San Andreas independent., 1858-03-13
TEE AMADoR INDEBTEDNESS.
ANGELS, March 10, 1858.

ANGELS, March 10, 1858.
Dir. Editor There has been much inquiry
into the action of the late Board of Supervi-
sors and Treasurer, in relation to the sale to
one William Beals, of Mokelunne Hill, of the
Amador county debt. As | chance to know
about that transaction will giveits brief his
tory
The selling of that warrant was matter of
necessity. That necessity grew out of chain
of circumstances, which will endeavor to
relate.
At the January term of the District Court,
5th Judicial District, 1856, Treasurer La
forge obtained a Judgment against the county
for the sum of twenty-sx thousand dollars, or
thereabouts. The Board of Supervisors
Messrs. Wade, Purple and Mcdaniel felt dis
satisfied with the decision, and matter of
economy to the county, being obliged to pay
double the amount in county scrip, for an ar
ticle, that it was worth and as this state of
affairs was bound to exist so long as the whole
revenue of the county was appropriated to the
payment of Laforge'S judgment, the Supervi-
sors, as directed by the Court, took an appeal
to the Supreme Court. During the pending
of said appeal, the Legislature passed law
expressly to remedy the paying of that judg-
ment in preference to other claims against the
county, which law reads as follows
The People of the State of California rep
resented in Senate aad Assembly, do enact
as follows:
Sec l. The Board of Supervisors of Gala
veras County: are hereby authorized to set
apart certain portion of the annual revenue
of Calaveras County, including the present
year, to pay the annual current expenses of
said County.
SEC 2. The Board of Supervisors shall not
have power to set apart an amount exceeding
two-thrds of the revenue of the year for
which they were elected, and all moneys over
and above the amount so set apart, which may
remain in the Treasury, shall be used for pay
ing the former Indebtedness of the County
Sec. 3. The moneys so set apart pursuant
to the foregoing sections for paying the cur
rent expenses of the County, shat not Be sub
ject to any execution or aeru issued for, ac-
count of any debt which may be dae, or achich
may become due from said County.
Approved, February 2lst. 1856.
The Supervisors convened immediately
thereafter and made an order based upon the
new law, directing two-thirds of the revenue
to the payment of current expenses.
The Treasurer, feeling some doubt as to the
legality of the law, required of them Bond
of Indemnity, before he would obey the order,
and drain the Treasury pending the decision
of the Supreme Court.
At the January term of that Court, for 1851,
the law was declared unconstitutional, so far
as the Laforgc judgment was conc erned.
The decision found money in the Trea-
sury to pay the judgment, or that portion re-
naming unpaid, to wit /: some nineteen thou
sand dollars
The Treasurer, in accordance with Bond of
Indemnity, demanded of Supervisors Schrack,
Green, and Norcross, money to satisfy the
Judgment, who seemed indisposed to act in the
premises This failure on their part, placed
the Treasurer in most embarrassing po-
siton.
The money would be demanded and an af-
tdavit made to the Court that it was not paid
"a bench-warrant would issue-the Treasu-
rer would be arrested, tried and found guilty
OF contempt of Court
After this husking was carried to an ntole-
rabie extent, the Treasurer having paid fifteen
hundred dollars fines for his being in contempt
he obtained permission of the Board to raise
money on county account to pay the Laforge
demands and costs, and borrowed of William
Beals, some nineteen thousand dollars at 3 per
cent. interest per month, for that purpose
placing this Amador county warrant in his |
hands collateral security
AT the September session of the Board of
Supervisors, 1857, this matter was presented
to them by the Treasurer. After careful ex-
animation of the subject, they proposed to sell
the warrant to William Beals, on condition
that he cancel the Laforge demand, and pay
the balance in Calaveras indebtedness, to
which proposition he acceded on the lth day
of September, 1857, paying the amount of the
warrant, to wit. 81 1872
Interest on l24.00