The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1858-09-09

moiHeS niVer NommHtee, embracing TWO nun
dred and thirty-six pages. The only differ
ence between the two was, that Moriarty had
the authority Of one house TO do the printing
I-Dorr & Mahony had authority from neither
house; Moriarty received pay for the press
work and composition Of one appendix-Dorr
and Mahony received pay for the press-work
and composition Of an appendix for both the
Senate and House of Representatives..
scoooL FUND AGENTS.
The next charge was that the Republicans
had done a great wrong in passing a law au-
thorizing the appointment Of agents to EXAM
inc the aff,irs Of the several County School
Fund Commissioners. But this charge was
also allowed to go quietly "to roost" when
reference was made to ths Journals of the
General Assembly which showed that the aw
was reported to the Senate inst as it passed,
fixing the compensation of the agents, &c., by
a select committee composed of Messrs. Cool
baugh, Saunders and one Republ,can-and
passed the Senate by unanimous vote, (see
Senate Jour-, p. 494,) and that it was intro.
duced into the House by Mr.. Hardin, of Du-
bnque, from the same joint committee. and wa,
there passed pithout dissenting roice. (See
House Jour-. Ses. 1S56-7.) They then began
c'amor against Gov. Grimes because of thu
appointments made under the law, alleging that
they were made with view to promote his
election to the Senate. But it was shown that
several Of the appointments were male after
he left Office, by his successor, and that a ma
jority of those he did appoint ,cere actually OPP
posed to his election, some of them being so
violent il their opposition as to make pilgrim
age all the way to Des Moines to aid in Sc
curing his defeat; and all declared that they
had never, either directly or indirectly, had
any conmunica.ionwith him on the subject
Thus, "this lie went home to roost."
THE INSANE HOSPITAL.
The next charge made was, that the appro-
priations made to erect the Insane Hospital at
Mt Pleasant had been used to promote par
tzan purposes. This lie s'went to roost' when
it was shown that if used to promote any par
ty interests at all it must have been those Of
the Democratic party, because the Superinten-
dent, Henry Winslow, Esq, who EMPLOYS all
the men engaged on the work and pays out ev-
cry dollar expended upon it, is a lifelong Dem
ocrat, and votes no other than the Democratic
ticket.
SWAMP LAND AGENT.
They next charged that the Republicans
passed law at the last session. authorizing the
appointment of swamp land agent, express
ly to give all office to the Hon. James Thor.
ington. But when it was deemed important to
abuse Gov. Lowe for not appointing Mr..
Alter, of Muscatine, to this Office, they strang-
led their own offspring, and admitted what was
the truth, that the bill was introduced into the
General Assembly by Democratic member,
engineered 10 its final enactment by +. S.
Parvin, Esq, and voted for by every Demo-
cratic member of both Houses.
BOARD OF EQUALIZATION.
The old stock being exhausted, a new coin
age OF lies is now to be propagafed. We have
before US copy of the Democratic Clarion,
published IN Davis county, which furnishes us
a specimen Of what their character is to be-
confess that we never before saw so many
fasehoods crowded into so small space as are
contained in about one hundred lines of the
Clarion under the caption, 'More Money De-
handed by the Ruling Dynasty" 1t would be
useless to ATTEMPT to refute these falsehoods
oAe by one, but we will allude TO one or two
Of them by way of sample.
The Code of the State creates Board of
Equalization of the State assessments. Sec
482, p. 50 Of the Code directs this Board to
preserve unchanged the aggregate amount of
the State valuation, but they are required to
apporion the valuation among the several
counties as equitably as may be possible with
the Information before them. For example,
it the average returned valuation of ia, ming
lands ia Van Buien and Appanoose counties is
six dollars per acre, and three dollars in Davis
county. the reasonable presumption would be
that the valuation in Davis county was too
low. The Board would therefore raise the
valuation in Davis to correspond with that Of
the surrounding counties, and lower the valua-
ton of the other counties 90 as to spreserve
the aggregate valuation of the entire Stateo
Such cases as this have happened every year,
and always will happen. Such case has
happened this year in DAVIS and in six or seven
other counteis. The assessment Of Davis Co. :,
was never remarkable for its correctness, as
is evidenced by the fact that the valuation of
town property in that county was placed in
1855 at 1928, and in 1856 at $1O,792, or
about one-seventh of what 1t was estimated to
be worth one year before the last date. The
assessment of real estate in that county, exclu-
sve of town property, was reported in 1857 at
S2,734.s45, and this year it is reported at
81 1923 ,297, or at 1911 ,64s less than last year
Does any one suppose that the lands in Davis
county are really not worth two thirds as
much as they were last year? Under these
circumstances the Board Of Equalization, guild
ed by the assessment of the adjacent counties,
ased the assessment of Davis county to a val
lie corresponding with that Of the bordering
counties. They could not decrease the valu-
alton Of those counties because it would dis
turb the valuation of the grand schedule, but
they could make Davis county pay her proper
ton of the State expenses, and the law re-
quired them to do something more, nothing
l. "a L = Al =