St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1889-10-05
he Bond Steal.

! uatnresv crltlUts!ng tins late State Trea
surer. The matter is now sutfieiept!,
; cleared up by the report of the Audi,u,
and Treasurer, and By the inveseixa
ti"ns of tht: city plces, chiefly the Pioa
! ynne, to make it cert;in that Major
Burke. tO use tLa Milssest term possible
WAS crininally negligent iu the Der.
fnrmancs of his duties as Treasurer OF
the State. Peveuns Ia Ills confidence
and III i,s employ while Treasurer, sp-
. pasently 60 shield themselves sro,n sus-
nlcion, no" make af:tetnrnts which di-
rectly :mp,icate Major Burke in illicit
traffic in tE.udnlen. Stat" Bonds winch
} the Legislature. hasi lang s,nce orde,eti
him to destroy. And tn u,ake the mat
ter worse, Major Burke himself paid to
other persnns "ut Of the State Treasury,
many thousands of dollars as interest
nu these very bonds. The feeling caused
by this tsisgracefus exposure is one of
deep shame and uihrtihcation that the
fair name af our Stats should be 80
ltesmirclled. 1t is Is double nortihca-
tlon to uA that the Democratic parry is
responsible for having placed this man
IN Al uusi'iuu to do our common wealth
this gr,evuus harm. maintaining i,lm
10 that position by special constltu.
tl0nai proSisiuu at Il time when all the
other constitutional officers. frnin Gov.
| Nichols dawn, were swept ont of ex-
| .sta II al, t,0f1
pscnsliou and nialfea~auce ba srus, we
Will begin to comprehend from Hiia,
s"nrce came, in part at lea asst, the vast
su,ns of money thnt were invisled
thr"ugh'ut the State, and especially 10
South western louisiana, during the
late campaign to corrupt the pr.marien
Majrr Burke, at the close OF the CAM
paign aui upun the eve OF the State
Convention, stated to "a prominent gen
tit man, /. mtMher of the present State
government, that he had personally
spent $4,000 ID the campaign.
Our esle-med contemporary the
Baton Runke Adrocdte. ia commenting
upon the Burke cApu-ure, " hich 1t terms
"stlnglna uIsgrace," calls to mind sos-
rowfully and with murtlticat,on the
crimes of J. A. Gantreaux, Will. A. f!
Strong G.,I Edwin Harris, all of whom |
were LEADING demucratlc office holders, |
and all of whom are now ietuges from |
Justice. The Advocats REMARKS "that
Il public office in d public trust, and but |
few men are worthy to be entrusted |
with IT,"
1t is not unappropriate to mention
here the name of Que OF our own citi
<ens, whose wh"ie course rs y public
man entities him to rauk with the
"wo,tby tew" sslndrd to by the Ad-
vocute, and to ~bose lot as n public OIL
Ger it fell tu ,end.*. tho State val.
uabie services il conn. .scsion with this
very bond robbery. We t~'iaae 10 Tue
Hun. 7. S. Fontrnot, ex-Sel. Stol' ana
our present Sheriff, whose act - pre-
venting the cancellation OF Major
Burke's official bond, has probably
saved the State $4,000. We put!Ish
herewith Mr.. Fonteuo.'s letter to Gov.
McEnery, which arrested the cancells-
tIon of the bond.
1t 10 proper to remark. that ths ex-
aminatiol OF sh. Tressurer's buoks WAS
never made by Mr.. Fon,epot, because,
swing to II severe hart received by him,
se WAS compelled tn resign his seat I'D
the Senate soon after writing the letter
in question. This letter was written ut
. time when TO write it required some
courage and u strong sense Of official
account a bility, qualities which our hon
Dyed ex Senator and Sheriff ian always
shown in his long official career, aud
which, with dne deference to the opinion
Df the Adroc0te. we believe to De pos
sessrd 10y thousands of good men of
Louisiana Here is the letter as, it ap-
pears in our files of Aug 81. 1884:
CHATArGNIER. La. July 28th, 1884
70 His Exrellency samuel d. McEnery. Gov
eruor of Louisiana.
SIR:-T observe by official nntifics-
tions published in the Caplf"lianA Advo-
cate If the 2lst nf July. 1884. that Hun.
Z. A. Buike, Treasurer of the State,
and Hon. Allen Jumel, ex Auditor of
the State, have applied tH y.,u for the
of their official bonds, and
that Won had in said notices calieii mp
on .'aii persons interested ansl cODcrrn-
I'd to siow cause in wiring at the Office
of the Secretary of State, at the city of
Baton Rrngr, within ninety Cays from
and after tn. last publication hereof. I
why said bonds and the m"rsaPes re-
sult;ng thetefrnm should not be can
ceii.d and amulet" and the sureties
of the aforesaid officials discharged
from further liabilities.
I beg leave respectfully to call ynnr +
attention tn the resolution "f the Sem
ate. adopted July 9th. 1879 and hy
which committee Of tNl14s was or
"f ,I,at hoaH dear .Itse hand aRork-
ings and t,lded.amins q sheN5ks and
vouchers of srf,r Auditor Aq2t Treasu- ,
r.r'. office" and report TO that hHdy at
: ha next session nf the General Assem-
i,lv: the said committee having t,een
alsw given authority during vacation I
eo f,oId sessinua, send for persons and
=. n,.ta. administer Oaths aud employ an
axnert If 'iecesssry.
Having been appointed chairman of
the said committee. and it being my
auty as well as my pHrpnss 10 summon
the cammiisee and make the lnssst'ga-
ton ordered by the Senate at the ear
liest practicable period. snRRest 10
yanr Excellency. to await the fermina-
tiun Of the said investigation before ,
any step is taken tn cancel the 0fQclal
is.aa of these afii aia!s.
Therefore. in response to your 0t1iclai {
notifications and in accordance with the 1
nrayisirns af Act M. is. approved Feb