American Lancaster gazette. [volume] (Lancaster, Ohio) 1855-1860, 1855-04-19

several lines during the day and evening
and early on the morning Of the day il was
handed ms BY the p. NJ.
Does not all this look a little suspicious2
Does ii not strongly smell Of precOnsert.
ed plan on the part Of the Auditor and
pos. master to play of bold game Of 20.
liiical swindling? The week sfter the BID
had been received Mr.. TuthiIl came out in
a grandiloquent statement that they had
beat the Gazette in bidding for The county
printing. and openly ayowed that tthey had
AN OBJECT IN vIEw WHEN THEY Prr IN
THEIR BID AT FIF1EEs cESTs. No doubt
of it gentlemen. But was It necessary IN
ORDER TO ACCOMPLISH THAT OBJECT that
you should VIOLATE YOUR OFFICIAL OATH
by keeping our letter .contsining the prop
osition to put in bids, on your table for
FORTY EIGHT HOURS instead ofputtiug il in
the Gazette box as you should have done
Immediately after its being dropped in the
Office? The place for that letter was in
our box, and the p NJ. can offer no excuse
for leaving it lay on his table for that
length of time. We can hardly place SO
2w an estimate on human character as to
suppose, fora moment, that any one calling
himself MAN, could SO far forget the bind
ing solemnity ofan oath as to willingly use
his official position to accomplish a politi-
cal end. Yethow shall we arrive at the
truth? These men are all interested in
this apparently corrupt scheme of fraud
and while circumstances are strongly a.
gainst them we can hardly bring ourself to
believe they would be guilty Of any thing
quite so mean
Yet this subject of county printing
does not stop here. Would TO Heaven it
did, for it presents n scene Of corruption
and intrigue enough to make one scken at
the sight. Wepromised, however, in our
last issue, to give in due season short
history of county printing, aud as we are
now fairly initiated into the work we beg
The indulgence of The reader to the end of
the first chapter
Nearly two years ago, and while We
were engaged in ferreting out the corrup-
tons Of county officials, and at the time
the late F. NJ. Ellis. Esq. owned the
Ohio Eagle, there was q scheme on foot
in the ranks Of the Red Lodge Clique to
break down either the Telegraph or Eagle
or else unite the two. The present editors
of the Eagle. Tuthill & Schleich, were tie
leading spirits in this conspiracy, back
ed by Governor Medill, and were endeay.
oring to get the Eagle under their control,
with the intention Of uniting tie two Pc
pers and controlling not only the action OF
their party but also the entire Conn
ty POtronGgsi The Telegraph had agreed
to do the printing of Assessors blanks at
35 cents per quire and all other blanks at
IS cents per quire. The Eagle lad beer
charging from 81 90 to 81, so rer quire
The leaders Of the Red Lodge Clique saw
that something must be done to unite tht
papers or else the public patronage would
have to be divided ia order to bride the
Telegraph 10 keep mum" sachf nieit in
reference TO the corruption Of the party
They knew thata union Of the two papers
could never take place as long as Mr.. Ellis
was the proprietor Of the Eage on account
of PERSONAL DIFFICULTIES existing between
him and the proprietor of the Telegraph,
and they were fearful, unlessa noity o
The county patronage was given the Tele
graph that it would expose their corrup.
lion appeal to the people. divide the party
and with one fell Swoop upset all theil
dearly cherished schemes of public plum
der and fraud. Now with this insight in
to the secret intrigues Of the Red Lodge
Clique let us follow them up, step by
step, until we have exposed their perfdy
to the public gaze.
The first move towards bringing abou
a settlement Of all these family quarrell
and difficulties was to unite, purchase thc
Telegraph by subscription and then sell i
10 any one who would take it out of The
county. With this view the clique offered tC
purchase the Office provided Mr.. Beatty
: who was about starting paper in Ath
ems, would take the material off ihei
hands. Mr.. Beatty agreed to do so in cast
they would sell it as cold material" Blu
Jack asked thousand dollars for the es
lablisbment. about 5000 mote than Mr.
Beatty was willing to give for it, and q
selfshness was the ruling passion in thes'
: men this was entirely too great "pecu
/ mary sacrifice" & they abandoned the ide
ofpurchasing the Telegraph at that partic
ular iuncture and turned their attention
i. towards devising some means to "depose'
Ellis.
, Meanwhile we had been busily employ
| ed ferreting out corruption in the Auditor
Office, and had already made many start
ling disclosures which were beginning t