Weekly Trinity journal. [volume] (Weaverville, Calif.) 1857-1972, 1865-12-30
The Revenue Question.

Our Sacramento correspondent writes that as
yet nothing has resulted from the investigation
of the Controllers affairs That will be the ten
or of the announcement when the Committee
has finished its labors. 1t will never be proved
that he has sold bogus Foreign Miners Licenses.
! We repeat here that we believe George Oulton
to be one of the most honest and upright men in
the State If he was motif he was engaged in
the unholy business alleged, would he keep re-
cord of such transactions on the same page con-
tanning his accounts with county Auditors? Or
is it natural TO suppose that he would keep any
record Whatever of such transactions? We i'm
aginc not, and therein is developed the folly of
appointing committee to investigate.
That this bogus license business has been car
ried in past years, very few citizens of this
county doubt. That the system the offspring
of Democratic State Administration is known.
1t has been asserted that Foreign Miners Licen-
SEES, regularly signed to all appearances, could be
obtained for fifty ccuts apiece. That thousands
of such have been obtained and disposed of, we
have no doubt. But must they necessarily come
from the Controller, even the Controllers Of
fee? Again think not If INSCRIPTIONS
men could print fac SMILES of Foreign Miners
Licenses or obtain them already printed, is it
counterfeit of the Controllers signature, SO that
the Licenses, at a hasty glance, would seem to
be " regularly signed" Again we think not.
What may have been done in this line since
the present Controller entered upon his duties
we know not. What is alleged to have been
done under previous administrations, is every
day talk with the people, and the story runs in
this wise A duly initiated Tax Collector had
only to proceed to Sacramento, armed with ca
pacious valise or trunk, and take quarters at a
respectable hotel. An % American citizen of AT
rican descent" was easily found whose palm re-
ceived the amount necessary for the procurement
of five hundred or thousand Licenses, at the
rate above stated. In due time unsusrected
package found its way to the room of the Tax
Collector, and was safely deposited in the re-
ceptace prepared for it. The negro used
as the agent in procuring these Licenses because
his testimony was not admitted in Court and
consequently, in of mistake, nobody
would suffer.
Finally session of the Legislature was con-
vened majority of whose members believed
that respectable colored man was entitled to
give testimony in certain cases, and law passed
to that affect. And there ended Sambo's occu-
patton as the procurer of illegitimate Foreign
Miners Licenses 1t not safe to use him as
the medium any longer; he dismissed, and
knowing child of the Flowery Kingdom sue
ceeded him. q John" is not allowed to testify
in the Courts, and he learns remarkably fast.
The testimony to back the above statement of
the modas operdndi of procuring Foreign Miners
Licenses in past years, be produced.
This much for the present. Successive num-
bers of this paper will contain articles in refer
ence to this subject, showing other alleged abu-
ses of the position of Tax Collector, and show
ing how the whole series of evils may be effec-
tually done away with