New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1871-10-06
WHAT ABOUT THESE WITNESSES ?

severe peQance 10 atone luz. 90 sASs'A
. and friends may whitewash a given az
f with all manner of Interpretations an
special pleadings, but the solemnity OF
judicial oath arrests all this hollow coal
ing, and bares to the public inspectio
the painted sepulchre and its dead men
, bones. Mr.. Bovee was glib Of explains
a tions and excuses for his extraordinar
assumption of power, in publishing tn
Crescent City Waterworks bill as law G
the State; and to have read his indignan
pleadings in that case the stranger in on
midst might have been led to believe tina
the Secretary of State had merely per
formed clerical duty in uttering tru
copy of valid statute on the too urgen
application of his friends, the original 0
which was despotically locked up in tn
Governors safe. The innocent stranger
taking his thread from the assumed virtue
of Mr.. Bovee and his friends, might have
concluded from what they said, that the
law thus presumptuously stamped with
the appearance of legitimacy, was one
that passed the Legislature, and that the
only question involved in its vitality was
the matter Of few hours time, about
which the Governor of the State set up a
difference of opinion with the custodian
of the State department. How this inno-
cent stranger would have been mistaken
in these particulars the testimony of Mr..
Bovee will explain. when We proceed to
to state it as he rendered it under the
solemnity of the question" as applied in
the shape of judicial oath:
Mr.. Bovee swears that the law which
he published as official and binding upon
the community was merely a piece of
writing which Messrs. Dunn and Carter
had prepared; that the law which he pre-
tended to publish was locked up in the
Governor's safe, to be vetoed at the next
session of the Legislature, that the ''pre-
pared" law was a mutilated document,
having one of the signatures erased; that
he knew of this mutilation before he pub
lished it, and that in what he did he acted
at the instigation of the benefciaries of
the bill His plea that he was prompted
by the Attorney General is so lily made
that it is hardly worthy of reference.
1t transpired in the further course of
the trial that the document or prepared"
writing which Mr.. Bovee certified to as q
law by virtue of its passage through the
Legislature was not the bill that passed
the Legislature at all, but was distinct
and different from the original document
in at least thirty particulars; in fact, that
MIR. Bovee had certified that to be law
which was merely preparation made up
by Messrs. Dunn and Garter. This is
quackery for you.
The mere relation of these facts is suf- |
fcient to justify the action of the Cover
nor in suspending Mr.. Bovee, because
they present an unglossed confession of |
a most abominable fraud, and the public
conscience will accept the executive sug-
gestion that there must exist power
in the State to arrest this
species of wrong. We appeal, therefore,
to those who have harshly con-
cluded from ex-parte and partisan
Misrepresentation, that the Gov
ernor acted in hasty and despotic
manner to reform their conclusions from
he facts as they are given under oath by
he delinquent himself.
In the next place, we call attention to
he singular and almost criminal attitude
n which these disclosures place Messrs.
Dunn and Carter. They have lent their
'ficial services and signatures to q cor
,oration at war with the best interests of
ociety, and they have assisted in the at
empt to palm upon the State as law
document which they themselves "pre-
jared" at the suggestion of the Secretary
# State. Mr.. Dunn has been peculiarly
Unfortunate in his connection with the
fair, not only having assisted to ''pre-
are the fraud, but then having mutt
ated the same after he had deliberately
igned and delivered it. Mr.. Carter was
old enough not only to ''prepare" and
ign the paper, but to stick to it.
This case furnishes a text about which
1e public may indulge in some serious
elections. In the first the Governor
held responsible for large number of
cry bad measures which he had no hand
originating or perfecting, and which
? pertinaciously opposed while they
ere in process of legislative adoption.
be very faction which is now so bitterly
gagged in prosecuting him in his own
arty are principally responsible for these ,,
lious and reprehensible measures, and
cir malice is mainly to be attributed to >
e fact that their private speculations
iscarried through the active opposition
the very officer against whom they are
w so violent. r
The three responsible officers who were
gagged in preparing this pretended law :
e recognized as the most uncompromis- =
g enemies of Governor Warmoth. Their =,
lends and the friends and incorporators :,
the Crescent City Waterworks bill are =,
assailing the Governor as the 4,
thor and partner in corruption, while -
ey are testifying in court to their own =,
ckedness in fraud and imposition. ~
18th the record which they have mada in -