The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1872-04-20
Healing Off the Thieves.

Gov. Warmoth is again after the
robbers who are after the State treas
ury. He is trying to stop swindle
of six hundred thousand dollars, this
time, that the Legislature passed in
the interest of ring of democratic
lobby spectators. In 1867 the State
passed a law levying special tax up
on sales of produce. Most of this tax
was paid by the merchants against
whom it was assessed, and they
charged it to their consignors. S. S.
Kennedy g. Co. resisted and obtained
decision from the State Courts that
the tax was unconstitutional as it was
in violation of the principle that pro-
hibits one State from imposing any
burthens upon the productions of an
other that it does not at the same
time impose upon its own. AS the
real parties who had paid the tax
were strangers and resided at a dis
tance, they have made no attempt to
recover this money and the State has
had the benefit of it as a sort of gift.
The sharks who are always on the
lookout for speculation concluded
that they could make something out
of this matter, SO they sailed out and
obtained from the merchants who had
paid the tax and charged it to their
consignors a license to recover the
amount. 1t is probable the mer-
chants and the sharks intend to divide
this sum between them.
The plan they have adopted to col
lect it is this, that the sharks are to
sue the Auditor and mandamus him
to issue certificates of Indebtedness in
favor of the holders of these claims.
Mr.. Graham, however, proposed to
fight the matter, but the robbers met
that difficulty by securing the passage
of law prohibiting the Auditor from
employing any associate counsel to
assist the Attorney General to defend
the State Treasury. This left the
matter entirely in the hands of Mr..
Belden. When the case came up for
argument in the court the other day
| the attorney of the sharks moved to
dismiss the case as by consent, and
presented in support of the motion the
| written authority of the Attorney Cen
eral for so doing. If this attempt had
| succeeded the Auditor would have
been compelled to issue certificates of
/ indebtedness, the State would have
been cast in the full amount, and the
sharks would have wagged their jaws
over a prey of six hundred thousand
dollars. Fortunately the Court re-
fused to dismiss the cause, and, al
though the Auditor cannot take any
steps IN the matter, since the Legisla-
ture has tied his hands up, Governor
Warmoth now enters and declares his
intention to appear either in person or
by attorney to defend the treasury
against this bare faced attempt to Gre
ate debt against the community
without first obtaining the sanction OF
the Legislature.
The effect of the Governors action,
it is thought, will be to save this
amount of money from one of the
rings that besieged the Legislature
and howled about rascality in COM
pany with Carter and Casey's mob.
The Courts are assuming the functions
of the entire government when they
undertake to make the Auditor dis
burse evidences of Indebtedness before
the Legislature has acknowledged the
claim which they order to be satisfied
with certificates of Indebtedness.
| Will the Picayunc and National
Republican, whose intense honesty is
hurting them, tell the people that the
Governor has got in between the ras-
calls and the treasury again as he got
in between Casey and his fifteen hun
dred thousand dollar warehouse Not
a bit of it.-State Register.