Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1859-03-15


faced. that, on the 9Th day of May 1854, the
commissioners passed the following order:
ain view of the fact that the practice of grant
ing the custody and use Of the public money to
banking institutions is still persisted in By the
Treasurer Of State; the commissioners met on the
9Th of May, and for the purpose Of preventing the
State from being stripped Of all incidental advan,
taees resulting from said practice, so long as
il is tolerated, said commissioners made the fol-
lowing order:
Ordered, That a arequisitioa be now made on the
Auditor Of State for his draft the Treasurer Of
State for an amount of funds equal to the inter
est due in New York, on the lst day Of July, 1854,
on the foreign debt of Ohio, to be made payable
to John g. Breslin, special agent of the Commits
sioners without premium) said amount Of funds
belonging to the Treasurer of Ohio, into an equal
amount of bills of exchange, payable in New
York on the 3lst day of June, 1854, without
grace"
quote again an extract from letter Of the
Commissioners of the Sinking Fund to Mr.. Bres-
lin, written November 81, 1855;
Hon. JOHN G.. BREsLIN Treasurer of State.-
DEAR SIR: We are informed by tho acting Com
missioner that you communicated to him your IN
tention to charge the State Exchange for conver-
tin the amount Of our draft to meet the interest
uary, into finds which are par in the city Of New
York"
ave do not know to what extent departure
from the form heretofore adopted may have cons
trbuted to this resolution on your part. recent
event, to which it is unnecessary that we should
further alude, has constrained us to this change,
but we cannot consent that you should believe
from the form Of expression adopted, that We
recognize your right to make any charge for
transmitting the funds, nor are We willing that
the claim to charge the premium of exchange
made by you, should vest with merely verbal
disclosure Of the acting Commissioner Of your
right so to do.
awe are satisfied thatyou enn transmit the funds
of the State i1hich hare been IN your custody since
| february last to New York without any charge to
the State; and, further, that can now do SO our
selves without any danger, or at least very in
considerable one"
l think 1 have thus shown that the public
officers of the State, as well as the several Leg
isIatures of the State during Mr.. Breslin's term
of office, knew full well that be was using the
public monies of the State, and that the Legis-
latures refused to pass any law to prevent it,
For this criminal neglect of their official duty,
charge the Democratic party as Responsible
The Republicans could not, In any measure,
control it, for they we're in a hopeless minority
both in the Senate and House of Representa-
Legislatures have named had passed the ne
cessary laws upon this subject, that the whole
of this terrible loss might have been saved to
the people! Let, then, the responsibility OF
defalcation rest where it properly belongs-up-
on the Democratic parry, and the Democratic
party only.
But 90 farther. claim that William D.
Morgan, on the 9th day of June, 1855, kpelo
that John G. Breslin was defaulter, and that
he had recklessly squandered the funds of the
State And l claim that his neglect of duty in
not promptly and publicly exposing him as
defallter, makes him to certain extent par
ticeps criminals in the fraud upon the Treasury.
For in this instance he clearly aided Mr.. Bres-
lin to hide from the public that which if he had
not done, would have been public exposure of
| Mr. Breslin's defalcatiOn on the lst Of July,
1855. On the 25th OF June, 1855, there was,
or rather should have been in the Treasury,
about eight hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
1t required the sum of S4l4,704 20 to pay the
interest on the public debt in New York on the
| Ist day of July, 1855. Mr. Breslin notified Mr..
Morgan that he could not raise money enough TO
pay this interest into one hltndrsd thousand dol
hTs Here was a state of affairs that should
have led at once into diligent inquiry as to
the whereabouts of the other half million of dol
lars, LEdI SuOulu udNO DGcu III buC LACd5uE
But not word of it. Mr.. Morgan simply takes
from the sinking fund the warrants ofthe Treas
urer of the United States Cd the Assistant
Treasurer of New York, for the sum Of Sl4l,-
600, and places them in the hands of a. P. Ed
gerton, the transfer agent of the State of Ohio
in New York, (and who is the same Mr.. Edger-
ton, who is one of these commissioners, and
who is said to have drafted the report,) and d.
rects him to sell the same, and apply the pro-
ceeds so far as they were needed to help Mr..
Breslin 10 pay the July interest in New York.
So here were two of these immaculate Commis-
sioners who were knowing toBreslin defalcation
to the amount of $500, coo in the year 1855, but
they are as silent as the grave about it in their
report. 1 hope gentlemen will look little at
these facts, and then ask themselves if the
port is not warm, psrtizan, dirty affair, when
it seeks to take this defalcation from the party
on whom it belongs, and place it on the shoul-
ders of men who had nothing whatever to do
with it. Sir, this report had scarcely seen the
liz ht-the ink was scarcely dry on the newspa-
per, and the railroad train had just left the city
with the contents of the precious document,
before out comes in the Statesman, a carefully
prepared article nominating Mr. Edgerton for
the Governorship of Ohio. l think, sir, he
ought to have it. In this report he has done
dirty work enough to entitle him to it, and
trnst the Democratic party will give him his
reward
l think Mr.. Morgan may be properly charged
with another gross neglect of duty. The Com
missioners say:
"Instead of the published reports and state
ments of the Treasurer and Auditor beiag made
up from the books, they are posted at the end
of the fiscal year, or at any other period, as the
law contemplates, and the public believes them
to be, they are not unfrequently in direct conflict
with them. The precise condition Of particular
fund is not and cannot be determined entirely by
the books, but by abstracts and statements made
up from evidences outside Of them, which are
therefore made to become the test Of accuracy, and
net the record itself"
Now, sir, who was the Auditor of State
during all these four years, that the books of
the Auditors office were so inaccurate, that in
order to show the public the true state of affairs
he was compelled to goto outside abstracts and
statements in order to present true and accu- |
rate account to the peoplel Why, VIM. D. |
Morgan, and him Only-and upon him let the
blame fall
Now, Mr.. Speaker, for more than thirty col |
umns of matter have these Commissioners |
waded in the endeavor to fx this deialcation |
upon A. A. Bliss and William H Gibson
Everything that party ingenuity could do to
bring about this desired result has been done, |
but they have most signally failed. They have
distorted facts strained conclusions, written page
after page and column after column, narrating |
the history Of Gibson's endorsements, his ter
rible struggles at raising money to keep an
empty treasury full; but they have completely
failed to show the fact, that the State is loser
by him of the public moneys. And SO they
rake him over and over. charging him with all
manner of crimes and misdemeanors in the bold
est manner, in the vain hope of directing the
public from the real issue, as to who stole the
peoples money. But they conclude at last, af-
ter all their apologies for Bresin, and softening
down of his f'eTrOrs," that he is defaulter to