The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1867-10-03
COMMUNICATION FROM MAJOR
HYNES.
A Full Statement OF the, Work Done
in His ONCE for Which Allowances
. Have Been Made.

Editors Journal: 4as. ~ r,,s-is., 55ffs systr !,
l desire to sayjust a few words with
reference to some matters connected
with my Office, which have been some
what talked about lately. : ii IL .s4uI
The Courier published statement,
showing that had received, in allow
ances from the Board of Commission
ers, for extra work, 81 ,314 70, and for
| copying records. sl,791 10; and al.
though the paper did not charge me,
in terms, with fraud. yet the tremen
rdous head lines included me. ~
would be- glad that every one
might see my bills presented to the
Commissioners upon which these al
lowances were made, that they might
satisfy themselves as to the fraud
contained In. them, ,-,.f .,y.,f s.s,.f ....1
| a., The first class, of allowances is for
extra services, '.n and includes all
work done in the office for which no
specific fee is provided by Law. bas ,.'s'
For some time previous ito 1865,
| the law limited the allowances to be
made to the County Officers for extra
work, to one hundred dollars a year :
The Legislature in that year, by way
t'of raising the compensation of clerks
and Sheriffs, passed an act directing
the Boards of Commissioners to al
low those officers, fer extra work, the
same fees as are provided by law for
similar services Eyery one, at all
acquainted with the Clerks Office,
knows that there is large amount of
fswOrk necessary to be done, for which
no fee is provided. and if provided,
instances issuing saBpsnas and at
tachments for.aithe .qtGrand y Ju-
ries; recording the - indictments
returned into Court issuing sub
penas for District Attorney; all
the costs in and about elections, 4
work done in criminal cases Ia which
no arrest is made, Issuing venires and
recording, drawing juries,, and a. thou-
sand other items to specify, which is
needless. To zshow the number of
these small Items, let me state that to
render bill for $471 requires eight
pages of legal cap paper. At one
time, shortly after went into Office,
there was some doubt expressed as to
the legality of some of my charges.gI l
sent to Indianapolis and procured
copy of the record in case which had
been taken to the Supreme Court by
a County Clerk and submitted that
and my bill to Colonel DENLY, who
was then County Attorney. The
Colonel advised the Board, and upon /
that advise, based upon the said rec
ord, mybills have always been rem
dered. fs{ogq nasT1
The second class of allowances is
for copying records. The story of this
matter is shortly told. A little while
after Iwent sihto Office, lit suggested
itself to me that I might make work
for myself and benefit the citizens Of
the county BY sundry improvements
to the records of the office. [ pre- 4
pared a statement in the form of a
petition of the work proposed, stating
specifically every item thereof and
had it presented to every lawyer in
town. They all signed it. If any
one was deceived into signing it, | do
not know how it was done. The
statement was placed before them,
plainly showing every particular of the
work asked for, and if anybody signed
it without knowing what was in it, it
was his own fault. When I presented
the petitioa to the Board of Commits
sioners, / invited them into my Office
to examine personally into the neces-
sity of what was proposed. They all,
Mr.. Nurre, Mr.. Knowles and Mr..
Parrett, came down, and / showed
them every book, and explained the
improvements l desired their sanction
to make. They satisfied themselves,
and ordered the work done. They
refused to rescind the order, upon an |
application made to them. because, I |
suppose, they thought they knew
more about it than did the applicant.
It was ordered First, That Order |
Books A and |, of the Circuit Court
he copied, and the originals put away
for safe keeping, and the eopiesEputs |
upon the shelves for use. Order Book |
A is the oldest record of the county, I
has been rebound once. and in many
places is now almost illegible., Book
L, of course is not so old, but was
made of the aimsiest paper, and is.
almost fallen to pieces and cannot, IN !
the opinion of those competent to
judge, be rebound to any advantage.
These books must remain the original
records yof9 the county if it, lasts a.
thousand years. They can never be
replaced. Is it OF. not proper to pre-
serve them now, while gthey0are still
i'm some sort Of preservation? 80
Second. The, old Judgment Dock
cts, up. to No. l of the Circuit
Court, are so imperfectly made and so
badly indexed that they are utterly
useless for purposes of reference
They give the names of the parties
and amount of the Judgment bat