New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1861-02-26
THE ILLINOIS STATE ROBBERY.

lainy was permitted to compound the felony aDt
to enjoy the usufruct Of the stolen fund for 1
series Of years. By an act Of her Legislature,
passed in I847, the State sgrced with her credit
ors to pay them her indebtedness partly in money
and partly in bonds bearing interest; and ten
years afterwnrd, Joel A. MattesOn, the retiring
Democratic Governor, in accordance with the
terms Of this law, presented a number Of checks
drawn by the Canal Commissioners in 1880 on
the State Bank at Chicago to pay the contract
Ors for work done about that time on the
Illinois and Michigan Canal. Packages Of these
checks were presented by Gov. Matteson at diff
fereut times to the Auditor of the State, and
bonds covering the principal and interest taken
in exchange. But it happened that Gen.
Fry, who was o Canal Commissioner in 1889,
became cognizant of these transactions, and he,
knowing that all the checks Of that date issued
by the Canal Board were paid, suggested an in:
vestigation. 1t turned out that the Governor had
been depicting the State Treasury with two
classes Of Canal checks; one, cheeks that had
been regularly presented and paid by the bank,
and duly returned to the Commissioners when
which, though signed by the Commissioners, had
never been issued nor intended to be, after it
was found they were not needed for the special
purpose for which they were made. They had
all been safely packed away in sealed boxes, and
had remained in the bank or the Canal Office till
1853, when they were ordered BY Gov. Matteson
to be deposited in the State Department at
Springfield. Thither, accordingly, they were
sent, stl packed up in a trunk and box, proper
ly sealed, aud delivered to the Governor. TIE
investigation further revealed the fact that the
trunk had not been mcddled with, but that the
been stolen, and the presumption was, as some
Of tho contents had been in Gov. Mattesons
hands, and as on them, as evidences Of un-
Cancelled State debt he had got money, that he
was the thief. 1t was replied on the Gov.
errors behalf that he had bought these
checks in the regular course of his business as
banker and purchaser of State indebtedness, Of
various persons, they, probably, unknown to him,
having purlOined them from the box aforesaid.
Ii appeared, however that the Governors pur-
chases Of State debts did not begin till about the
time he was in funds from the State itself on
these very checks; that no other purchaser of
State debt had ever met with them in the course
of his transactions; that some Of them had
special Inducements which forbade their being
transferred, and which would have put any pur.
chaser on his guard against them; aud that
others had evidently never been issued at all,
being untrmmed, without the names of any
payee, and numbered in an unbrOken succession
of numbers in the condition, apparently in which
they were taken from the box. Nevertheless, as
the world is not disposed to think evil of digni-
tares, and rs there was not the same ground
two years ago that there is now for the belief
that Democratic rule was only another name for
public plumber, it was hoped that a Governor, a
banker, and man of reputed wealth and sup
posed integrity, was above the temptation of
using HE official position for the preparation Of
larceny on however grand scale Mr.. Matte
sou, instead OF being compelled, like meaner ras-
cals, 10 serve the State be had defrsuded in the
Peniten,iary for q term Of years, was permitted
certain number of years to clear of what, by
delicate euphemsm, was called his indebted.
meas to the State.
1t was thought, however, by the Legislature
that the circumstances of this extraordinary
case called for still further investigation than
that which revealed the facts We have thus
briefly stated. A Committee was appointed
which has at length reported. II has taken them
a long while to make the examination, owing to
several cmbarrassments that have beset them
such a. the long illness of their Chairman, and
the want of means TO pay witnesses; but partic-
ulary the difficulty Of ascertaining the real con-
dton of the affairs Of the State, how much she
is in debt, when and why she became debtor,
when and how much she has paid, and how
much she has been cheated. There seems to
have been general loOseness for many years in
regard to such matters in Illinois, 80 that the
marvel rather is that some clever official did not
sooner avail himself of the confusion to put his
hand into strong box so carelessly locked. But,
usrhaps, il needed the technical knowledge of q
banker TO understand how easy it was to commit
the burglary, though even a bankers sharpness
was not enough to evade detection. We learn
from the Investigating Committee that mo
" record could be found Of State bonds issued
during the administration of Gov. Carlin;"
that they have been unable to find any "descrip-
"tive lists of the various classes of canal scrip,
which have been redeemed at the Canal
"Ofiice;" and, while they are able TO show most
conclusively that the amount of certain kinds Of
that scrip which has been redeemed largely
exceeds the amount issued, they are not able to
show by their numbers the precise pieces of
scrip which have been twice paid by the State.
70 .,.h ,,ont oS ,nathnd in kapnipu the