The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1878-12-28
HOW THE STATE HAS BEEN DE.
FRAUDED.

FRAUDED.
Yesterday morning the following report Of
the grand jury. made some days ago. was
read In the Superior Criminal Court:
NEW ORLEANS, December 40, 1873.
To the Hon. w. H. Whitaker. Judge of the Su-
perior Criminal Court
iSir-The grand jury beg leave TO report,
having examined the certified copy Of account
Of Geo. w. Dupre, State Printer, hereto an
nexed, under which our predecessors have
made special report, having taken testimo-
ny in regard to the same, are OF the opinion
that the State has been deirauded, and hereby
request the district attorney to file an infor
nation against the said Geo. W. Dupre, State
Printer, for obtaining money, or warrants,
under false pretenses.
WALTER PuaH, Foreman.
The charges on which this report is based
were made In tho newspapers OF this city,
months ago. by anonymous correspondents
who refused to reveal themselves, and whose
names, the defamatory sheets publishing
their ISLANDERS, refused to give. Hired by the
Louisiana Lottery Company, these disrepu-
table and unprincipled scribblers went before
grand jury, perpetrated their perjury and
obtained from that body special report
damaging to tho State Printer, which was
made public. The official thus malgned ex-
erted every means In his power to obtain a
fair investigation into the charges made
against him; but In vain. The machinery of
justice was amply sufficient to enable few
hired perjurers to provoke an official
report from grand jury calculated and
designed to ruin citizens character;
but IL seems that there was no method known
to the law by which this wronged. maligned
and DETAINED citizen could obtain speedy
trial or an investigation, or even hearing.
The report, terribly damaging, was rendered
and given to the press OF the State; the
courts soon after closed, the Governor smiled
and said he could do nothing, and the
monopolies and rings laughed and congrat-
ulated themselves on the brave blow they
had struck through the instrumentality OF the
grand jury.
But justice in time asserts itself, though the
machinery OF tho law may impede Its course
now grand jury has investigated the
charges against the State Printer and re-
quested the district attorney to file an infor-
nation against that official for obtaining
money on warrants under false pretenses
Thus two grand juries have investigated
these charges and neither has ventured, on the
evidence before 1t, bound by solemn oaths, to
indict the State Printer. One contented itself
with listening to the one-sided evidence In
matter of which not one Of Its members I'M
derstood the first principle and rendering a
report calculated to injure the reputation and
character Of fellow-citizen and public jour
nal The other, stimulated by the demands OF
the State Printer for an investigation or a
trial, not daring to do violence to their oaths
by indicting the State Printer, shifted the re-
sponsibility upon the shoulders OF the dis
trlct attorney by requesting him to file an
information, etc. These two grand juries have
thus acknowledged that the one-sided, hired
and perjured evidence against the State
Printer was insufficient to warrant them in
indicting him, though sufficient to JUS
tify them In rendering reports calculated to
injure his good name and cast suspicion upon
him.
Against this action the State Printer and
his associates, who stand squarely with him
In this matter, make no complaint But they
do demand that the district attorney shall
promptly comply with the solicitations of the
grand jury, and that the court shall grant
speedy trial. We have no complaint to make
against the grand juries which have done our
selves and our associate this cruel injury.
The fault Is not with the grand juries so
much perhaps, as with the unjust star cham
Der system under which they act.
We have something to say, however, of the
administration of justice In a State wherein
public official who has done his simple duty,
in accordance with the laws Of the State, is
being this prosecuted and bounded, while real
criminals and public plunderers, whose
offenses against the laws are notorious. have
been neither prosecuted by Indictment nor in
formation.
Since the Democratic State government has
been established, we have time and again
called the attention Of the law officers OF the
State and the grand juries to the fact that, in
violation OF the plainest and most unequivo-
cal language Of the constitution, the judges
OF the late Supreme Court, for a series of
years, under fraudulent act of the Lee
gislature, drew each $12,500 per an
mum more than they were entitled to.
No more shameful crime was ever perpe-
trated upon the people and against the laws
than this robbery of the treasury amounting
10 HtdIly $lVU,uUU. INUt Ouiy Oiu tuO udcCA
interests Of the people demand that this
money should be recovered, but the we'll
being OF society required that men holding
the almost sacred positions Of justices Of the
Supreme Court of a great State, who had thus
prostituted their high offices, should be re-
buked. But the justices Of the late Supreme
Court had fought no monopolies; no public
evils: no high salaries; no rings; and hence
there was no combination In the city or State
to pursue them into the grand jury room or
before the courts.
Early in 1877 the present Supreme Court OF
Louisiana, all Of whose members are learned.
honored and beloved citizens of our State
certainly much higher and more response
BILE body than any grand jury-rendered a
decision In the case Of the State ex rel. Du-
rant VS.. the Board OF LiQuidators, In which