Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1859-04-01
ANOTHER TREASURY INVESTIGATION.

/ since the able report OF the com mlttee
Investigation into the defaIcation of th
state treasury, which was so full and minul
in exposing what vas previously public, s
careful in covering up what the people war
ted 10 know, and SO prolific in suspicion
land charges to throw the public on falls
scent as to what yet remained concea lee
we have instituted an investigation into th
archives of the State to see if it was posi-
BILE that deficiency of near three quarter
of million could be carried along by Bres
lin through The greater part of his term
| without being known to Auditor Morgan an
| Transfer Agent Edgerton. We think it vii
not be denied by any that, if it is prove
that Morgan and Edgerton were aware o
the defalcation of Breslin, and instead O
Exposing il, resorted TO improper and illega
/ means to cover it up, their official integrity
j is SO much implicated in the transaction tha
! it was a brazen fraud upon the State fol
| them TO assume to investigate it.
No one can deny that, if this proof il
made. any investigation that these men
would undertake could be nothing but dis
honorable conspiracy to cover up the trans
actions by which the State has been rob-
bed, in order to hide their own implica-
iion in it; and that it is an insult to the pop
uIar intelligence to offer the report of ac-
cesseries to the defalcation as a fair and i'm
partial investigation of it. On the supposi-
ton we have made, all parties will admit SO
much. Furthermore, if we prove beyond
any question that Morgan and Edgerton
knew that, while the accounts of both Au-
ditor and Treasurer showed balance of
over half q million in the treasury, there
was not dollar there, and the credit of the
State could only be maintained il the pay
ment OF interest by their illegal use of the
securities in the sinking fund, how can they
escape the conclusions in their report, by
which they seek to implicate Mr.. Gibson in
all the defalcation Of Breslin, because he
assisted him to cover it up? Do they not
by their own logic place themselves in The
same category with Gibson, that is, Gibson
as they represent him, accessory TO the
whole defalcation! We see not how this
conclusion can be denied by the gentlemen
themselves.
These men have laid themselves open to
severe animadversion on their official con-
duct, by the baseness, maignity and utter
disregard of justice with which they have
used an official position which they accepted
for dishonorable purposes 10 asperse the
character OF every man of the opposite par
ty whose name they could possibly drag into
the report, either by remote and innocent
connection with some of Breslin's business
operations, or by their own unfounded sus-
picions, but in our comments we will not
initiate their course; we shall state nothing
that We shall not sustain by inconlrovertible
evidence, taken from official documents, and
from the correspondence of the officers of
ssate, now on file in The proper departs
4a.2nts. ..---.-.a.. =.-.-.--.----.---..-.--.
We shall prove beyond any question that
Morgan, Edgerton, and all the executive Of
fcers of the State knew as early as Novem-
Der, 1854, that there was deficit in the
treasury of over half million. We shall
dispose of Morgan's subterfuge by which he
attempts to charge his ignorance of the
matter OH his own imperfect system of book
keeping, by showing that he knew this de-
falcation at the very time, when, in dis
charge of his sworn duty, he reported to the
legislature that there was balance in the
treasury of 1854 $50.
We shall prove that at this very time he
was illegally converting the sinking fund set
apart for redemption of State debt, into
money TO pay $433 ,483, being less by $l5I,-
297 than he had Just stated 10 be in the
treasury.
We shall prove that during the whole of
Breslin's last term, while Auditor Morgan
was officially reporting the treasury to be
overhowing, and when the balance could
half million, the payments of interest on
the public debt, were only made by the
most desperate "shining" and by the illegal
use OF the funds placed in lheir-not Bres-
ln's-trust, and required by law to be held
sacred for the redemption OF the State
bonds; and that these gentlemen who SO
pathetically state in their report how "their
cheeks tingle with shame, when they think
of So, 10000 of our good States securities
abandoned to the Hawk and Buzsard of the
stock market, and men, dealing in millions,
and yet not worth as many pennies, were
enabled TO finger our State stocks, to by
pothecate them for loans, and to dicker and
traffic in theln-sarnishing by their course
the fair fame of our State and injuring its
CREDIT were themselves for years shi-
ming among the hawks and buzzards of the
stock market, byPothecating sour good
States securities and dishonoriDg the credit
of the 'sgoSt 5tate'' By the most desperate
financial make shifts to cover up defalca-
ton in the treasury.
We shall prove that in June, 1855, the
same announcement vas made by BresIin
to Auditor Morgan, that was made by Glib
III; in hot
he was utterly unable to meet the July in
terest, and that Morgan at once proceeded
to cover up the deialcation, by forwarding
the securities which he held as fund COM
missioner for the redemption of the public
debt, to Edgerton for hyPothecatfon to false
money to meet the interest. The people
will probably contrast this with the course
taken by the republican executive officers
in a similar case, in forcing Mr.. Gibson to
give UP the keys of the treasury at once.
We shall show that during all these trou-
bles the reports of the treasuser, auditor,
and fund commissioners constantly conceal
ed them from the public, and represented
the financial affairs of the state Us i'll the
most favorable condition.
What could have induced these men TO
violate the law, hurruss themselves by these
desperate shifts for years, and peril their
own reputation, to cover rp detaleatioh OF
the treasurer! What, according to their
own course of reasoning in making other
parties accessory to Breslin's defslcation, is
the unavoidable conclusion in their case!
We forbear comment for the present, and
proceed to evidence. The following letter
from Morgan to Robert J. Atkinson, then
Sd Auditor of the treasury at Washington,
but previously member Of the Ohio Iegis-
lature from Carroll county, was written just
seven dnys after the close of the fiscal year,
when he reported to the Governor that there
was a balance in The treasury of $5S4, $50.