The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1873-09-26
qY1r DEF1LCA1IoN.

3
atives at Harrisburg on the Sth of that I
month in which he charged plainly and
distinctly-and quoted from the official
records of the State to prove it-that by
some means the very large sum of two mil
lions. six hundred and seventy-four thou
sand. one hundred and five dollars had
disappeared from the State Treasury.
Notwithstanding this plain and direct
charge of fraud, uttered upon the floor of /
/ the Legislature by one of the members OF
/ that body, no man arose to reply. Not
( withs.anding our publication of the speech
in full in these columns within week
/ after If was delivered, no one of the squad
! of Radical papers in this city dared TO meet
! the very grave question involved, until the
/ 11th day of this present month, more than
! five months after the speech had been
made. when the C0D1nlercidE-owned by
4 Robert W. Mackey, the State Treasurer,
! and by Russell Errett, the late Clerk of the
! State Senate and the chronic Chairman of
/ the Radical State Committee-at last un-
dertook to reply. We cared little to an
! swer the Commercial article, contcntng
| ourselves with n mere notice of its publlca-
! ton and expressing very natural sur
nrise that such labor of love had been so
| long delayed. We observe, however, that
the Harrisburg Patriot has taken the pains
/ to eviscerate Mr.. MaCkey's defense, and
has concluded to give synopsis of that
skillful operation.
Those of our readers who took the pains
to 90 through Mr.. Orvis' speech will doubt
! less remember that his figures are-all of
/ them-tallen from official documents made
up 10y The Republican officials at Harris
burg: from the Messages of Governor Cur
! tin and Governor Geary; from the reports
! of the several State Treasurers, from Au-
ditor General Hartranft's Reports, and
from the proceedings of the Commission
ers of the Sinking Fund-irrefragab evil
: riSn N ind
/ the very men who made it,
! Promising that Mackey's defense, in
/ stead of taking up OrVis' figures, derived
| as they are from official ddtG sent to the
/ Legislature by himself and his Republican
! associates in office, re states the account IN
! a manner which creates the necessary I'M
| preston that he has drawn largely upon
| his Imagination for his facts, we proceed
to state the principal points in the article
/ in the Patriot.
| Commencing by a statement of some inn
! pOrtance, that in a review of the evil deeds
of the last Legislature the Commercial
placed the name of Mr.. Orvis at the head
( of the list of the few members of the House
| who had labored with industry and per-
severance against vicious legislatiOn-a
point well taken, and which proves that its
| recent attack upon that gentleman is the
mere spleen of the unscrupulOus politician
it refers to the fact that all of Alr. OrviS
| figures and statements are ignored but the
| last one; which singularly enough happens
to be the one which he gave to show what
! er01Lld hare been the result of an honest adj
ministration of the Treasury, but which
/ was not actually correct because of the de-
| falcation in question. The figures and
tabular statements by which the existence
! of the robbery was clearly established
being carefully ignored by the State Treas
! urer and Clerk of the Senate, and by any
clerical assistants they may control IN get
ting up satisfactory statements. The fig
! ures carefully copied from Gov. Gearys
message they boldly pronounce a falsitica-
| ton, the amount of overdue loans is stated
| as a supposition, and the bonds sold are
! spoken of as ''eStimated'' in regard to
their amount. Here is an admission from
headquarters that the Governor, the Treas
1 uTer and the Auditor General did not know
how many State bonds were outstanding!
/ Is the amount of any obligation merely to
be supposed, or to be estimated, or even to
be guessed at by the public officers of the
State?
If the fiscal affairs of the State are to be
| run by gueSserS it might be well for them
| 30 set their machinery in order, to guess
! where the present nominal balance iS-in
! the Treasury or i'll the banking house of
some other Yerl1es. Did Hartranft only
guess when he reported in December,
| 1866, that the overdue bonds amounted to
| S23, los, ,626.24? Was it guess work upon
which was based the Act which ordered
the issue of per cent. bonds to redeem
| those overdue SIS? Is it really so that the
affairs of the people are so bungingly con-
Quoted that in the grave matter of the is-
cal interests of the people guessing has
taken the place of arithmetic? In reply to
the remark that Mr.. Orvis cOolly proceeds
to assume that this sum of twenty-three
, millions, with the accrued interest and
premium on the same, had been paid out
dom n fhn Sfsrg,f flIr1Fr de
I the entirely satisfactory reply is given,
that such was the direction of the law pro-
/ viding for borrowing the millions i'll ques-
/ tion-that the constitution which these
/ Republican officials had sworr1 to obey
absolutely prohibits the creation of any
debt but to repel invasion, suppress insur-
rection, or to redeem the present indebted
ness of the State. The argument of the
! Commercial is evidently based on the idea
that its friends utterly refuse to obey
either Act of Assembly or Constitution
either.
In 1867 this loan produced to the Treas
. ury S23, 3j3, 253.12. During the same year
$50, 81 ,642.39 were paid on account of the
/ public debt; 81, 194, 644.50 of this sum was
drawn from the Sinking Fund and but
/ SO, l22, 99t.S9 from the proceeds of this
loan. This leaves of the proceeds of this
loan 81, 230, ,260.23. Yet Governor Geary,
4 in his Message of 1868, only reported
] $2,937, ,97S.55 as being on hand from that
source. Win Mr.. Mackey tell us what be-
came of the 81, ,292, ,2S1 .68, which the Gov
ernor was evidently ignorant of-the
/ Treasurer guessing it was not in the
! Treasury. ..... .. ..-...
The Commercial itself admits that only
/ $21, 125, 643.S9 was paid out of this fund on
account of the pubic debt, in 1867 and
1868. 1t further admits that all payments
on that account since 1868 have been paid
out of the Sinking Fund. AS the differ
| ence between the money received on the
| bonds and the amount of that fund paid
/ out on account of the debt, never was paid
into the Sinking Fund, pray what has be-
! come of it; it amounts to 50, 227. .614 23-
/ where is it? 1t surely is not in the Treas
ury, for. your partner (Mackey) reports his
] balance hand to he 81 lS0 dhl 81 Nhn