Litchfield enquirer., 1874-04-16

Public printing, 17,446.66 33l, ,945. .66 Legislative expenses, 51, 1,237.60 391 ,339.47 Public asylums, 25,897.O0 128, ,432. II Contingent funds, 6,O92,9 75,O3S.75 Sundrles, S3, ,413.3l 298, ,66S.S Deficiencies, None. $40, BPS, ,00
 The facts exhibit the unprecedented spectacle of a state in which the govern ment is arrayed against the, property of it's citizens. It has been openly avowed by prominent members of the Legislature that the taxes should be increased to 8 point which will compel the sale of the great body of the land and take it away from the former owners. The fruit of this policy is shown in the fact stated by the Comptroller General ln his Urfciaa re- port, that for default in the payment of taxes for the year 1872 alone 268, 523 acres of land were forfeited to the state, and this result proves the fallacy of the belief that the policy pursued promotes the ele- vation of the black population and the acquisition by them of the land thus vir- tually confscated. The reverse Is the necessary result. Lands are unavailable, as security, mortgages in default of pay ment cannot sell; wages have declined; the cost of living is made greater by the addition of the taxes to the prices of com modities; the poor are made poorer and made every day more incapable of pur- chasing land and more hopeless of rising above the condition of mere laborers. It would have ameliorated the condition of your petitioners if the effect of this policy had been to create an active demand for lands on this part of the large class of our population; but while the owners are by oppressive taxation driven to sell; others, for the same reason, are disqualified from buying. The abuses in the legislative de- partment that have been described are not confined to the mere raising and ex- penditure of revenues, but they prevade the entire conduct of that department. Schemes have been devised for issuing State bonds and for contracting other loans by which the public debt has in six years been raised from s, COG, ,0O0 to S16,- 900, 900, and that without advancing any public works, adding $1 to the public prop erty, or to the payment of the public debt. Large as the sum of the public debt is admitted to be there is reason to believe 1t does not reach the true amount. It is found impossible to ascertain the actual sum of the obligations that have been is- sued. Schemes of public plunder have been openly advanced by corrupt meas ures, of which one single example will suffice. Two clerks of the legislature in their official capacity made contracts with themselves, as private persons, for the public printing. The appropriations made in one year for the work done or to be done by these two officials amounted to S475, 900, exclusive of $1OO, 1000 for pub fishing the laws; and in the fiscal year of 1873 there was actually paid to them for print ing S331, 100, leaving 8 large sum then due to them by the state, and this, not withstanding the avowal of the two off cials themselves that the work done was worth no more than S1OO, 900, and the tes- timony of others that it's value was only $50, 900. The stupendous fraud involved Tn this and similar modes of making the legitimate objects of public expenditure the medium of plundering the treasury, cannot be better illustrated than by the following facts: The total appropriations for public printing made by the legisla- ture of South Carolina during period of sixty years, from 1900 to 1859, was S271,- 1SO. During the last year the amount actually expended for public printing by the present Legislature was S3S1 ,945- that is 60, 765 more than it cost the state for sixty years before the war; Commit tees have derived large sums as compen- sation for reporting favorably on private bills, and strong reasons exist for believ- ing that large amount of state bank bills, funded by the state to discharge her liabilities, have been reissued by those intrusted by the legislature with the duty of their cancellation. In the Judiciary Department evils equally griev- ous have been produced nnder the pres ent state government. The judges hold their offices for short terms; their contin- uance in office depends upon the caprices of the legislators. TLe result is that the
 duties of their high offices are discharged
 under influences and responsibilities nec- essari1y adverse to the independent and pure administration of public justice
 The jurors, moreover. are selected by the officials, of whom two are appointees of the governor The consequence is that
 the defeat of an obnoxious litigant by the
 selection of the jury; or, if no special ob-
 ject be contemplated by these officials,
 the choice is frequently made simply for the small pay of men who are unable to either read or write In either case the ends of justice are defeated. In the exec utiye department all these evils cul- mlnate. It is openly asserted and believ-
 ed that offices are the subject of barter, and the manner in which such offices are