The state rights democrat. [volume] (Albany, Linn County, Oregon) 1865-1900, 1874-02-06

December, lS72-Palhting and vanishing
"a Rdr c Yin1Ss cnpfns ] oO
scanning and fastening laces, cur
| talns and rugs, rebuilding cushions,
| new slip covers setc...........a.,"..".,..,. $50
To care OF horses one year............."..".. 600
Driver, as u messenger" SO
Total, as far as ascertained. .....aSilG7
It is stated that besides the cost of
the cairiage, driver, footman and
servant Of the family are borne upon
the rolls of the Department at an av-
erage of some $50 per MONTH Our
Washington correspondent, in a let
ter which will appear tomorrow,
stated that the amount ofmoney drawn
from the contingent funds Of the De-
partnent of Justice for the private
use OF the Attorney General and his
family, aggregated six thousand dol
lars in one year.
just in the ratio that the sum of
this burden upon the contingent funds
of the Department is increased by
new discoveries, must our admiration
increase for Judge Williams effort to
curtail Courts and juries. The con-
viction OF bribers and repeaters may
seem to Judge Williams a base SER
vice in which to employ the funds of
the Department of Justice, when he
considers the amount of new Innings,
curtains, laces, new slip coverings,
and other things for his landaulet,
that his sum will pay for.
1t appears that the Williamses'
monogram was on this magnificent
vehickle-a fact that destroys even
the last fimsy pretext Of an excuse
which, compelled toadmit the wrong
full appropriation of Department
funds, could still say that the Attor-
ney General had only the use of the
carriage, the property belonging to
the Government,
The more that is seen of this scam
dalous business the worse it gets, A
Washington correspondent Of an Eas
tern paper declares it an '"actual
theft. +" What else could the pur-
chase of a family carriage out of the
contingent funds be cNlled2 What
else is the purchase Of fnery for this
same carriage with the money Of, the
same fund? Why may not the funds
of the Department be as properly used
to buy furniture for Mrs. Williams
house in Washington, and what
assurance has the country that those
who are known to have used money
for the one have not done 50 for the
other. And is this not even worse
than the conduct of the late Secreta-
ry of this State in taking public mon
ey with which to buy an organ for
the Methodist Church at Salem. No
body hesitated to call that larceny,
and yet that act took the form of a
religious charity-was less selfish, and
therefore less offensive in q moral
point of view than the act of Williams
in the landaulet business. Is not
the Attorney Generals conduct much
worse than that of the reformer who
edits the oregon Statesman in going
through the school funds of this State
"a performance which nobody, hav-
ing read the "reformers" reply when
asked to pay, desitates to pronounce
a swindle? yet even the nakedness of
this transaction was decently covered
in the garments Of a loan. The con-
duct of the late Radical Governor Of
Oregon-our own Geo. l.. Woods
in regularly hiring carriages for his
family-on one occasion, during a
State Fair, for a week-and charging
the State therefor, has received gen
eral denunciation in this State--not-
withstanding the fact that the last
Legislature perpetuated the outrage
of paying these bills, disallowed by
the Democratic Legislature which
preceded it. Woods never presumed
to buy carriage outright-althoug
we are not sure but that it would
have been cheaper for the State had
he done SO. The modest raids of our
ex-State officials upon the public
purse are trivial when compared with
the bold larceny Of the Attorney
General upon the funds of his De-
partment. And yet this manis at the
head of the Department Of Justice to-
day. Had he belonged to Boss
Tweed's Ring, instead of that of Boss
Sheppard, what power could have
saved him from the fate of Ingersoll,
of Farnsworth, and Of the Boss him
self?-NegS.