The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1880-07-08
AN OFFICIAL SCANDAL.

The people of the State were greatly
surprised at the announcement that on
last Friday Mr.. Alexander Laughlin, the
expert in the Office of Commissions
Colt, who had charge of the funding Of
the bills of the Bank of the State un-
der the recent Act of the Legisla'
ture. had been arrested on the charge
of Withdrawing bills from the PACK
ages presented, and funding the re-
manning bills as of the sum of the
original packages, appropriating the bills
so withdrawn to his own use. Mr..
Laughlin was arrested on the affidavit OF
Commissioner Colt, and the preliminary
examination had before Trial Justice
Fickling, who finally committed the
accused to Jail in default of bail in the
sum Of fifty thousand dollars. The
packages certified by Laughlin to the
Treasurer to be funded are being re-
counted, and until this is finished the
exact amount of the defalcation cannot
be ascertained, though the accused is
shown to have sold to Mr.. Thomas s.
Gibson, a broker in Columbia, four thou
sand dollars worth of these bills in May
or June last, which he professed were
sent him to sell by friend in the up.
country and also four thousand dollars
to Col. D. Gambrell, another broker in
Columbia, about the middle of June
This showing leaves no doubt as to the
guilt of the accused, who was for years
cashier of. the Exchange Bank of Co
lumbia, and although it was reported
that he had appropriated large amount
of specie belonging to the Bank, he was
specially complimented and endorsed by
the president and directors of the Bank
when he resigned in 1865. He then
spent several years in Europe, returning
in 1873, and engaging in business in
Charleston. He was highly recommend.
ed to Col. Colt by prominent citizens OF
Columbia and elsewhere, upon the faith
ofwhich he was given the appointment
indicated. The discovery of this crook
edness has given cause for no little COM
ment upon the management of the fund:
ing of the bank bills, and may bring to
light another stupendous fraud upon the
people. The amount of the defalcation,
so far, will probably be covered by few
thousand dollars, but the amount Of the
bills already presented for funding
amount to over seven hundred thousand
dollars, although it had not been sup.
posed that more than four hundred thou.
sand were in existence. The plates from
which these bills were printed are now
at the North, and have been ever since
ii shsssaa> They may have been properly
used and taees.care of, but the State
has no guarantee that many additional
bills have not been printed since the
Rank was closed. The unexpectedly
,arpe amount is hard to account for, and
the recent transactions of Mr.. Laughlin
show that there is no confidence what
ever to be placed in bis work. There
has been On unfortunate amount of con-
fdence on the part. of Commissioner
Colt, which, in this case, amounts almost
to negligence, since Mr.. Colt has virtu'
ally Left the whole matter to the faithless
expert who has brought this grave trou-
BILE upon himself and the State. Col.
Colt is a gentleman OF high character,
whose whole life has been so free from
suspicion or evil, that he has himself
been over. con6ding in others. The re-
suit is Bow that the whole work of his
office will be discredited, unless he goes
over the whole Of the bills presented
himself, so as not only to ascertain the
amount, but to verify the validity of the
bills themselves. 1t is much to be re-
eretted that the Commissioners did not
cancel the bills in person after the Ger
t:fcate of validity had been given by the
expert, and thereby save the trouble
and scandal which has arisen. In
fact, the business seems to have been
80 loosely conducted that the swindle by
Iausbiin would have been successful
sud unsetacted, except for the accidental
fact that Nr. Charles Logan, a broker,
uho is the attorney in fact for ex-Sena-
tor Robertson, who had presented. ..sev-