New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1875-12-28

aye. lle examination by the commission
has brought out the following ethical rule
of official profit for an auditor of State;
l. He may allow number of certificates,
include them in warrant, and admit that
'he was interested in all the certificates
Cancelled by the warrant"
2. He may negotiate" between hims ,lf
and the holder of claims which it is his
official duty to audit
3. He may take money appropriated by
a law which he has himself recommended
to pay certificates in which be is himself
interested.
4. He may, as any other broker, pur.
chase by discount on the face of any
claim which he is to audit.
.. If being a stakeholder, director, and
depositor of public money in bank, he
shall borrow money from that bank to
buy certificates payable upon his own
warrant, he may prefer the repayment of
that loan to compliance with the law Or
dering another application of the public
funds employed to pay the loan, ''the
practice" having been to 'spay all Dor
rowed money first"
6. He may communicate to another
public officer the fact that there is bal
ance to the credit of particular fund.
The other public officer may go and see
some OF his friends who have certificates"
payable out of that fund, and the Auditor
may give orders to reserve that balance
for the other officer who has gone out to
hunt some Of his friends who have GER
tifcates
Z. A party named in special law is
entitled to payment out OF that balance.
The Auditor may tell the special claimant
that she has nothing to pay him with"
and atterward say, 81 had no right to
hold off Wells (the special claimanD, but
l did it to accommodate friend'-the
other public officer out hunting his friends.
who have certificates payable out of that
fund. More startling still. The Auditor
may say, II bought Wells certificate 1.-THE
certificate which he had held off because
there was no money to pay him with"
8. An Auditor may purchase certif-
cate with notice that it was funded on a
fraudulent or unauthorized act He may
require as part of the bargain" from the
holder of that certificate an affidavit
drawn up by the Auditor himself, that
Governor Tilden, or any other Governor,
had declared to him (the HOLDER that the
certificate was valid claim against the
State. The holders of these ''valid claims"
may have to submit to discount of eight
per cent-in this case S3976 6O-from the
Auditor, the purchaser, to get the money
from the Auditor, the official paymaster.
Such is synopsis of the poweli and
perquisites Of State Auditor. He may
besides employ his brothers and other
relatives; he may engage men of politi-
cal prominence such as Horatio Say-
mour, Jr., and John D. Van Buren,; he
may intimate that be had the authority
of such Governors as Samuel Tilden for
this or that questionable act; he may
qualify acts admittedly in defiance of
law by saying II so construed the law"
or THAT is news to me" and generally
he may be as reticent, as forgetful, or as
defiant as he chooses; he may come into
office poor and become wealthy; he may
be guilty Of the most fragrant favolitism
or the most unjust exclusion; he may
commit deeds which would send any
clerk or other iduciary to prison, and
yet the Auditor may maintain his position
in society, or, like the centennial Tweed,
quit his prison under escort of his jailprs
and illustrate the audacity and IMMUNITY
of public theft in this republic before all
the monarchists and eeclesiarchists in
Europe.