The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1877-04-27
The Late Judges of the Supreme Court.

l lie LMbb 1MUBts VI hhb JuFssMo tv"t"
To the Editor OF the Democrat:
Your article OF yesterday morning Is
| just and timely, but you err in entirely
understanding the case to which you call
attention. These men are not presumed
to have drawn that money. They are
hno,pn to have done 80, unless. indeed,
! we are to presume that the Auditor and
Treasurer have, through q series OF
years, falsified the public accounts for
the purpose OF casting reproach upon
their party. It must be admitted That
this is violent and unwarranted
assumption, to which, as itmerely shifts
the crime Of one man to another, not
even the largest measure Of charity can
require us to give credence. Further,
this matter has been for several years
subject Of comment among the profess
sion and the people; 1t has been fire.
quently referred to in the public press,
yet not one of these men has ever
dared to deny it, though no honest man
could, for. one moment, have rested I'M
der such an imputation.
More than this, they continued to draw
1t after the conscience OF corrupt Leg
islature had shrunk from the viilainous
act. The appropriation bill OF 1873 pro-
vided only for the constitutional salary,
but little supplemental bill was Ger
titled as having passed (though whether
it did 80 is extremely doubtfup, when
remedied that defect. This bill even
Kellogg shrank from signing until the
subsequent December, and 1t is found In
the published acts of 1874. The Legis-
lature of 1874 limited its appropriation
by the provisions Of the constitution and
refused to recognize this shameless
REGULATION. As it is a crime for the
Treasurer to pay out money without an
appropriation, when the Chief Justice
drew his warrant for this supple
mena Tgen s" a3 tb # was sa dIsnono Of
the law and public morals en-
ter that sink of legal ignor-
anoe and moral iniquity. Jacob
Hawkins court, and ask o man.
damus to compel the Treasurer
to commit this crime. That suit. which
| bears the docket number 25, 953 WAS
fled put at issue, regularly set down
| for trial" says the lying record. tried
and Judgment rendered, ali between the
hours OF ten and three on April .,
| 1874. No parallel case can be found in
l
stand perpetual monument OF the ef-
frontery, il not the ingenuity Of those
great connsellors of fraud and eorrup-
zion, John Ray and A. p. Field, who
manipulated it. The mandAmus was,
of course, made peremptory. and Lude-
| ling got the money. Does any man
doubt that the other judges, taking ad-
vantage Of this decision, did likewise?
Will any one Of those then on the bench
dare to say that he did not?
say then that the dereliction of these
men, except Mr.. Kennard, Is proren by
the public records and by their enforced
silence. These records. in the form Ia
which they are accessible to the public,
are not sufficiently explicit to attach
guilt to him and no just man will i'm
pute It on the mere presumption raised
BY a vicious association during short
| period. Yet that association, / agree
with you. imposes upon him the duty OF
q prompt denial.
These transactions have been so often
the subject of comment, even through
the press, that / trust you will permit
me to say, that the men who for eight
years have been waging a dreary CON
test against this tide of corruption,
spending their money and, when need
required, their blood, in the hope OF re-
storing good and honest government,
have been grievously disappointed when
the Governor, in what l cannot but re-
gard as q spirit Of mistaken liberalism,
again clothes one Of these men with
official trust. That we should cultivate
q spirit Of Cancellation, all agree. But
to trust men who have already proven
themselves faithless In the highest de-
gree is not tolerance; it is folly:
April 20, 1877. PLEBs.