The New Orleans Democrat. (New Orleans, La.) 1875-1876, 1876-04-20
rue "TRUE 1NWARDNESS" or THE
FUNDING BOARD.

they may see just how the business o1
funding has been done and what the
character, at all events. Of some OF
the bonds, and other evidences OF in
debtedness which have been accepted
by the Board as valid and without faint,
in consideration of the new bonds they
have issued. The facts stated are mainly
derived from the report Of the com
mjttec Of the House Of Representatives,
appointed to examine into the proceed
ings Of the Board and the Board OF
Audit. submitted by tho committees
to the House on February %, 1876.
The committee state in the first place
that 'the board kepta very meagre and
imperfect minute book or journal OF
their proceedings: that it was full OF
interlneations, alterations and correc-
tons i'm different handwritings, with
blank spaces left here and there as If
for filling up with additional matter,
that even the book in the Auditors
office. i'm which was recorded the funded
obligations, their numbers, amounts
and the numbers and amounts OF the
new consols issued in exchange therefor,
with the names OF the parties to whom
these new consols were issued, was
found t. contain errors. corrections and
| interlineations; that the board had no
fixed place of meeting, nor had 1t an
office, nor bookkeeper, nor a sys-
tenn Of accounts THAT not
withstanding the great Importance
of the duties imposed upon the board
and the necessity for methodical and
accurate registration OF every bond and
warrant funded and destroyed, the ar
rangements for carrying out the law
were so imperfect as to make it well
nigh impossible, by the records. to de-
termine precisely what bonds and war
rants had been funded 10y classes and
numbers, and what had been destroyed,
| so as to correct errors of record and
prevent the funding Of bonds and war
rants more than once, if presented for
q second finding" The committee
state further, that 'to enable them to
arrive at correct understanding OF
what had been done, it was imperatively
necessary for them to classify and ar
range the list of obligations funded and
destroyed. and they found it to
be q work Of great magnitude
They state that mo such classification
of the bonds and warrants funded
had been made, and that bonds of diff
ferent series and warrants were mixed
indiscriminately. They state that Sin
the course of their Investigations they
found many errors and Irregularities,
showing the carelcssness tif not some
thing worse) with which the work OF
destroying the funded obligations had
been done. After the committee had
entered upon their investigations avery
suspicious circumstance occurred, which
can be no otherwise explained than as q
piece Of trickery practiced upon the
committee by the executive officers OIL
the State. or some Of them, for the pur
pose Of impeding the committee il
their work, and concealng the rascality
of which some one connected with
the funding business had been guilty
The circumstance was this: In May
1875. the committee found i'm the vaul
of the State Auditor among other funded
obligations q package of warrants
amounting to $s79l, which had been in
cluded in the process verbal of q burning
Of bonds and warrants on the LIST of Feb
ruary, 1875. Here, then, were in exist
ence obligations which had been funded
and which should have been, according
to law, destroyed, and reported by the
board as destroyed. For what purpose
had these warrants been preserved? Il
it uncharitable to infer that they hat
been saved from destruction for the pur
pose of funding them second time
Could the bland and innocent and child
like Kellogg, or the demure and pious
Clinton, have contemplated so bold {
swindle? Perish the thought that gen
honor, and Of their fidelity to the State
could have had any such purpose il
view. But people will think, will talk
and will suspect that the preservation
Of this particular bundle Of warrants
was not due to carelessness, but to de
sign, especially when the committee state
in their report that shortly after theil
discovery II1aJ uneSe WARRANTS SnOulC
have been destroyed the bundle haC
vanished. That the committee hac
made an error was impossible, because
the warrants were mentioned in the in
ventory they had taken Of the contents
Of the vault, by number, date anG
amount of each. The committee say in
their report that lit is beyond theil
comprehension how they could have in
ventoried these warrants il they had mo-
been in existence at the time" A searcl
was made for the bundle by the Audit
or's clerks. but the return made by
them was mon est inventus" 1t coulc
not be found. Is it not clear that some
one having access to the vault, and who
knew all about these warrants, and the
committees discovery, had carried
it off. The committee also state in theil
report that the records of the Fund
ing Board for 1874 and the first foul
months OF 1875 contain many inaccu
racies, which cannot now be corrected
because Of the destruction of the obliga
tions funded, and the impossibility oil
comparing them with the minute and
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