The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1911-04-23
Reputation of the Wales Claim
Injuries Florida-John L. Inglis
BY Francis 1. Huffsker.

showed that Florida had borrowed
s132, 900 on her coupon bonds, bearing
Z per cent interest, and every time
dollar was passed by any department
of the national government for any
money due the state OF Florida, II was
captured before it passed through the
United States treasury and applied
to wiping out the payment of that
S1s2, 600. Governor Drew said the evil
dence could not be secured for the
payments made, largely in 1856 and
1857, without great cost. The state
has not the money to pay for that
work he said, and | can't see where
the money is coming from unless we
issue more bonds. l am opposed to
doing that. The evidence that was
sent to Washington by the Florida
state officials to Seantor Yules, to be
filed in the treasury. on which to base
claim. was lost, as Senator Yules
had left Washington on the breaking
out of the Civil war in 1861, and it is
now impossible to trace the box of pa
pers containing the payrolls and other
evidence of payment by the state for
the wars of 1856 and 1857
What is best for me to do now%
asked Governor Drew. In this emery
ency Col Wales has offered to pay
the expense of securing the evidence
and prosecuting this case and push
ing this claim for payment on COM
mission basis urged Governor
Drew, If the cabinet thought it the
proper thing to do when he got back
to Florida, to make a contract with
WALES. If he didn't get anything, he
was not to receive a penny, and the
state would sustain no loss. If he did
collect IL, he was to receive only what
all attorneys charge when they pay
eXpenses-15 per cent. He Drew
made the contract Immediately after
returning to Florida, with the approx
al of his cabinet, and he told me af-
terward that he believed Col WALES
would succeed in making the collec-
ton. If he does make the collection
said Governor Drew, no act of mine
will do more for the states bene-
fit
The action of Governor Drew in
contracting with Col. Wales was we'll
known to the state and legislature
by the message he sent to the legisla-
ture, telling of the contract. The leg
islature investigated the matter sever
al times, and always, in spite of all
the political bitterness of those times,
confirmed Drew's action. Each gov
ernor. including Drew, Bloxham, Perry,
Fleming, Mitchell and Bloxham in his
second term, recognized that contract,
and the work of getting that payment
went on Not a word was said until
the money was actually paid into the
state treasury (more than a million
dollars) with reference to irregularity
of contract.
mo one will deny that the state got
the money. She has not paid one cent
in expense to get it, but when the
time came for the state to fulfil her
part of the contract a caucus of the
house of representatives offered to
fulfil the states part of that contract
by offering to this aged man, who had
spent thousands of dollars and more
than twenty years service, the insig-
nificatn sum of $4,000.
Can any honest man hereafter
think of the treatment given Col.
Wales by this states officials and
claim that this state is honest? No;
not the state, but the officials who
have brought about this clear repudia-
ton.
should the state continue to carry the
brand of Reputation on account of a
violation of a contract, under seal, af-
ter the acceptance of the money and
placing it in her treasury, where it is
outside of the law, for no individual
can sue the state without legislative
consent. The refusal of the consent of
the legislature to allow that contract
to be tested by her own referee-the
courts-would be a disgrace, and our
children would never live long enough
to see the stain OF reputation re-
moved.
often in my travels I have heard
this reputation among financial men
commented upon as a shame. In con-
firmation of the fact that Col WALES
paid these expenses of collection, and
not the state, the lamented General
Bullock, so weu-known, told me in
Washington of the large sums that
had been paid out by Col Wales in
this case, and of the many men he
had employed in securing the evil
dence on which the claim was finally
allowed. This matter has been dis
cussed freely by the citizens of Florida
and other states, and with rare excep-
lions have 1 heard anything but con-
demna ton of this reputation. These
people may have old-fashioned ideas
of dishonesty and reputation, but
they demand that this just claim be
sent to the courts and settled"
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