any shame he would not have
| ~S'6"i w ouulcSts uiIti IDS Uttfi So tltefI
answered and refuted The old story that
Mtwelve years prior to June 1913 the pro-
eeeds Of The sales Of eastern lands afforded
ne' annual revenue of aboit So 900, is now
h'da The door Of the Treasurer. The first
answer we make is that it is absolutely false
mt there ever was such net annual reyen-
arising from that source. The language Of |
ae Treasurer on tets subject is this -" But
anaaa dnnoans has been reoiized to the State
from he sale Of its lands, as Indulgence has tre-
qea'y, and for lcrge sales been shewn By The
legislature, By reiieuing tie purchasers from
M 'a,gdi'ons and taking back the lands The
,uounl which was paid into the treasury from
'Oae 1901 to 1873, whatever it may have
0sen was not paid in cash, but principally in
VO''sa'ons taken from the purchasers, end a |
6sa' proportion OF those obligations have been
gwen up and the lands taken back as above
aa'ed and il appears that obligations to the
amount = Of lO5,477 SO still remain in the |
treasury, Of 1shich the Treasurer says g not
q, Mrs than 5 10000 can eucr be collected
"0els then Is this boased revenue from the
as q land 1t should also be remembered |
Iss IA Inc year 1895, the agents for the sale |
Msas'en lands were prohibited from making
g, 'ur'nef sales, without special authority |
avu me General Cout, and since that time no |
.ssu any importance have been made. We
nnttt