Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1858-1860, 1858-09-07
10 anc TuDllC.


Select Committee appointed 10y the Legisla-
tnre we had no motive to do injustice to the
4 incumbents or to any Others but felt bound
| by the highest considerations of duty to as
certain as nearly as possible the true state of
facts, and faithfully to report it to the public,
regardless of consequences to ourselves. We
soon saw that tie labor would he difficult and
disagreeable We foresaw that there would
be persons deeply interested in diverting pub
lie attention from the disclosures to be made.
1t was not, therefore, with much surprise that
we saw the recent publications over the sig
natures respectively, of Messrs. Crozier, Lnt-
trell, Spence. and the earlier one of DR.. F. N.
W. Burton; commencing even before ourreport
was published. But we were hardly prepared
to anticipate the bitterness of attack which
| characterize the two cards of Mr.. Crozier. He
takes issue with our conclusion that the books
of the Comptroller's Office were mot proper
| ly kept and says the Committee were total
| ly unacquainted with the business and unfit for
the investigation of the duties assigned them,
and therefore wholly incapable of Judging
how books should he kept" He says we are
totally wrong as 10 the overplus of 1888
| 08 interest paid on State bonds above the
amount due by the State, and taunts us with
the proposition to leave the questions at is
sue to be decided by certain named gentle
men, We submit il it would not have been
| better for Mr.. Crozer to wait till the Commit
tees report, with the testimony taken, is laid
before the public before attempting in such
hot haste to divert public opinion? The re-
port is now in the hands Of the printer, and
will soon be published, under the authority
of the Governor. In the meantime we will
content ourselves by saying in reply to Mr..
Crozier's cards, that we have ample proof that
his books were not properly kept-that his
reports to the Legislature for the six years he
was in office, invariably contained material
errors that he did not correctly report the
| amount of State bonds outstanding-that he
] did not correctly represent the amount of in
| terest due on bonds-that he failed to comply
with the plain acquisitions of the law to keep
in the books of his Office an accurate registra-
| tion of all the notes issued for circulation to
the free banks-that he omitted to keep rec
ord of the dates and amounts of bonds depos-
tied by the free banks-that he failed to re-
port the proper date of the maturity of bonds
in many instances, and that in other particu-
lars his negligence to do what was clearly his
duty to do was such as to give the Commit
tee the greatest difficulty in arriving at the
true state of facts. We were not disposed to
make exposures a shade more pointed than
was sufficient to acquit ourselves of faithful
discharge of duty. But truth to say it was
difficult to ascertain from the Comptroller's
books whether warrants which had been issued
were paid or not. In his three several re-
ports to the Legislature Mr.. CrOZi-r seems to
have thought that State bonds which had been
issued to the Lagrange and Memphis Rail-
road, amounting to IO.25O dollars had been
cancelled, when in fact the bonds are still
outstanding, and he has been paying interest
upon them for six years, apparently, without
knowing it, These bonds, No. %, %, "a, 25,
z6. q, 2S 30, 80 and 81, are now in the hands
of Mr.. A. V. S. Lindsey, who has been regu-
larly drawing interest upon them, and yet
Mr.. Crozier has never reported these bonds as
a part of the State debt One other case of
this sort we will cite and pass to other mat
tiers. A State bond for $500, issued to the
Gallatin Turnpike Company, was returned,
and, in lieu of it and parts of two bonds
(amounting to 5000 issued to the Lagrange
and Memphis road two new bonds were issued
of $1,000 each; keeping ont the same amount of
liability. Yet Mr.. Crozier has not regarded
the $500 bond issued to the Galatin Turn
pike Company, and has failed repeatedly to
report the same to the Legislature For years
he paid to the individual holder the annual
interest accruing on this $500 and yet did
not find out that it was still outstanding as
State liability. BY such errors he has been
led to report the outstanding debt of the
State invariably less than it is, and as to the
accruing interest it was complicated Win the
f--.her error OF counting commissions as in
terest. These errors have run through all his
reports TO the Legislature, and ten minutes
examination of his books will plainly disclose
them to any one curious enough to look. Mr..
Luttrell;s report is similarly erronesus-hs
interest account was more so, for he calculated
the interest on all the State bonds at per
cent, in the face of the fact that 81 ,949, 440
of them draw but 5 per cent, and $3.50, l66 &C
but five and a quarter per cent; making an
error of l,203 IA for one year. BY the
free banking law. passed in 1852, the circula-
ton of the free banks is required to be coun-
tersigned, numbered and registered by the
Comptroller in proper books to be provided
and kept in his office; yet the Committee find
great omissions of this duty in connection
with several of the free banks. They find
as stated in the report that 'there has been
no registration at all of notes of the River
Bank, the Bank of the Union, or of Bucks
Bank; and they find that the registration of
the notes of the Bank of Trenton has been SO
imperfect that nothing at all can be told from
the books as to the amount registered, us
of the bills. Aud they find likewise that the
notes of the Bank of Knoxville have not been
registered in full" Mr.. Crozier resigned his
office to take effect January "a, 1856, and the
last entry of date in the circulation book of
the Bank of Knoxville is January LIST, 1854,
Il chasm of two years. Are not these sufli-
cient evidences that the books of the Comp
troller's Office have not been properly kept?
Yet we are prepared to point to other evil
dences if need be. Mr.. Crozier says we are
totally wrong in the statement that the in
terest paid on State bonds within the eight
years from 1850 to 1857, inclusive, amounts
to Sl,715,204 0s; and that the interest falling
due within that time was but l,6G6,s2l 90;
apparent overplus S4s.3s3 0s. Our state