The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1858-12-29
The financial Laws Of ~0hio-Their past
Faults and Present Merits.

The financial Laws Of 0hio-Their past
Faults and Present Merits
MORGAN, of the Newark Advocate, who is
| perhaps, moro familiar with the Financial Law
Of thu State than any other man, setethe Ohit
Journal right, for essaying to set down to The
advantage of the Republican party the exclu
sive credit of whatever merit exists in tbs
present financial system of Ohio. As if THU
modest claim was not sufficient of itself, the
Journal imputes to the democratic party al
responsibility for the existence of such legis
lation as permitted the Breslin and Bliss vii
lainies to occur and go undetected. How false
is this charge in every particular, may be in
ferred from the fact, that the law under which
Bliss and Breslin were each enabled to get pos
session of money from county treasurers with
out the intervention or knowledge of any 9TH
er State officer, was passed by the Wing Legis-
laturc of 1916. In the Senate, the law here
referred to, was reported by the Hon. Alfred
Kelley, and on a demand of the yeas and nays,
every whig voted in its favor, and every demo
crat recorded himself against it. This law,
then, which allowed State Treasures, without
notice to, or a check from, any other State Off
Ger, to get possession of large amounts of pub
lie money, was a part of the wing financial
system which the Democracy in s found al
ready on the statute book. It had been placed
on the statute book under the high sanction of
Alfred Kelley, and there it stood unchalienged
through the entire official term of Auditor
Woods, up to the very hour the State Govern
ment passed into the hands of the Democracy
in 1852. We repeat, the party which passed
this fatal law kept it in existence as a part of
their State financial system. In 1924, the
democratic party had a majority in the Legis-
lature. At each of these three sessions, a
bold, determined, but unsuccessful effort was
made by the democrats to place the State Treas
ury under proper check and safeguard. But
at each session, the effort failed by reason of
every WING and free soiler in both branches,
acting and voting unitedly with a minority of
democrats who were in tn. interest of Treasur-
er Breslin. The agitation and discussion which
then occurred were the seed which in good
time was to yield ample harvest. The public
attention was thoroughly awakened to the ne
cessity,of better Treasury laws, and when
Alfred Kelley again entered the Senate in
1855, like a wise, able and patriotic man that
he is, he unhesitatingly overthrow his own law
of 184S, and gave his whole mind and thought
to the establishment of a system of accounta-
bility similar in its great purpose to that for
which the democrats had so manfully battled
at the session of 1924. 1t will be seen,
therefore, that it is unmanly and dishonest to
claim that to the Republican party belong the
exclusive honor of inaugurating the system of
improved accountability which is now on the
statute book and which it is hoped will hereaf-
ter guard the Treasury of Ohio from a repiti-
ton of the vast wrongs which 1t has suffered
in former years.
It may we'll be a wonder that no democratic
Legislature in the twenty years preceding 1852,
saw or acted on the necessity of a law subj: set
ing the State Treasury to frequent personal ex-
NJ, ~ ot;o1u onJ aon.ri ~ ~ fba Frraoo,ror 70 poolro
some other and more effective adjustment of
his liabilities than a mere formal balancing of
books annually, But if it be a wonder that
Democratic Legislatures were. guilty of this
oversight, it is Just as true that Wing Legisla-
tors were equally blind and derelict. For
more than twenty years, no human being, ex-
cept the State Treasurer himself, knew the
acutal condition of the public money; and
never until they were temporarily restored to
power in 1855, did Wing or Republican pro-
pose to throw the Treasury open by law to
thorough inspection and frequent examination.
At the session of that year, under the lead and
impulse of the ~indomitable Kelley, they con-
tinued the work nobly commenced by their
democratic predecessors, and in spite of Glib
sons audacity and the State Journals known
hostility, they succeeded in passing laws which
were admirable in many respects, yet being ex-
ceptionable in others, have been largely i'm
proved by the democratic legislation of 1858.
IF Republicans, by frank and impartial
statement of the facts attendant upon the f.
nancial legislation of Ohio, are able to estab-
fish anything exclusively to their credit, we
will be among the very last to discharge their
labors. But before criticising with too great
severity any oversight of the democratic party,
insist that the State Journal shall keep in
mind the two prominent facts which we have
named and again repeat: LIST, That
the law of 1848, which allowed Bliss and Bres-
lin to get possession of public money without
the cooperation or knowledge of any other
State officer, was a whig law that was passed
in direct opposition to the recorded votes of
every Democratic Senator. End. That although
the Wing, or Opposition party, had a majority
in the Legislature more than half of the time
for twenty years preceding 1852, yet in all
time, they neither passed, attempted to
pass, nor even suggested the adoption of a law
which wonld empower any human being ex-
cept the Treasurer himself to know from per-
sonal examination the actual condition and
safety of the State Treasury.