The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1866-06-19
s11nrenely best" but


and virtue, to saturnaia of crime,
debauchery and fraud. While he
drew the salary of Judge, and large
perquisites from the treasury, in ad-
dition thereto, all was well, and crime
was unknown, except among Demo-
cratic officials, who did have an I'M
fortunate propensity for using public
funds for their personal advantage,
and who grew rich by system OF
fnanciering at the expense of the
State and Federal treasures, which
would have been designated by the
vulgar name of stealing if the oper
ators had not been of the congrega
ton of political saints.
We will not be SO presumptous as
to intimate that honesty was not at a
premium In the halcyon days OF Dem
ocratic supremacy, but it is a painful
truth that there were large financial
transactions during that blissful pc
Rod. which to ordinary minds had the
ear marks of theft. Under the adj
ministration of the Interior Depart
ment BY Jake Thompson, a name ever
dear to faithful Democrats, $50, 900,
In fnrainra- trust funds, were Gnanciered
out of the Government vaults, and
into the pockets of honest ~ Demo
Gratis. Floyd, another star of the first
magnitude in the Democratic galaxy,
plundered the treasury to the tune of
some millions, for the benefit of his
favorites, all of whom were Demo-
Gratis without spot or blemish. In our
own State, Democratic officials used
public funds in private speculations,
and proved defaulters at the ex-
piration of their terms of Office.
Judges amassed much wealth on mea-
ger salaries: school funds were plum
dered and dissipated; a magnificent
swamp-land fund, which ought to
have been preserved for the education
of the children of the State, was d.
vided out among Democratic cormo-
rants; rival factions of the lovely
brotherhood charged each other with
giving and receiving brides for peni-
Tertiary locations and contracts, while
forged stocks of the State, to the
amount of $2,440,000, were manufac-
tured and put upon the market by the
confidential clerk of Democratic
agent of State.
These trifing offenses are however,
forgotten by the ex-Judge, in the
overshadowing corruption which he
imagines to exist at the present time
He will have it that all men are now
rascals, except himself that boys be
come thieves as soon as they are able
to walk alone, and that society at
large is desperately corrupt. This
lamentable state of affairs he ascribes
to the fact that the Republicans have
succeeded in the elections for the past
five years; that Southern traitors have
been subjugated, and few Northern
ones jagged to keep them out of mis-
chief. Lies
While we do not assent to his CON
illusions that; everybody but himself
have become rogues we are constrain-
ed to say that when Judge of the
Supreme Court sets the example of
abstracting money from the public
treasury, without authority Of law,
and escapes punishment therefor,
great inducement is offered to men in
humber positions to make money in
an easy way. 3li
By the report of the Auditor of
State, submitted to the Legislature of
1865, it appears that Samuel Il. Per-
kins, Judge of the Supreme Court,
obtained warrant on State Treasury,
February 20, 1863, for $50, as com
pensation for holding the Rush Cir
cult Court; on the 9th of August,
1863, another warrant for $50 for
holding the Marion Court Of Common
Pleas. The only ground on which
these warrants could have been issued
was, that the Judge was Democrat,
and needed the money. E3I3
! He did not hold a Circuit Court in
Rush County, so that that account
was purely bogus. For holding the
Court of Common Pleas in Marion
County, he had no more right to COM
pensation from the State Treasury
than his brother Democrats had to
steal the Swamp Land Fund. Both
drafts were in plain violation of the
law, and to argue that he was not |
aware of this fact when he drew the |
money, is to brand Chief Justice of
the United States with objectionable
ignorance of the Statutes of the State. |
If the money was drawn under
mistaken view of the law, there has
been ample time to rectify the blum
der by returning it to the Treasury
where it legally belongs. We have
several times called attention to the |
Rush County case, but the $50 still |
freezes to the pocket of the ex-Judge,
where it is very sure to remain.
This was plundering the public on !
a small scale, but it was plumber new
tertheless, and more than tae usual
supply of impudence must be pos
sessed by man who can write daily
homilies upon public and private de- |
generacy, while he holds even the |
small sum of sixty dollars illegally alb
stracted from the State Treasury.
ILLINOIS State Journal.