The Hazel Green herald. [volume] (Hazel Green, Wolfe County, Ky.) 1885-19??, 1893-03-10
AN AWFUL ROAST.
EX-GOVERNOR euckNER SKINS GOV.
ERNOR BROWN ALIVE
And Holds Up His Disiiunred Carcass to
the Public Gaze.

the Public Gaze.
| From the Lexington Leader.l
Hon. John Young Brown, President Boar,.
of sinking Fund commissioners;
SIR--l have read commnnica-
ton, dated Feb. 10 1893, addressed
To the senate and house of repre-
sentatives of Kentucky. and signed
by you and John w. Headley. As
your assaults are aimed at me and
gentlemen with whom | have been
associated in official life. il is i'm
cumbont on me to comment on
some of your statements. / will
notice first your allusion TO me in
regard to the construction and
leasing of the branch penitentiary.
My duties in the connection with
the construction of the building
were imposed by the acts of April
30 and May 1, 1883. You state
that the appropriation for building
purposes was exceeded, hut you
obtain this result only by charging
against the appropriation the sum
OF $500, the salary of the COM
missioner and his clerks. This is
contrary To the ruling of the at
torney general, and opposed to the
uniform precedent governing such
cases. You call in question the
propriety of constructing rail-
road switch for each railway To the
depot or river.
When an individual owns prop
erty of which he desires TO dispose,
he usually offers its accessibility
to business as one of its greatest
advantages. The same rule applies
td public property. You seem to
have n singular obliquity of vision
in regard to the moral aspect of
the question. 1t was Andre Azure
beck who proposed To send chal-
lenge and then break faith with
his opponent in order To make n
fool of him. You reason as if the
state should enter into II contract
with one of its citizens, like Shy
lock exact its pound of flesh, and
then refuse To carry out its own
contract on the pretense that it
would be- n benefit TO the contrac-
tor.
The opinion of the attorney gem
eral, the correctness of which you
probably will not question, was
that the supplying of bedding, etc,
for the penitcntiary was within the
powers and duties of the sinking
fund commissioners, under general
laws applicable to the peniten-
There was accessible to
you, ON the books in the auditors
Office, the information that not
one cent has been paid by the
state for beds, bedding or any other
article required to be furnished |
under the lease. Ii was your duty |
To know these facts and to sec that
the obligations of the lease were
enforced. 1t is therefore to be pre-
sumed that you knew that the state
had incurred no expense whatever
in this account, and when you as
serted that 1.-The arrangement was
made to fix this expense on the
state" that 1.-The state would be the
loser in consequence, you were
of deliberately misrep-
resenting the facts. You speak of
a delinquency,
If n delinquency exists il has
become such during your admins
tration; with its settlement your
have nothing to do.
You we'll know that that they are
powerless to intervene, and that
the duty of enforcing settlement
ievolves especially upon yourself.
But, instead of executing the plain
luties devolved upon you by the
avs, you turn aside from the per-
'ormance, and snap and snarl and
whine like IA strange cur at the
manner in which your two imme-
late predecessors performid their
iuty, and howl, hyena-like, over
he grrve of the lamented Black
Durn, as if TO drag his honored
bones in the arena in extenuation
If your own delinquency. Shame
IN such. petty exhibitions Of ma
levolent spite. Unless discontin-
Ied. you may enforce on some grand
ury the unpleasant duty Of pre-