The spirit of democracy. [volume] (Woodsfield, Ohio) 1844-1994, 1874-09-08
County Correspondence.
Written for The Spirit of Democracy
From Franklin Township.
EQUIVALENTS.

EQUIVALENTS.
STAFFORD, Aug "a, IA.
Ed. SPIRIT: When | sent you my
short communication of the 5,h ult for
asking few plain, common
sense, but pertinent questions upon a
subject which is generally deemed COM
mon property, and one also in which
you and | and every other tax payer in
the county have common interest, |
had not the lcmotcst itlca that | would
in consequence thereof he included in
the editorial STAFF of THE SPIRIT by the
imported Republican "slatf' of the Mil
waukee journal down town, called the
Monroe County Democrat, and be ad
viscd 10y that high authority to have the
Tin their vocabulary classic term "jack'
prefixed to my "n0n de plume, sup
pose this quotation exhausts the know
edge of the French language and its or
biography possessed by the learned
''statf aforesaid before l again attempt
to write anything upon subject | know
nothing about.
But such is life. 1t really seems as
though very slight causes sometimes
change the whole current of our
thoughts, our actions and our feelings.
1t has been said by the author of the
"Gipsy" that sit is a wonder that man
ever smiles,so liable are all his brightest
hopes to be blasted, his best laid plans
10 Ofs,si-----.--'>,,- = sfTcr~vf
Equivalents" have forcseen the terrible
castigation visited upon him, he would
doubtless have smothered his thoughts
in hi, own breast and suffered his right
arm to he chopped off rather thar it
should aid in singing ink in the form of
questions inspired by the report of April
IA, 1874. Oh! the displeasure, the sat
irical vengeance of the aforesaid "staff'
is horrible! But, Mr.. Editor, with fear
and trembling let me say that after read
ing the editorial of the aforesaid "staff,"
| am not entirely satisfied with the ex
plantations thereof. l feel that the pre-
else, accurate, full and conclusive state
ment made therein, needs also to be ex
planned.
The first statement made is, that the
"report" of April IA was copied from
one made by Mr.. Williams, the editor Of
the SPIRIT, when he examined the treas
ury II this is so,then the question nat
urally arises, is the treasury always in
the same condition, and can report Of
a former examination be stereotyped and
made to reflect to the people of the
county the actual condition Of the treas
ury en- the 14lh of April, 1874, or at any
subsequent examination But we have
some eight now. This statement fur
ther says that "scme OF those equiva-
lents" were in the shape of checks on
the Monroe Bank of which Mr.. Will
liams is cashier, and he ought to know
whether they were cash or equivalents"
or not. If this is so, how does this will
ling witness know it? Said examination
is not to be made known to any other
person, and how di6 they get there le-
gally The Monroe Bank was organ
lied on the 1st of March, 1874. This
examination was made on the 14th of
April, 1874, not quite two months after
wards, and there does not seem to be
any provision in the law regulating the
payment of taxes, or in the amendment
under which the examination was made,
by which any taxes, and especially taxes
in the shape of checks on the Monroe
Bank, could be paid into the treasury,or
be there legally in the item of money ac-
tually in the treasury at such examina-
tion But we have found out what some
of the "equivalents" were. Of what is
the remainder composed? Does it not
seem as though my former question
about one dollar in money and 1l,165
46 in equivalents would eventually re.
ceive an affirmative answer? And were
they about the kind of Equivalents
which could be made available if the
Treasurer should happen (you know tc
receive about ten minutes notice from
any source of an intended examination
AsMoDEUs.