Mineral Point weekly tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1859-1868, 1863-10-07
From the Wisconsin State Journal
The School Fund---M0nstr0us Falsehoods of
the COppefheads.

The home organ of Fl. L. PALMER. the Mil
waukee NecS is resorting to the most mon
strous falsehoods in order to defend his course
in voting against the law for investing the
school fund in the bonds of the State
That measure was intended to accomplish
two objects: lst, to secure a more safe in
vestment of the school fund I'd, to replenish
the general fund, and enable the State to pay
promptly and .legularly. the aid which it had
pledged TO volunteers.
1t was opposed by H. l.. PALMER and his
associates for two reasons, each intensely and
wickedly pGrtizan in its nature. He was al
ready, at that time, laying his plans to secure
the object of his ambition, the possession of
the gubernatorial chair. If by any means he
could succeed in leaving the State Treasury
in condition that the State would be unable
TO meet its obligations to soldiers families
an important point TO him and his schemes
would be gained. The Republicans having
the State administration in their hands would
be held responsible for the failure, and the
popular indignation which would be provoked
would enure TO the benefit of the Democracy.
This was one of his reasons for opposing the
measure in question. The other was equally
partizan and shameful. The old system of loan
ing out the School Fund in small sums to pri-
yate individuals, had been found, in the DAYS
when the Democracy bore sway in Wisconsin.
a potent engine of popular corruption
1t freely employed for this purpose,
and with such effect, that not until four wears
after the Republican party had a majority in
the State to elect Governor and members
of Congress could it succeed in wrest-
ing the control of the School fund from the
possession of Democratic Commissioners. In
the election of 1857, that fund was notori-
ously used 70 elect a Democratic Secretary of
State, an Attorney General and Bank Comp
trOller 1t was the Malahof' of the Democ-
racy, almost impregnabe to popular assault
The first board of Republican School Land
Commissioners recommended a change of the
system, as it was found that large amounts of
the fund had been hOpelessly lost upon loans
that were insufficiently secured, and urged
the investment in State bonds as in every re-
spect the safest and most conducive to the
public interests. But when at length bill
was introduced for that purpose, in 1862 II.
L. PALMER, leading the Democracy of the
House, and hopeful of a Democratic victory
at the next State election-no provisions hav-
ing then been made for taking the vote of
our soldiers-opposedit with the utmost vehe
mence of which he was capable. Confident
of regaining the control of the State Govern
ment, he was not willing that the enginery
found so potent in the past for nerpetuating
his party in power should be broken in pieces
Now his organ rushing to his defense at
tempts to cloak the perfdy of his course I'M
der a cloud of falsehOods. 1t assails the
credit of the State, by asserting that our
bonds are not worth fifty cents on the dollarl
1t says the children are practically robbed
of every dollar put into the treasury by
that measure. 1t says that nasmuch as the
law does not provide that the sum thus loaned
from the school fund shall be expended for
soldiers families, that therefore the prctense
| that it would be so used was a mere trick to
get hold of the money that it might be
squandered on wet-nurses and partlZans of
the Administration, and to afford those who
had purchased the bonds al a small price an
opportunity to get their full nominal value at
the expense of the taxpayers of the State
1t IS sufficient to say, in reply to this swarm
OF talsehoOds, that no bonds of the State
have been sold at less than par, and that the
| official records of the State show that the
money procured from the school fund princi-
| pal has been used to pay money due volun-
| teers' families. But for the purpose Of
| justifying his acts, the PALMER organ is forced
| TO the desperate resort of assailing the credit
| of the State, and asserting that the bonds
| which she has pledged her faith to redeem
| are not worth over fifty cents on the dollar
| We ask the people to judge whether the
school fund principal Is not as safely invested
| in State bonds as when loaned out by poIiti-
! clans all over the State, upon securities
| which 1t is impossible that the commissioners
/ should personally oxaTnine and fn" tho value
| OF which they must depend upon some coun-
| try justice and the oaths Of persons with
| whom they are utterly unacquainted Is it
| likely that the State will ever refuse to pay
the interest on its bonds, especially when that
interest is to be distributed through the State
for the benefit of its public schools? No one
but a copperhead politician would have the
etfrontery 10 hint at such a thing. And vet
this is precisely what the State must do in or
der TO verify the assertion of the Nezcs 1t
Is so absurd an argument that we should not
consider it worthy of notice but for the per
slstent manner in which we have heard it
employed by PALMER and his disciples IN the
Legislature and elsewhere.