Fremont journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County [Ohio]) 1853-1866, 1856-03-14


dollars! Their legacy reads thus:
State House deficiency $685. ,125 90
Treasury deficiency 168,00O 90
Public Works deficiency 10000 90
New Insane Asylum deficiency 1867 90
Benevolent Institutions def'cy 26,325 90
Total $777,1O7 90
And all this is yet to be paid by the tax
ridden people of Ohio. How many tax
payers in Sandusky county will vote to re-
store MediIl, Breslin and their friends to
place and power?
We hope the Legislature will not appro-
pirate a dollar to carry forward the work on
the New State House. Let it stand for ten
years to ccme, as a monument of the folly
and vilIainy of its projectors and managers
and as proof that the patience of the peo-
pie is exhausted.
One good result at least is likely to fol
low the exposures which have been made
A bill has been brought in which will here
after prevent commissioners and others hay
ing charge of public works, going beyond
the appropriations. 1t is a pity that the
State House commissioners have not the
stone and iron for which they have contract
ed, tied around their necks by some penal
law, that it might sink them to where Pha-
rioh's chariots and horsemen lie buried.
Have we any State House Commissioners?
The Ohio State Journal of the 8th inst
says Yesterday afternoon in the Senate,
Mr.. Brazee, a distinguished lawyer and
member of the Judiciary committee, an
nounced from his place in the Senate that
there was no law in Ohio for the appoint
ment and existence of the board of commits
sioners of the new State House, and that
there has not been for the last two years.
All the contracts made by the gentlemen
who now claimed to be commissioners for
the completion of the State House are there
fore utterly void. There is no authority for
their acts, and has not been since the spring
of 1854. This was truly most important
and startling announcement.
When Mr.. Brazee took his seat. Mr.. Mat
thews, the Senator from Hamilton county,
a Democrat, and one of the ablest lawyers
in Ohio, rose and confirmed this statement.
He had been surprised to find upon an ex-
of the statutes, that this state of
facts existed. We learn that the Judiciary
committee of the Senate, after a careful ex-
have with entire unanimity come
to the same conclusion.
The law under which the present board
was organized, was passed on the 18th of
March, 1852, and is found on page 1853 of
Curwen's revised statutes. The first sec
ton repeals the law of 1916. The second
section provides, 'that there shall be appoint
ed by the Governor of Ohio, by and with
the advice and consent of the Senate, three
to be denominated the New
State House Commissioners, under whose
direction the work upon the New State
House, in the city of Columbus, shall be
continued and prosecuted" DC. The third
section says: ''The commissioners aforesaid
shall hold their office for the term of two
years, unless the said new State House shall
be sooner completed. They shall take an
oath or affirmation to faithfully and dill
gently discharge the duties required by this
act; and if any vacancy shall occur in said
the vacancy shall be filed by
by the Governor"
These are the facts in the case, and they
are, in connexion with the extraordinary and
wasteful course of the commissioners,
enough to arouse public attention. The
Legislature will not certainly make any far
ther appropriations, until this legal ques-
ton and the conduct of the commissioners
are fully looked into; public opinion is well
as public duty, will require this, though
the Statesman should continue its howl
We understand the Auditor of State will
decline paving any more bills until the pres
ent difficulty is remedied by law.