The voice of freedom. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1839-1848, 1846-05-07

pO"SA VI htoIu' OOll a. kAOi ' oASH MI 10
tent, as 10 secure q just accounting, for
public funds in their hands, when the
knowledge of such fact was confined to
their W bosom.
One thus situated might not design fin
ally, perhaps, to defraud the public, but
accounting would be delayed 10 a more
convenient season; a time which would
probably never occur. 1t is an injury 10
the individual, lntrusted with public prop
erly. not to compel a faithful accounting,
and at short periods, appointed BY law
1t is besides, practical injustice to collect
taxes, to be s~quandered for aoy other pur-
pose than for the support of government,
economically administered. Were all our
taxes 10 be collected of one individual, and
10 be disbursed in the form of fees, 10 an
other, for services alleged to have been
performed, the injustice Of paying beyond
the conventional, or legal compensation,
would be at once perceived. The case is
the same, between the tax-paying public
are called upon TO advance money, in the
form o ftaxes, 10 be disbursed in The form
of fees, for services not rendered, or more
than The statute has prescribed, and this
we call practical injustice. All our rev.
erue, or at least, with few exceptions, is
derived from direct taxation, and the tax,
paying community have a just claim 10
know, for what purposes and uses their
money Is drawn from their pockets, and
they should be heard in their objection 10
the illegal disbursements of the funds oil
the Treasury. The duty of keeping all
lowances 10 the amount fixed by law, is
no. difficult, but where the law has cons
mited 10 an officer, power to allow in his
discretion, a sum for a service not defined,
the case is otherwise. The claimant re-
quires, that the accounting officer should
be Iiberal;-il is for the State the services
were rendered, and the State can afford to
be liberal. But it should not be forgotten
tina: Iiberality, to such a claimant, becomes
exlortion from the tax.paying community,
and ;ha. the terms liberal and illiberal, can
have no place in this matter. Justice and
Injustice are the only terms applicable to
the case. The law should be the only
arbiter between the two. 1t is not sup
posed, that these positions will be serious
ly controverled, bu, still the practice has
been widely different, from the principles
here laid down, and this from an early
period of the government.
The statute establishing a fee-biIl, en-
titled ian act regulating fees" passed Oct.
1898, after prescribing the compensation
for every service defined in That statute,
concludes with these words, viz: "And for
any other duty or service, done or per-
formed, such sum as shall be in proper
ton 10 the fees specifically provided by this
or any other statute" A similar provls-
ion has been retained in al! the acts upon
the subject since. And yet this provision
Of the law has been little better than a dead
letter. The service, perhaps, has been
performed, and a charge ten times great
er than the rule established by law, has
been made, and allowed by an authorized
officer, and Immediately settled by an or
der on the treasury. Revision and cor
r%ection, had now become impossible
This allowance becomes first a precedent,
then a law, not only for that officer, but
for all others, performing the same servl.
ces. The written law becomes q deac
letter, while precedents. originating In a
buse and fraud, become the law OF TIT
land. These abuses are not confined Il
any one branch ofthe public service, or t
one kind of service in a particular office
They are evils, which accumulate from
year 10 year, and are not of small magni'
tude, but will effect a serious amour: o
the publ ic funds, if suffered TO continue
True, ii may be urged that the pecuIation
of which we complain, are, when slngI.
considered, of small amount, as only TEL
cents on the dollar, of the grand list 9th
State, %suffices 10 meet the actual necessar.
expenses OF government.
Six ,enths OF these expenses 60 10 sus
tain our judiciary. But it may be urged
that these populations are inseparable from