The weekly Floridian. [volume] (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1867-19??, 1880-08-13

Cearke TeieS1pnl
If conundrums are still in ORDER we would
like to PROFOUND the following just for the fun Of
the thing;
If $4,000 Of @blue scrip I" suddenly and mys
teriously disappeared from the State Treasury
through the carele@ness Of the Republican can
didate for Governor, what might not happen If
he were elected Governor
II il bad TO be careless in the conduct of public
affairs. particularly in the care and management
of the peoples money. A great many young and
ambitious carpet-bag adventures have been ru-
ined in Florida and other Southern States by be-
ing criminally careless in the handling of public
funds. But few of this class, however, have had
the cheek, after their FALL to come before the peo
pie and ask to be trusted again.
The feature connected with the disap-
pearance of the "blue scrip" from the
State Treasury of most interest is perhaps
not how it got Ostt, but how it got back
without question. How much "myste-
riously disappeared will never be known,
but $l3,556 came back to the Treasury
and was redeemed, while slight exami-
nation of the books of the Office would
have shown the Treasurer that some of
the warrants at least had been taken
up nearly twenty years previously.
"Careless in the conduct Of public af-
fairs is tender way of characterizing
transactions which began and ended in
swindling the State. 1t was the fortunate
discovery by member of the committee
engaged in examining the Treasurer's &C
counts in 1872 of some of these old reis-
sued warrants that led to the exposure Of
the fraud and stopped it.
But the Telegraph might have added a
paragraph as to other evidences of care
lessness " connected with the Treasurer's
Office. "Blue scrip "-scrip issued and
paid long before the war-was not the
only kind that mysteriously disappeared
from the State Treasury" On page 20 of
Comptroller CowgilI's report of 1876 it is
stated that 81, s5s.5S of warrants and con-
vention certificates which had been paid
in 1870 were subsequently presented for
redemption and paid a second time. Here
are over SIG, 400 of undoubted steals, and
there is no telling how much greater the
frauds were. The report referred to says
that the Treasurer's books had inaccu-
racies " in them of various kinds" AS
examples he mentions that warrant No
5000 of 1869 was entered in book of 1869,
"page l44, as paid by the Treasurer for
"$465,s2, when it was issued for only
"$26l.6O." This would appear to be
something more serious than mere in
accuracy" for, if the Comptroller was
not mistaken in identifying the warrant,
the amount had been raised by somebody
from $261. 80 TO $465.s2. But he says he
was not mistaken that the warrant scds
issued for $26l.6O is proved, not only by
"the copy in the Comptroller's Office,
"but by the record made by the Treasur-
Ger of its exchange for treasury certifi-
"cates, (given to Mr.. Krimminge) Nos.
"el5 to 6ls, dated February 4, 1869, ag-
gregating only $2el.6o." This would
seem to be conclusive. This was not, then.
case of "blue scrip mot case OF
scrip " carelessly" reissued, as though that
were possible-but of scrip deliberately
doctored. For such acts men are sent to
tho pOnitentiory cvcry day.