New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1871-09-03
RISING TO EXPLAIN THINGS
THE TREASURER AND TAX COLLECTORS
JUDGE ABELL TO THE GRAND JURY

take up the echo, ana ring tne changes.
This charge grew out of some remarks
made last Wednesday.
Gentlemen of the Jury-A card appeared
in the public journals of the city, signed by
the Treasurer relative to charge delivered
to you on the fourteenth July. deemed 1T
unnecessary to notice it, although 1t was
false in every particular, but some of my
friends insist that it is due to the Grand
Jury, in order to remove any false impress
sions that it might have made on your
minds. He says, among other things equally
absurd, that he has paid me my salary
while on the bench. This is a gross fabri-
cation; he never paid me dollar OF my
salary on or off the bench. About the
first of October, 1868, called upon him with
my warrants for my quarter salary. lie
told me to call again, which did, and failed
to get my money. Thinking myself tritied
with, sold the warrant, and every subse-
quent one up to the first of January 1871.
they were all collected by the purchaser.
One check was sent to the bank, payable TO
my order, but it was after | had sold the
warrant l indorsed and passed it to Z. y.
Peyroux, agent of the owner of the warrant,
who will tell you as do, that l had no
more interest in the check than either of
you. | repeat, that / sold each and every
warrant up to the first of January, 1871, and
have the warrants for the two quarters of
the current year pledged, and that l have
never collected one dollar of the Treasurer
during his administration.
If he intends by such assembling and
fabrication to impose upon the people, and
to cover up the fact that he has been lite
rally stuting the treasury with warrants
received from tax-collectors and the ring,
| instead of the money collected OF the people
| and excluding the bona fide creditors OF
| the State, he must have poor estimate OF
the intelligence of the people. l have no
controversy with the Treasurer If he should
| build up thousand fabricatiOns, be they
upon his own head; but if they should be
| of a character to reflect upon the judicial
| actions of the court, the law has vested IN
| il ample powers TO vindicate itself.
4. Dubuclet may suppose the treasury OF
| the State belongs to him, and that he may
use it for the accommodation of his friends
| and tie brokers' but | will say to him that
| it is the peoples treasury; that ofnclal
| preference and partiahty is official oppres-
| sion and crime, and accountable as such;
! that his conduct toward Judge Duvigneaud
! and myself may be alone sufficient to cause
| him to be divested of his official robes. 1t
| there was money in the treasury for other
| Judges and brokers, why is the salary with
held of the only two judges who are com
| PEELED to sit the entire year.
| Gentlemen Of the Grand Inquest, you re-
Isti
| the law relative to criminal violations OF
the revenue laws. / gave you some OF the
reasons on Wednesday last, which l prom
ised to reduce to writing, with such other
observations as might aid you in making
suggestions in your report for the advance
ment of the public good. | said that had
been detained beyond my usual hours to
hawk and peddle in State warrants, due for
salary, in order to pay demands upon them,
| etc
That the treasury, once the pride OF the
State, and financial agent for her creditors,
had BEEN literally turned over to tax gath
erers, brokers, shavers and hangers on
around the concern.
That it could no longer be successfully
| approached except by that class.
| That, as a creditor, / had called ire
| quently, and at my request the high Sheri 4
of this court had called, warrants in hand,
! without receiving money or satisfaction,
and that at a time when there was no in
junction. Judge Duvigneand Jared nc
| better.
| Gentlemen, warrants on the treasury be-
ing worth only from fifty-two to fiity-seven
cents on the dollar, and paid almost exclu
sively to tax-gatherers, brokers, shavers
ETC., warrants the inference that the State
treasury has been used as a wreck and tor
ture to force bona tide creditors into the
hands of these pets of the treasury.
That warrants being worth only about
half their face shows the State to be bank
rupt, with the greatest danger of necessary
reputation.
1t is said that Legislative certificates Of
4 State indebtedness are as cheap as veteran
claims under Wickliffe. You can get one o.
them of forty thousand dollars for two
| thousand, and perhaps less, and unless Audi
tor Graham fights them like a Trojan, anC
the Judge stands as firm as a Roman, there
is no telling the end of them.
That immense claims have been trumpeC
up against the State no one can doubt.
| | have presided long in this court, anC
have some idea of the extent of the depre
dations and plunder of burglars, thieves
etc. and am satisfied that the officials o
the State have, in two years, plundered th
State of more than all the thieves, etc, fol
the last quarter of century. Fraud, pecu
lation, oppression, extOrtiOn and blackmall
ing is resOrted to in a most unscrupulou
manner.
The millions raised by the two per cen
tax and the vast amount of licenses will b.
| absorbed at least one half of it being con
sumed by corrupt officials and merciles
brokers, and those official economists VIII
manage, out OF salary of ten THOUSAND
dollars year, to save the snug little sun
, of quarter of million. The laws of tn
: State denouncing official crimes are impe1
feet and officials appear to defy them, AM
/ with the present jury system, made up O
. individuals one-halt OF whom can neithe
read nor write, their defiance is not unwa1
rantable, and especially as these jurors ar
made absolutely the Judges of the law an
of the fact.
England, from whence we have derive
our criminal jurisprudence, right honorable
gentlemen are for single peculation o
official crime stripped of their robes an
| hurried to "Newgate," or banished th
realm, within a few days from the con
| initial of the act Not so in Louisiana
! Officials plunder the State with impunit
| before the eye of the public, and if the
should be indicted BY Grand Jury, th
, | trial would be waste of the time of th
, | court, and amount to little more than
farce, as has been demonstrated in the cas-
of Auditor Wicklife. against whom th
established by clear and satisfactory ev
dence.
Gentlemen, would have complied wit
| your request by laying before you the la
relative to the criminal violations of tn
| revenue laws cf the State, and list
| the witnesses who have assured me the
| tbe uublic money has been loaned an
| otherwise used, in violation OF the - sc,
| tion of the revenue law of 1871, whic
nunisbes revenue officers with imprisor
ment from one to twenty-one years at har
labor. NV reasons for not having done
are that the revenue act requires that I'd
Executive and the Attorney General sha
prosecute in cases of the kind; and for ii
further reason, that am of the mind ths
any effort on your part to bring officials
trial and punishment would be unaVallint
and calculated to tantalize, rather tha
\ ~ r,evcO NJ npOnIn