The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1879-01-08

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higher and more responsible body than
any grand jury-rcndered decision
in the case of the State ex rel. Dnrant
vs.. the Board of Liqnidators, in which
it declared that act No. 81 of 1872, by
which the public school fund was COB
bled up by Warmoth and his pals, was
ian act of spoilation, intended and de-
signed to deplete the treasury Of eve'y
available asset or fund IN it,. ETC., etc.
/. Promptly on the publication of this
decision we called the attention of the
grand jury to this act of robbery, this
cool aud deliberate crime, and 10 seve-
raj articles demanded that steps
should be taken to recover the stolen
funds and to prosecute the criminals.
Bat tle rights aud interests of no mo-
nopoly or politician were to be ad-
yanced by prosecuting the plunderers
of the State in this case, and justice
has remained passive.
In March, 1876, special committee
of the Legislature, after laborioas
and thorough Investigation, published
a report, charging that Gen. Tom An
Iderson had robbed the Bayou Beuf
ard Crocodile Navigation Company
appropriation of over seventy thous-
and dollars. The members of the
committee were gentlemen of the
/ highest standing, and they heard, I'M
like a grand jury, testimony on both
sides. Iu ten articles, running through
/ thirteen months, the Democrat called
upon the grand jury to indict, sue or
prosecute this pubic and notorious
robber. But the laws. have been ST.
lent. No ring or monopoly had any
special interest in prosecuting Tom
Anderson or destroying bis property,
and hence the plundered taxpayers
have heard of no proceedings against
him.
| on February 25, 1876, a special COM
mittee of the Legislature. composed of
Democrats and Republicans, present
/ ed report to the House of Represen-
tatives, and the people Of Louisiana,
charging and proving that Clias. Gin
ton, now the owner, editor aud con-
duetor of the New Orleans Times had
mercilessly swindled the Charity Hos
pi.al out of over $1,000 THAT he had
pluDdered the destitute, sick aud suf
fering men, woalen and children in
| that institution. A more horrible
crime could net be committed. Muir
der is mercy compared to the robbery
of sucl, a charity. IL ia difficult, in
deed, to realize how God, who, in his
inscrutable wisdom, creates even the
poisonous reptile ard the wild beast,
could form a man with heart so in
sensible to humanity as to be able to
perpetrate such a cruelty.
| Tie whole State rang with indigna-
ton when that fearful report was pub
lished. But no public evil, wrong or
ring was to be advanced by the prose-
cnfion of the crsature who had robbed
the Charity Hospital of six thousand
dollars, and the report never received
the slightest attention from q Grand
Jury or Court of the enlightened and
Christian State of Louisiana.
And we have not exhausted the ex-
amples in which the law has not only
been unequal to the conviction of the
real plunderers of the State, bat in
which it has been silent, dnmb, para
lyzed aud imbecile. If more illustra-
tons are required, we are prepared to
give them. Let them be demanded.
Why, then, is it that, acting in ODE
dience to plain and unrepealed stat
utes Of the State relative to the pub
lie printing all the engihery ofthe ad-
ministra ton, the grand juries and the
courts have been set In motion against
the State Printer and the journal
which has, done the printing! re
is there mar in Louisiana 80 sim
pie as to believe for enc moment that
the State Printer, or the Democrat,
would have ever been TINS officially
DETAINED and prosecuted fit had been
a subservient Journal and had refrain
ed from attacking the Lottery Compar
ny and the evils and abuses in the
government to the benefits of which
the officials of its own party have sue
ceededa We trust there is no such sim
pleton within the State outside Of the
Insane Asylum. ~
The State is full of public robbers
criminals whose offenses are matters of
public neutrality-suspicious. indictments
stand in decisions of the Supreme
Court, in the reports of important leg
islative committees aud 10 the unllal-
lowed light of their own foul and
filthy rottenness. But these malefac-
tors are in the way of no rings, mo-
nopolies or aspiring politicians, aud
the machinery of the law is too imper-
feet or too weak TO reach them.
If the State Printer and the Demo
crat lin this matter we all stand to-