Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1867-06-13
The Stealing; of the Soldiers Re.
lief and Ihe SchOoI Funds.

4
The action of the last Republican Legis.
lature, in authorizing the Republican
Board of Fund Commissioners to take
from the Treasury, not only in violation o.
constitutional law but in open defiance o.
its prohibition in that instrument, eight
hundred thousand dollars of Charity
Fund, belonging to the widows and chill
dren of soldiers, is suffered to pass with
out comment by the Morning Journal. II
cannot deny the facts, and it dare not JUS
tify the swindle. .
Equally outrageous is the stealing ol
$76,5s6 from the School Fund of the
State, to liquidate State Indebtedness, in
order that the two Fund Commissioners
secure an endorsement by the 10Th of June
| Convention. . ------ ..,-.--
The party calling itself, par excellence.
loyal, while urging others on to volunteer
and peril life in the war then being waged,
in order to screen themselves from the
draft, promised largely that the widows
and the orphan children of the dead SOL
diers, and the MANNED of the living ones,
should be cared for and placed above want
cts they placed the burden on the taxpayers
of the State, and it was nobly responded to,
and many hearth stone rung with praises
from those whom this noble charity saved
from want. But the end of the war put an
end to all fears of the draft, and as soldiers
were no longer needed, except to vote tor
Negro Suffrage and to aid in putting Negro
Suffrage advocates into fat offices, the Van
dal hand of the Fund Commissioners,
charged with paying the State debt, was
placed upon this charity, and eight hun
dred thousand dollars of it, with the con-
currence of the Republican majority in the
Legislature, was seized and used to cover
up the delinquency of men who either from
ignorance or design, had failed to provide
funds for the payment of a debt longsince
due. HsfHEI r.tEt r.. 1....a .--i
In like manner the same men profess to
be the only party pledged to support the
educational interests of the State. In like
manner a portion of these funds was
seized and over seventy-six thousand dol.
lars of it was used in payment of debt
due last year, but with no funds provided
to meet it. SF &
Not one word has the Journal to say in
defense or even palliation of these great
crimes of stealing from widows and or
phans of the soldiers, or of seizing, in utter
d efiance of the Constitution, so large por-
tion of the school fund for purposes so diff
ferent from that for which it was raised.
The Commissioners of the Sinking fund
claim to have paid $220,136 of the public
debt due last year. Besides, taking the
present year, S1l3,414 from the General
Revenue fund, $4,000 from the Canal
fund and SIC, $50 from the School fund of
the State, they took, under law of last
session, all of the Soldiers Relief fund re-
naming after the wholesale plunder of the
$S00,0O0 of the previous year, amounting to
at least $29009O in addition, in the whole
to $4OO, 600, and to pay debt Of $22O-
136, leaving unaccounted for, the sum of
one hundred and seventy-nine thousand
eight hundred and sixty-four dollars
Where this large amount has gone to, in
whose pocket it now is, or in what pri-
vate speculation it is now invested, the
Journal and the Fund Commissioners give
no Information.
The next Legislature will be Democratic
and if there is not an investigation into
these things, then we will charge upon it a
dereliction of duty.