The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1859-08-17
The Safe keeping and Disbursement of
the Public Money.

For many years prior 10 the late treasury
DefalcatiOn, a controversy had been steadily
going on In Ohio in relation to the then exist
ing mode of managing the public funds. The
Democrats held that there should be . divorce
between the Banking Institutions and the State
Treasury, and the Wings insisted that the pub
lie money could be safely and l~egitimately con-
fined to the Banks, and by them made the ba-
sis of accommodations in the shape of loans,
from which the body of the people could be
benefited. Effort after effort was made to
sunder the mysterious connection between the
Banks and the State, but it was opposed-by the
united opposition, and a small portion OF ?the
Democratic party, and was therefore unsuceess-
ful. After the adoption-of the new constitu-
ton, and the reorganization of the Board of
Fund Commissioners, an effort was made to
correct the abuses that were then only known
in part to exist, but these failed by the eollu-
sion between the Trust Company and the Trea-
surer of State, Breslin. The use of the public
money blythe Banks, and the temptations the
of the treasury was. constantly ex-
posed to, by his Illicit and improper connection.
with those Institutions, led to a Defaleation of
a large amount during the time that Mr.. Bliss
was the Treasurer. Mr.. Breslin undertook to
carry the Bliss defalcation, and by this act was
necessarily thrown into the company of des-
perate men in the financial world, by whom he
was led step by step into hopeless and %irretrie-
vable ruin. Gibson followed in the same
course of financial policy, and met with the
same fate. The Democracy has sundered the
connection between the Banks and the State,
by the Sub-treasary law of the last General
Assembly, and provided that the public funds
shall be used only for the purposes for which
they are drawn from the peoples pockets, and
that any public officer who misuses or misap-
propriates the funds, shall be deemed guilty of
and punished for the commission of a crime.
The Republicans, one and all, declare the law
a bad one, urge its repeal, and claim that the
peoples moneys ought again to be given to the
Banks for them to speculate upon, as hereto
fore and that done, the former acts of cor
%ruption, villainy and defalcations must be en-
acted over again. The people ought to bear
in mind that if a Republican Legislature be
elected, their money will again be taken out of
the State and county treasures, and again
loaned to the Banks and again lost. Let this
fact not be forgotten. Let it be kept promi-
neHt. And in order that the people may have
some little insight into the INSCRIPTIONS man
ner in which men high in authority in corpor-
ations, will act in their wild hunt after the
public money and to keep possession of it, we
to-day for their infol nation, a few let
tiers from Geo. S.. Coe, Esq, the New York
Cashier of the Ohio Life Insurance and Trust
Company, to Charles Stetson,e ESQ.,, the Presi-
dent of the Co., and to John G. Breslin,
of State. Among these letters are
two private ones from Bresiin to Coe, and an
other one is referred to, but it appears to be
unfortunately destroyed. The pcrusal of these
letters (Which we obtain from the documents
accompanying the report of the Investigating
will disclose to the reader that
hey were written during the time that the
lew. fund board were endeavoring to ascertain
md correct existing abuses in the financial sys-
EN- of Ohio. The dishonest means used by |
Zoe to mislead and deceive them, and his con-
sediment of facts which he knew, his ready
nd and assistance in helping Breslin to hide
condition /; Stetson's knowledge of his
acts as communicated to him by Coo. and his
lcquiesence in what was done, will all strike
he mind of the honest reader with surprise
stetson and Cue were at the head of our model
ohio Banking Institution-the Trust Company.
nd yet they regarded it as no breach of good
morals to participate in transactions such as
hose disclosed by Coe, and to conceal from the
iund commissioner of Ohio that which it was
heir duty to have disclosed. The reader of
hese letters will fix a proper character on the
transactions therein referred to, and form his
conclusions as to the propriety of return
Rg to a financial system out of which such
corruption must necessarily grow.-Statesman.