F375- P 375 .S62 Copy 1 THE SmiATION IN lOllISMA. THE LE(iISLATiTRE 8 REPLY TO KELLOGG'S PRONUNCIAMENTO. TO THE FRIENDS OP CONSTITUTIONAL LIBERTY ^^ THROUGHOUT THE UNION : A lengthy document, anonymously addreased, lias lately appeared, purport- ing to come from the usurping Governor of this State, and is so well calculated to deceive and mislead the minds of our fellow-citizens beyond the limits of this Commonwealth, by its prevarications, misrepresentations, and suppressions of the true condition of attairs in the State of Louisiana, that we feel it incumbent onus, as representatives ;of the people, not to allow the numerous er- rors and misstatements therein con- tained to pass uncorrected and un- contradicted. To our own people, the details of the political condition of the State are so well known, as to need neither explanation nor comment at our hands. In examining the address, we tind at every line much to contradict, much to denounce, nothiusc to applaud. Eepelling with indignation the asser- tion therein contained that the people of this State formed any combina- tion or coalition during the last canvass on any other basis or for any other purpose than to elect to the offlees of the commonwealth honest, capable and deserving citizens Uy a fair ballot and correct return of the votes cast, we claim that we accomplished our purpose fairly and honorably, as evi- denced by the official returns, and estab- lished beyond a reasonable doubt by the report of the committee of the United States Senate. As the legally elected General Assembly of the State, Ave were exceedingly loath last January to entertain under these circumstances any propositions coming from a cabal usurping the Government under the protection of the bayonets of the United States Army, demanding a recognition of its legality, and attempting a dicta- tion in the composition of a General Assembly. It is not true that the three parties forming the conservative coali- tion had agreed to accede to the dicta- tion of one in pledging during the cam- paign their united support to Gov. War- moth for the United States SenatorsUip; but, on the contrary, he had openly stated that he required and expected no such pledge at their hands. Far different was his conductthen from that of the usurper who seemed in the demands now made of the legally elected representatives of the people to be superciliously arrogant, and to possess the most unblushing effrontery. Hold- ing the welfare of the State, however, to be the paramount law to its rspreaenta. tives ia the discliarge of their duty to the State, the General Assembly, consid- ering well the circumstances by -which it was. surrounded, and weighing well the immense inlliience and power of the Federal Administration arrayed against it, gave to those propositions patient, careful, and oft repeated cousidera- tion. After a deliberate survey of the whole situation, and mature deliberation thereon, that body was forced to the conclusion that no good could be accom- plished by a compromise which reduced its legally elected majority to a power- less minority, holding their seats by the sufferance of an Executive and a hand- ful of his white personal retainers, most odious of all others to our people, hold- ing the balance of power and masters of the situation. Coupled as this con- cession was with the degrading condi- tion of the dishonorable and disgraceful abandonment of the eight Republican Senators who had so staunchly adhered to the cause of the people, alter casting their lot with us, for which alone they had been expelled from their seats in the Dryades street body, the Legislature rejected the proposition, although those Senators, as well as all other members of the Assembly, promptly and posi- tively demanded that no question of their future political status should form an obstacle to any feasible adjustment which might tend to the benefit of the State. Other reasons might be stated for the failure of the consummation of the compromise ten- dered, such as the repeated failures of the promised exhibition of proofs of the ability on the part of the usurpers to carry out the arrangement proposed. The main reason was, as we have stated, that it was plainly and painfully evi- dent that no good to the people of Lou- isiana could be expected from an Execu- tive, and a General Assembly composed at his dictation, who had already shown his utter disregard for the laws and a wanton neglecjt of the best interests of the State, and who in the very com pi omisa pro- posed by establishing a white majority in the General Assembly, sought to be- tray the little coulidence reposed in him by the colored population, who consti- tuted nine-tentks of the party by whose votes he ooutends that ho would have been elected had they been cast, anxl of which he claims to be fhe representktive as the Chief Magistraite of the Statti. In his position as United