The Andrew County Republican. [volume] (Savannah, Mo.) 1871-1876, 1872-10-18

expenses should be paid by the State.
But so guarded was the Legislature as
we'll as the administration, that an ap-
preparation for contingent expenses of
the Governors Office" was used only to
pay, upon propef specific vouchers. for
postage, stationery, fuel, etc., actually
needed in the Governors ofsee, Gov
ernor McClurg spent S2028 in iris man.
ner during the two years of k1is admins
t%ration. When the Democratic party
took hold of the key, it appropriated
$4,000 for its Governor, $1,000 more for
supply for government mansion" with
out any restriction as to what that sup
ply" should consist of, $500 more for
fitting up. repairing and furnishing the
Governors mansion.-another $1,000 for
contingent expenses of the Governor
to be drawn by the Governor in one
lump, and without requiring of him any
vouchers whatever as TO the uses he made
of that appropriation, 600, to ''ffur-
| nish the g~ubernatorial mansion with car
pets. furniture and such other articles as
may be requisite" to be spent by the Gov
ernor with the nominal consent of two
State %ofIicers) at his discretion,-in all
$4,000 besides his 10000 of salary;
fully as much as the State tax from such
a rich and large county as Buchanan,
with the prosperous city Of st. Joseph.
amounts to, is required for the susten-
ance of a Democratic governor standing
upon a reform Platform. Reform in
deed!
Much credit will no doubt be claimed
by the Democratic campaign speakers
for their party having increased the State
School Fund by 5000, 900, and the Sem
mary Fund by S20l 900. Bnt how was
it done2
The preambles to the acts making
these appropriations are stating matters
for facts which are not true, and which
are known not to be true. The real
facts are these: The State School Fund
was invested in bank stock until 1866,
amounting, when sold under the provis-
ions Of the Constitution, to S761. 967.
Payment was made for this bank stock
in bonds of the State. In the same year
the State obtained a large sum from the
Federal Government as a war indemnity:
ST 100000 of it were set aside for the
Public School Fund, and the bonds of
the Stats then belonging to it were can
celed by a committee of the Legislature
asd retired. Thus the Republican, Leg
i%slafure of 1867 took the STGl,gG6 in
State bonds, which represented the cap
ital of the State School Fund, and gave
.or them in exchange, double as radeh in
gold-bearing bonds of the United States,
The very sar:e course was adopted as
to the Seminary Fuad, from which the
so-called State University at Columbia
derives its income and now, in 1872,
comes the Democratic Legislature, and,
in a long preamble to an act, declares
that the bank stock in which the school
fund had deem invested, was sold, but
that the School Fund had not as yet re-
ceived q single dollar from tie proceeds
Of that sale-it charges, by logical infer
encc. the Republican Legislatures Of
1867 and 1869 with a dishonest ftlId
and robbery Of the School Fund, which
the good and great Democratic E,rty is
called upon to repair; and then orders
that a certificate of indebtedness i'll Tie
sum OF 5000. 900 be made to the School
Fund, and bonds in the amount of $2al,-
900 are TO be m.dc and sold and the
procecds expended for the so-cal!cd
State University, and a little oft for the
cCuuoI " MIME at ltViia. IL NSi d.His
bears 4 strange look, this transaction,
when from an official rel ort We learn
that the originator Ct these bills has sold
2 large tract ofland for large sum to
the State University. But whatever the
private impulses of the mover of these
bills may have been. their cheappolicy Of
running the State into debt for an object
! which had already been accomplished in
a most liberal manner by the Republican
legislatures, and then intimating that
| the Republicans had dishonesty cheated
the School Fund, is characterized by the
same duplicity and insincerc ~pretensions
which all the actions of the decaying
Democratic party, since 1869, have borne.
| CPossum policy. 1t has cursed our
State with the least capable Legislature
which ever sat for seven months and ac-
complishcd next TO nothing, certainly
very, very little of good ; it has created
more offices and increased the public ex-
penditurcs; it has spent the public
money until the State Treasury is act
ually empty; it has connived at and per-
mitted unauthorized expenditures OF
public money by its Executive, it has
blemished the fair name of Missouri by
an attempt at rcpudiating what the State
had solemnly pledged to its creditors: it
has increased our State debt under ths
false pretense of protecting sacred fss,dfs,
and endeavor to double it for speculative
ends entirely foreign to tie purposes for
| which a State is formed.
And all this hes been possible only
because the Republicans d~isregarded the
| wisdom of the motto on our State arms
United we stand. divided we fall.