The Tipton advertiser. [volume] (Tipton, Cedar Co., Iowa) 1856-1962, 1873-05-08
and was not Systematically noted or

4
reported.
In State cases the examiners found
repeated instances where fines ranging
from $50 downward, with all the item,
of county costs, as above enumerated
amounting perhaps to as much as the
fine,l have been entered Upon The
Clerks Ledger, described above, as d
paid IL, full, when q small portion,
and in some cases not a cent, had been
realized by the county in any way
either by payment to Treasurer, as
fines should be, or by report to Audit
or to go on Clerks salary, as should be
the disposition Of the fees. In civil
cases, time after time, up into the
hundreds of times. they found the
county costs marked in the Clerks
Ledger as If paid in full, while only q
part, or often none, had been reported;
and incidentally, they noticed wit
nesses and other fees marked paid in
the same way and the case closed up
/ anu SAoss0A WI ih Vic SAcAh LCukCI
when the fee book did not bear the re-
ceipts of one-half of the persons to
whom the money was due.
Thinking we have now made the
precise state of the case apparent, we
do not care to follow particular instan-
ces. The examiners noticed aud no,
ted moneys belonging to the county
received and totally unaccounted for
as follows:
County costs in State cases, in
GLIDING some fines ..............S 35l.75
County costs in civil CASES.. l006. 90
Marriage license fees............... 5000
Total OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES.
They also casually noticed few
judgments due parties to the amount
Of S605, which were unaccounted for.
This, of course, was foreign to the OBJ.
ject of their search and is no part of
their report nor indeed is given for any
thing like statem't of the funds of this
character which may have been mis-
AS al tuCSc lhoblClS, W.
gether with the hundreds of probate
cases where the widow and the or
phan are interested, and, in fact, all
the items save the two or three
in each case In which the county is
the creditor, remain to be investigated
hereafter.
uhn n p1n inf ~nIs rotv <Nf
those reported as stolen by the bur
glary in 1870. The Clerk at that time
made out list of monies on hand,
amounting to about thirty two hun
bred dollars. OF this all but $1,000
was reported stolen; and this $1,000
was, by the advice of his attorneys,
not paid out, as it could not be deter
mined to whom of all those having
money in his possession the particular
dollars saved from the burglar be-
ionged, and the question of liability
was to be deci led by legal test. This
was right enough, undoubtedly; BIZ t
that 81, 900, thus kept in his possess
sion, remains there yet, it being no
part of the "money on hand' reported
to Van Ness last January.
The total amount Of money, there
fore, in which Mr.. Elliott is a delin-
quent, can not at this time be even
Appropriated. 1t is put all the way
from four to eight thousand dollars.
Whatever it may be, there will be no
necessary loss as his bondsmen are
abundantly responsible. In this con-
nection we are glad to be able to state
that Mr.. +. has shown every desire to
secure all persons from loss on his &C :
count; aud has voluntarily executed a
deed OF all his property, consisting
chiefly of some 200 acres of land in
western counties, to be held in trust
by Hon. VIM. II. Tuthill for the full
protection of his bondsmen.
Thus in one sense, he has repaire d
the wrong. No one, (unless the sum
total shall reach far beyond any expec-
! tation) will sustain pecuniary loss.
But how about the evident breach of
official trust? How about the moral
effect OF such development in such
an unlocked for place? How about
the weapon furnished to those cynics
who say every man has his price, and
whose miserable distrust of humanity
in general eats through Gus social
structure like the worm in the heart
of oak? 1t is these considerations that
weigh most heavily now. We see all
about us evidences of low and a
yet ebbing moral tone. The papers are
full of defalcations, embellishments and
corruptions of all kinds. Where will
it stop? What is the remedy? These
things are worth our sober thought,
and to every one, we opine. one answer
at least will suggest itself: Enforce
the laws! Make guilt, guat-unwhite-
washed and undefended from political,
personal or any other considerations of
policy or mere sentiment.
While we really believe ex-State
Treasurer Rankin to have been mere
cat's-paw and an honest man in inten-
ton yet so long as upon him rests the
unrefuted charge of having betrayed
his official trust--so long as he stands
in the position OF criminal with
whose oft repeated and seldom pun
ished crime familiarity seems like to
break down the safeguards to virtue
and honesty-so long we shall deem
the failure to even bring him to trial
blot upon the fair fame Of our State
at large and the Republican party in
particular. The moral perceptions of
our public officers are none too strong
that they should be weakened by sys-
tematic failure to put the brand of
criminality upon known breaches OF
official trust-or rather, to apply the
proper legal tests to see if it belongs
there.
And now, if our late Clerk, Mr.. FL
lott, docs stand where the facts given
seem to place him, we desire to put
ourselves squarely upon the record as
demanding in behalf of his outraged
constituency the full vindication of
the law. And this we do In sorrow
and not in anger. Although in Mr..
Z. we recognize one of the leaders in
the Post ring of politicians, whose