States Senator he 11 had avoided the responsibility of a vote 1 1 on Senator Sumner's civil rights bill by jj absenting himself from his seat, !j and dining the last campaign, I; he time and again counseled the defeat \' of Antoine and Brown, his colored col- leagues upon the Republican ticket, by advising a support of their opponents by his white Republican retainers, and having Republican ballots thus altered, prepared and distributed, (/*) as conclu- sively shown by the excess of his vote over those candidates. Nor did these efforts to betray the volrers of color cease at the election, but were renewed by declarations that he would never commission Brown, and by con- stant intriguing to supersede Antoine Ijiy admitting the election of Lieut.Gov. Penn (a), as well as by using the whole Executive influence to defeat for the United States Senatorship Pinchback, who, with the infamous Durell, had been the chief instrument in paving the way for his usurpation. Subsequent events as well have approved the wis- dom of our rejection of the terms of compromise then decided on, and have added conclusive evidence of how little reliance is to be placed on the most sol- emn promises of this political charlatan, who since then, in every instance where he has sought to seduce any portion of the people to allegiance to his rule by promises of local patronage, has proved faithless in the fulfillment of his pledges. In the parish of Grant, by his promise that he would, and the official announcement that he had, commis- sioned one set of parish officers, {y) his du- plicity allowed a discharged colored captain, (?/) with a company of disbanded colored militia, with arms and ammu- nition stolen from the State, to dominate for the space of a fortnight by every man- ner of outrage, oppression and outlawry, to seize and maintain armed possession of the public offices at the parish seat^ during that time, while his ofificial organ gloried in their supremacy and applaud- ed from day to day their continued tri- umph, the pretended Governor looked on, if not with complacent satisfaction, at least as an inactive, indifferent and culpably negligent spectator; until at last the legally elected officials, with his assurance of their having been commissioned, finding their constit- uents . outraged beyond endurance, resorted to force to reinstate the legally constituted authorities, and bloed was shed, for each drop of which, ^ whether of white or black, the reepon- '^sibility must rest upon his head. To 'Mother portions of the State, blessed with the most profound peace and good order, he has not hesitated.to dispatch, from the capital, the municipal police of the city— a force established and paid by its citizens for the protection of its proper- ty and peace (i) — armed with the most destructive ioiplements of war, as a standing army, to intimidate the people, to install his parasites at the point of the bayonet, and force his will upon an unwilling State. To these violations of law, and infringe- ments of the elemental rights of Amer- ican citizenship, our people have op- posed, mainly, a passive resistance, and only when confronted by a threatening armed force have they assumed arms in defense of their rights and liberties, and even then have remained strictly on the defensive, meeting every act of aggression with a calm 'and patient forbearance, wonderful iu a people of martial temper, conscious of overwhelm- ing numbers wherewith to punish the inso'enfe bravado of his insigniticant force (c). In all instances the utmost deference has been paid to the authority of the national forces, anil the people have promptly complied, with ready and loyal obedience, to the process of the courts, and to the orders of the officers of the United States, although exercis- ing functions, as they deemed, in plain derogation of their constitutional rights- Such is the character of the events which recently transpired in the parish of St. Martin, where, instead of the Republican candidates having been declared elected by both returning hoards, and instead of being a largely Republican parish, as telegraphed by the United States Mar- shal to the President, there were no re- turns by either board, and the United States census of 1S70 shows nearly an equally divided population of whites and blacks. Such has been tJie disposition and such will continue to be the conduct of the citizens of this State. Under cir- cumstances of the most trying nature, they have not failed to show to tbe world on all suitable occasions their deep de- testation of the tyranny of the pretender attempted to be foisted on them, and to evince their firm determination never willingly to bend to the yoke and only to tolerate it in the last resort when im- posed and retained by the irresistible force of tho national will expressed through Congress. In a few cases it is true that the incumbents of some of