The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-08-13
SHARP CRITICISN ON THE CHI.
CAGO COUNCIL AND me @.di
90 re- saa BULLETIN. ~ 81 ~ !
Editor of the Bulletin /:


Editor of The Bulletin 44@ 4. t-
When addressed to you communication
4 in regard to the action OF the City Council OF
Chicago, presumed that the paragraph COM
mented on had found its way into your
columns by one of those blunders which will
occasionally occur in the publication of any
newspaper The devotion of almost column
to renewed justification of that act, and my
regret to see you advocating principles which
can not but regard as utterly destructive of
all public morality. must be my apology for
returning to the charge aid4
It seems that the city of Chicago, owing
certain coupons for interest on her bonds, de-
posted the money to meet them in the bank
of Duncan, Sherman & Co., and duly notified
the holders, which is regarded as discharge
of her legal liability. portion OF the hold
ers appear to have drawn their money, but at
| the time of the failure of the bank, there
were still SAL 900 to the creditof that account.
We are relieved of the necessity of inquiring
into the nature CT these transactions, because
| the case stated assumes, that illegally the
city was not liable for this loss. The only
question to be discussed is: WAS the City
Council justified in renewing a liability from
which the city had been discharged To- = fe5
This question would seem to answer itself,
and the difficulty of arguing it is that which
always attends an attempt to demonstrate q
self evident proposition. You can't increase
Bile, itwas because the debt had been paid
If the debt was paid, the repayment was a
gratuity-s mere gift by the City. Council
to the holders of the coupons. /. Tne original
antecedent of these conditional propositions is
admitted, and am entitled to infer the con-
sequents The question, then, is resolved
into this Was the City Council justified IN
making present to the holders of these
coupons at the expense of the city?
Those officials are mere trustees-the adj
ministrators of public fund, provided for q
specific purpose and raised by taxation upon
the people. When they divert it to any other
purpose, they commit as clear breach Of
trust as that which consigns the defaulting
clerk to the Penitentiary. That they have no
right to make gifts Of funds raised or to be
raised by taxation was decided by theN|
Supreme Court of the United States at its
last term in case against the city OF Topeka,
and has been repeatedly decided by State tri-
bunals. saw .-a
But these agents of the city. not being
"shysters and pettitoggers," could not be
bound by those principles of law which gov
ern all other agents. but were justified in |
circumstances which you carefully avoid
specifying, and which are nowhere suggested
in the case stated. What are they owe q |
man money and give check upon bank
for it, which he keeps for month until, in |
the mean while, the bank breaks. Certainly, |
in law, the loss is his, and do not owe him |
a dollar. What equitable principle makes it |
otherwise Surely none; for the legal deci-
sion is founded upon the equities Of the case.
Having appropriated the sum to his payment
and put it in his power to obtain it, if he fails
l.. 10 IL 1o-o A.
his, and this is founded upon the great equi-
table principle that he whose negligence mas
caused q loss must bear it.
You say that there was an ultimate liability
on the part of the city. This Is an entirely
assertion, and, on the contrary,
the case stated is that the city t'was not LA
BILE" which excludes every species OF liability.
But the presumption is that the Council
acted in accordance with the laws and ordi-
nances of Chicago. reply that the cases to
which have referred, have decided that no
sation of the public funds. l have no doubt
that these officials might be made responsible
for the money thus diverted by them from
he public treasury. Dao' =
But at any rate it was a polite act as tend
ing to preserve the credit of the city, with
which is indissolubly connected that of its in
lividual citizens. Here are two grave errors.
In the first place, no man land the same thing
applies to communities) can preserve his
credit except by conducting his affairs on
strictly business principles. Duty to his just
creditors requires OF him to refuse to be made
he victim Of unjust demands. Nothing can
more certainly impair his credit than the
that he is scattering his money
without regard to those principles, one OF the
irst of which is never to pay debt twice.
VIA. has reduced the credit of this city and
state to its present ondition but the rsck-
ess extravaganza with which warrants were
ssued for fictitious claims upon the Treasury?
Why, the single fact that that veracious and
patriotic citizen, E, H. Angomar, could, on
lis mere representation that he had spent
go, 600 on behalf Of the State, extract that
UNI from the treasury, was Of itself sufficien ;
o have annihilated the credit of the State. :
10 individual and no community which CON-
lucts his or its business On such principles
entitled to the faith and confidence of any
Intelligent man whatever. In the next place
here is no connection between the credit of 7
community and that of the individuals who l
it.
Thirty years ago the credit Of the State of
Mississippi was destroyed, and to-day her
eople may felicitate themselves upon that
let. Certain tits, that that of her individual
luGoAS Wd6 AoSoI 1OI d uoAoAt lupnH0u |
Tntil her devastation by war their paper i,
ood as high in every market in this country :
j that of the people Of any other State. But \
e need only look around us for the complete
situation OF this silly bugaboo. What man T
there, not confessedly a bankrupt, whose
redit has sunk to level with that of the a
ty or the State?
There is no more fatal proposition than the "A
ne advocated by you, that there are any cir
instances in which it can be "wise for a
ublic officers to place themselves above the
w-to claim for the vast comprehension of
leir genius superiority over the concen- -
ated wisdom and experience of more than i
hundred generations, nodded and reduced A
form by the greatest intellects which they F
,uld produce. 1t is just this doctrine which
IS at the root Of all the official villainy of A
10 day. Unless the people have health and A
rength enough LIFT to cast off this moral
bison the consequence must be untold dis
ter. --a
Our only safety Lies in promp. and
CROUCH return to the doctrine of our fathers.