Carroll free press. [volume] (Carrollton [Ohio]) 1834-1861, 1846-09-18

The successful contractors at these fat ratCs
were of course ljrvorics. Mcdonald. Davis, O'-
Neal, Crossan, Taggart, &c. were the lucky bid
dcrs though 50 much higher than other and res
ponSbIc bidders. Joel X. Baker tcslilics that he
had prepared his bids at about 50 per rod for Il
number of miles, but learning the order, he was
afraid he was too low and changed them to from
~ rs to 80 90 per rod. On the 50th and 51st
page are great yarielyor cases mentioned where
responsible men testified that they had put in bids
atmuch lower rates than theywcrc done for. We
despair of conveying to the mind of the reader
amy idea of the mass of viIIainy here set forth.
1t Is astounding even in these days of democratic
plumber and corruption. ltwould take pages of
this pupcr to detail them. by these schemes
lonlz was cnablcdloawardlhc most of these con.
tracts to his lnvorilcs ut an enormous loss to the
State and an enormous profit to the contractors.
The subsequent conduct showed that these bid
dcrs were mere men of straw, and that they paid
no attention to them but left the whole of to be
managed by lonlz and Murine as they thought
proper. Jas. Tuggart who is such a prominent
contractor states that he gave his personal atten-
ton To one mile near Norwich, the rest was sub
let by Murine ut such rates as he thought proper.
So also of Crossan Davis, and the rest. Tor
renee McGuiro contracted with Murine for six
miles of the road that appeared to be struck off
to jas. 1aggart. Murine stated that he was let
ting McGulrG have them at the rate that Taggart
had bid them off and that Taggart made nothing.
The report shows that Murine put into his own
pocket 10y this operation the sum of fuc hundred
dd 1orty-oHe doti0rS dm fire cents, this being the
difference between Taggar's contracts and the
price for which Mcclure did the work. Eneas
McGary sub-ICt one mile under Davis TO put on
the metal AT % cents per rod. Davis got vi Al
per rod. Cornelius Fcrrl delivered metal on one
mile al ~ l2Perrod. Davis got$5. Hundreds
OF instances are namedon and aboulthe SD page
when lonlz and Murine sub-let ut much lower
rates than the contracts appeared to be bid off for
and Pockcicd the difference; and these very men
IN whose names the contracts stand Srcar thea
HerCr bid mkHoWH0thing about H. Michael Muir.
ply swcars he contracted with Murine for lom
miles al 4 rod. Yontz's report gives these
miles to O'Ncal at Sc per rod. Murine pocket
cd $ per rod for this distance.
Every thing developed in this report shows that
these men, O'Neal, Crossan, Mcdonald, Davis
Taggart, &c. were mere tools in the hands oi
(on'I and Murine; that they were the real con
tractors and managed the whole concern us they
saw proper; and that they pockeled thousands ant
thousands of dollars by this operation. All the
witnesses testify that the road was repaired in the
usual way, that the cutters were not filled up with
coarse stone, that the sand and dirt were not ia
Ken oil before putting on the fine stone, and tina
the road IN no case was made wider. All these
prclences were thrown out to induce persons to
bid high SO that they could sub-lut them without
tins extra work and make thousands thereby.
We have already referred to the forged letter
purporung to be- from James Taggart to Murine
authorizing him to sub-let some of the road. Ii
seems that this is not the only specimen of this
forgery that was detected. lie forged contract
IN the name of Arthur Taggart for seven miles o
the road. These seven miles were originally
contracted for by james raggart, but from some
cause Murine cXpungcd seven of the ten in the
first contract Wihom The kH0WicigG or consent Of
lanes and wrote a new contract and forged the
name OF Arthur Taggart 10 it. Arthur swear>
that II IS not his signature, that he never made a
ny such contract, nor authorized any person tc
max" Il ior h,m--(pagc COY Olhcr contracts