our judicial, and other parochial as well as municipal ofiices, have thought it neces- sary, in the interest of the people, to yield a reluctant and unwilling obedi- ence to the protended government, but iu no instance has it been rendered on any other ground than that the usurper possessed the support and strength of the United States Army wherewith to dispossess them of their offices and to fill them with his own creatures, who would still further plunder the sub- stance and add to the horrors of the dis- tress and misery of the people. Reve- nues for the support of his Government have been cut off by the refusal of the tax-payere to contribute the amounts of their assessments levied by the usurper, and in spite of his boasts to the contrary scattered throughout the Union, a small proportion of the taxes only, in the shape of license due?, baa been in the parishes of Orleans and Jeftersou alone wrung from our impoverished citizens by the threat of arbitrary incarceration for eontempt and tbe summary closing of their places of business without due judgment according to law, and thus to deprive them of the means of earning subsistence for themselves and their the Treasurer and sworn by the Audi- tor, (e.) instead of finding their way to the treasury, thence to be dis- tributed among the legitimate credit- ors of the commonwealth according to law, in payment of its just debts, are intercepted and diverted to the unlaw- ful purpose of creating a military emer- families. These dues, as alleged by gency fund for the subjugation of the people of the State, or pounced upon by the rings of plunderers and satellites who surround the would-be Governor. In all these acts a prompt and ready sup- port is tendered by a servile court, cre- ated for the purpose, its judge haviug been appointed by the usurper as a re- ward tor returning his pretended Excel- lency as elected ; and being vested with exclusive jurisdiction of suits concerning public matters, rushes with indecent haste to supplement by judicial dicta laws not deemed sutiicient in their scope to suit his purposes or to brush from his path others which he may consider ob- structive by a simple, general declara- tioaof their unooustitutionality, (/} and is ever over-zaalously prompt by every species of unheard ol: aiuluuprccodente'd extra-judicial orders invented for tho occasion to do his master's bidding. From this tribunal there is an appeal to the Supreme Court, but that bench, early in this contest, as the dispatch of the Collector of the Port showed, became partisans and participants in the plot of usurpation, and have since shown no disposition to change its course, id.) To all these oDpressions, usurpations, malfeasances, and manifold uses of the appliances of tyranny the people of the State continue to oppose a patient bear- ing, and wait with a confident trust that the National Congress will yet grant them that relief -which the report of the Senate committee recommended, and through which a returning sense of jus- tice, fortified by an intelligent knowl- edge of the facts of our case, must sooner or later compel the people of the Union to insure to us the blessings of a republican form of government. We do not believe that the Clerk of the House of Kepresentativeshas placed on the rolls of that body the names of persons holding Kellogg's certificates of election in advance of the decision of the House itself. Nor do webelieve that any other braRch of the Federal Government can. much longer sustain the continuance of the present regime over us, ■which grows day by day to be an increasing reproach to the Government, and a disgraceful scan- dal to the nation. True it is that the President in the support, as he claimed, of a judicial or- der of a United States Court, lent the strong assistance of the Federal Gov- ernment to the installation of the usurp- ation, and that he has continued to fos- ter its pretensions, but we must not overlook the fact that he has solicited from the Senate a revision of his action and a change in the attitude of the Government if that ])ody so desired, from that into which he had been led, it may be by hasty coun- sel, based on the illegal de- crees of a partisan judge, upheld by unscrupulous mendacity which dinned into his ear with persistency that the large body of the tax-payers sup- ported the usurping government from its inception, and that the remainder would soon acquiesce in allegiance to the new order of things, and that by a continued sanction of the uHurper the national executive would find the short- est road to peace for distressed Loui- siana. Of the fallacy of such state- ments and reasoning he must ere this have been convinced, and have become persuaded that the people of this States ffrm in the conviction of the righteous- nesB of their cause and confident of ultimate justice, will never "weary of resistance " to the spoliation of