Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1864-01-28


and In the absence Of and without CONSUL
tatiOn with the Attorney General, who was
! also member of the Board of Sinking
Fund Commissioners. i,.1
I The State owned $40, 600 in stocks Of this
canal. Tod was largely interested in, and,
as am informed, President Of the Cleve-
land and Mahoning railroad. The canal
and the railroad ran parallel, and were rivals
in transportation. The railroad company
owned considerable portion of the stock
of the canal, and could control the election
of its Board of Managers. II was to the
interest of the railroad to increase the price
Of carrying freight On the canal, which was
done; and this would reduce the receipts
of the canal and the value of the stock. The
design In purchasing the stock Of the State
was TO destroy the canal as rival, and give
the railroad the monopoly. Tod, therefore,
being one Of the owners of the Mahoning
railroad, having reduced the value of the
stock, by connivance with other authori-
ties, and by selecting an Agent to conceal
his interest in the transaction, purchased
the stock owned by the State for $4,000.
Kennon was an appointee of Tods.-
Tayler owned stock In the railroad in his
own right, in the right Of his wife, and as
trustee for other parties, to large amount.
1t is needless to show that the destruction
OF the canal increased the price of the rail-
road stock. The whole $4,000 was
thus sold to Tod and by his connivance
against the State whose interests he was
sworn to protect. At the time of the sale
of this stock, there was in the Treasury of
the Canal company the sum of $l12139 %,
one-third Of which belonged to the State as
representing $42OOOO, which was one-third
Of the stock Issued by the company. The
sale and transfer of the stock to Tod carried
with it the amount due the State, of this
fund in the treasury of the Canal company,
being the sum of $37,379 "a, which was
$3.50 "a more than the stock had cost the
Rail Road Company. The result of this
transaction is startling. Tod got the $420,-
600 of stock for nothing, and made $237974,
of clear gain in the transaction. These
facts will appear more fully and satisfac-
torily in the Report of the Senate commit
tee, and speech of General Bierce (then
a political friend of Tod, who was its
Chairman. Tod, the leading spirit in
this fraud, was enabled to perpetrate it'll
with impunity. Where was the Sem
ate of last winter who had this subject
before them9 Perhaps engaged in discuss
ing the important question of informing
the Attorney General Of his election The
people were thus defrauded out of S422,-
379 "a by Governor who was under the
most binding obligation to prevent this |
fraud, that Is known among men. Z, @.
Why pursue this subject further? Almost
seventy thousand dollars of contingent
fund" military contingent fund.-" ''eXtra-
ordinary military contingent fund.-" has
been expended by the late Governor dur
ing the last year, in every conceivable way.
From Hays distillery at Coshocton to the
solemn ceremonies" at Gettysburg, where
Tod played the character of Bacchus, and
with few inebriated followers, caucussed
and trampled about among the bones of
honest and heroic martyrs, to Washing
ton and elsewhere, by the administration of
Wright, Quartermaster, the mobile grief"
OF the late Governor was assuaged by the
use of the public money.
An immense amount Of money was ex-
pended in calling the militia to Camp Chase
during the Morgan raid and away from
where Morgan was. An additional large
amount was expended in the foolish fright
of the late Governor in the squirrel Hun
ter" campaign, and in the distribution of
his Napc'eonic image or yisage to the he
roes Of that expedition. No means are at
hand to estimate the amount of these ex-
penses; but 1t is safe to say, that over half a
million Of money has been expended by the
late Governor, including the Penn. and Ohio
canal swindle, which was unnecessary in
transacting the business of the State, even
during WARRIOR / have not mentioned any
fraudulent contracts or swindles in the |
prosecution of the war on the part Of the |
State. Such labor is beyond my strength. |
Tod has never occupied that position of
virtue or honesty from which to attack any |
public officer. His witnesses, Wright, Dor
sey, and Cole, by a movement now going on |
In the Senate, will likely find enough to |
employ their attention on their own conduct |
as members of the Board of Claims. Both |
Wright and Cole were Tod's appolntees, |
subservient to his pleasure, and eager ito |
bend the pregnant hinges Of the knee that
thrift might follow fawning."
Dorsey, in addition to his own neglect Of
duty as a Member Of the Board of Claims,
was naturally unqualified from being honest
where a political prejudice existed. With
the vanity of a peacock touchy in his, in
tercourse, his sensitiveness continually |
wounded by the presence Of an inordinate
self-esteem and the absence of public re-
spect, having long since elevated himselfl
into a conceited communion with our fore
fathers, such little matters as the truth or
falsity of his. statement never likely was
thought worthy of his consideration.
Before concluding, cannot but mention
my satisfaction to Tod for furnishing
proof in his message, that the Attorney /
General was in no way connected with his
misdeeds or contaminated by his associa-
ton. Respectfully,