their in- alienable rights as a free people, which they, in common with their brethren of the rest of the American Union, derived from their fathers, and least of all will ihey basely abandon a strug- gle for their liberties and their rights before the contest is decided, and while it is yet pending in judgment of atl arbitrator which has already given earnest of a fair and impartial determi- nation of a cause in which to-day the weakness of Louisiana has made her plaintifl', but in which it may be to- morrow some other uprising pretender may make any other State of the Amer- ican Union a fellow-sufferer and a party complainant. For Legislative Caucus : Edw. Booth, Chairman. F. C. Zacharie, Secretary. AITENDIX. («) Packard telegraphs as follows : February 26, 1S73. Deputy Marshal De Klyne : Tell Kellogg agtain to keep his shirt on. He only irritates the authorities. When Congress adjourns the McEnery organization must be dispersed. The only compromise is for the McEnery members to take vacant seats in the Legislature.andthe latter must, upon the contest, seat the few Fusion members entitled, whose seats are now filled by Republicans. 'J'he Penn compromise mentioned in Kellogq's letters will not be tolerated, and I want to hear no more about it. Packard, U. S. Marshal. (b) In Gen. James Lougstreet's report, as Adjutant General, for the year ending December 31, 1871, page 1, occurs the fol- lowing passage : GRAJS'T TAIUSU. Arms were shipped to this parish last October, in charge of an officer, who was supposed to be discreet and of proper judgment, with instructions that the arras were to be carefully stored and hela subject to your orders. In violation of the law and of our standing orders, these arms were issued to a militia com- pany of that parish, and reports have reached us that the men of that com- pany have been parading with their arms in a semi-military organization, committing deeds highly prejudicial to good order and to the general interests of the community at large. A board of officers wa.g ordered to that parish m JNo- vember, "with instructions to investigate and report the facts. Tho report of the board was fully submitted to your Ex- cellency. lain, sir, very respectfully, your most obedient servant, James Longstreet. Adjutant General L. S. M. This "officer" of " supposed discreet and proper judgment " was William "Ward, Captain Co. A, 6th Regiment In- fantry Louisiana State Militia, who, immediately after the issuance of the j arms to his negro followers, which they conveyed each one to hia cabin, was in the habit of convoking them and run- ning wild over the parish. Men were halted and arrested, one killed outright for refusing so to do, by these "militia men," without warrant and order, and their outrages compelled tho following action, found on page 47 of the same re- port : State of Louisiana, Adjutant General's Office. New Orleans, Nov. 2, 1871 [Special Orders, No. 50.] I. A board of officers, to consist of Col. Henry Street, Assistant Adjutant General, and Lieut. Col. W. J. Behau, Louisiana Field Artillery, will assemble at Colfax, Grant parish, on Monday, the 6th inst., at 10 o'clock, A. M., or as soon thereafter as practicable, to investigate and report the facts connected with outrages alleged to have been counniti- ted in burning the house of W. B. Pbil- »{f8. Parish .ludge, and at the same time kilJin^Mr. D. W. White. II. The board is also authorized and directed to extend its investigations so as to include and report facts that may lead to the exposure of lawless organi- zations gotten up for such purposes of intimidation, ar.son and murder. III. The junior member of the board will act as recorder. By command of tho Commander-in- Chief: Jame.s Longstreet, Adjutant General. This court of inquiry reported the facts we have already shown, and in pursuance to its recommendation came the following order, found on page 48 of the same document : State of Louisiana, ") Adjutant General's Office, /• New Orleans, Dec. 11, 1871.) [fe-pecial Order .s No, 52.] I. Capt. William Ward, of Company A, 6th Eegiment of State Militia, hav- ing armed and paraded his company in violation of the laws of tho State and the orders governing the State militia, H9 also tlie special orders of Major J. S. Rivers of the Major General's stall', he is hereby placed under arrest. , , II. The Major General commanding \ division of the ijouisiana State militia, will designate an officer of his stall', with orders to proceed without unnecesary delay to Grant narish, with official notice to Cant. Ward of his arrest and suspension from all rank and au- thority m the State militia. III. The officer designated for this service will also receive detailed instruc- tions from his chief, to proceed against Capt. Ward in the courts of the State, as authorized and directed by its laws. By command of the Commander-in- Chief: Ja3ies Longstreet, Adjutant General. lu Henry Street's (purporting to be Adjutant General) report for the year ending December. 31,1873, (page 1.) occurs the folio wing: discharges, etc. On the 28th day of June last general order No. 35 was issued from this office, discharging from service the following named organizations of the First Divi- sion, Louisiana State militia : Ist Regiment of Infantry. 2d Battalion of Infantr3'. 3d Battalion of Infantry. 4th Regiment of Infantry. 5th Battalion of Infantry. 1st Regiment Louisiana Field Artil- lery. Comoany A, Ist Regiment Cavalrsr. Company A, 6th Regiment Infantry. Several of the companies thus dis- charged had served only a portion of the term for which they were mustered in : for instance, eomo had only served nine, some twelve and some hlteen months, and in every command there were members who had only served a short time ; but by that order they wore all discharged from further service. Which order is as follows (p. 27) : State of Louisiana. "^ Adjutant General's Office, / New Orleans, June 28, 1S72. ) [deneral Orders, No. 35. j I. The term of service of the follow- ing named commands, as provided in section 15 of an act entitled " An act to organize, arm and equip a uniformed militia," having expired, they are hereby honorably discharged from "the service, and under the law shall be exempt from serving in the militia, unless whon called into the service of the United States : 1st Regiment of Infantry. 2d Battalion of Infantry, od Battalion of Infantry. 4th Regiment of Infantry. Battalion 5th Regiment Infantry. 1st Regiment Louisiana Field Artil lery. Company A, 1st Regiment Cavalry. Company A, 6th Regiment Infantry. II. The commissi on.s of tho officers of these organizations, field, stall and line, respectively, terminate with the dis- charge of their commands. HI. To such portions of tho commands as are desirous of continuing their or- ganization, or of reorganizing, muster rolls will be fnruishcd. and they will be mustered find received, subject to Bec- tion 20 ot; said act. and the approval of Lbn Comraauder-in-Chief. TV". The Cotiimandei-in-Chief takes thia occasiou. at the terinination oi their hervice, to congratulate the otlicerH aud men of the yohinteer militia for the pat lioliHUi which they have luanifehted by oiit^aniziDg under tlie law, to thauli tbem tor the pcrviees which they have rendor- » <1 to the State, and to commend t.heni for the Kood discipUue which they have always maintained, aud the promptness and "alacrity with which they have oii«yed all orders. Bv order of tlie Commander-in-Chief. \V. F. fLvKPKU. Adjutant General. And on p. 21, in schedule F in the same document headed " List of Officers Dis charged by General Orders No. 35," appears : "Ward, William, Capt. Sfxth Ee.^i- ment lufantry." These orders were conveyed by au officer to whom iha arms were ordered to be delivered. Bat Ward and his ban- ditti refused to comply with tliis order, retained their arms and continued their course of robbery, pillage and outrage, until, emboldened by their success, they endeavored to seixe by force the gov- ernment of tho parfsb, in iinitation of Kellogg, and to have themselves recog- nized as do facio, although they were in mutiny aud insubordination against the Htate, and should have been indicted, tried, committed aud imprisoned in the State Penitentiary for their crimes and otl'onses, among which mutiny, riot and theft, and embezzlement of tho State property were the least ; arson, murder, burglary, and rape aud treason, the greatest. (d.) Collector of the Fort's dispatch to President Grant, December 1:3, 1873: The Supreme Conrfc is hnown to be in sympathy with the liepublican State Government. (Signed) J as. F. Casey, (Louisiana Investigation, page 59.) (c) In an interview with the reporter of the New York Herald Col. Padger, commanding metropolitan police at St. Martinsville, is reported as having said : " I suppose Col. De Plane has been act- ing more with a view of creating public opuiion against Kellogg than with the intention of taking us, as ho certainly has had tho force to accomplish more, and from Jus reoutation, should have done so, had ho desired." (e) The New Orleans Herald reports the Treasurer in a stated interview as follows : The first question propounded was : 1. Ls it to your knowledge that State tax collectors of the city have deposited their collections with the Auditor? Ans.— I cannot say that I know that they have, ot my personal knowledge. 2. Have you ever had an interview with Kellogg. Clinton, Field and Hawk- ins, or either ot them, regarding the funding bill, act No. SI. A. Yes. they all contended that the Treasurer should disregard the law. The conversation extended over three- fjuiirters of an hour. In considering the iourth question in a general way, Mr. F. Dubuclet answered that they had not drawn money out of the fund in ques- tion from the treasury, inasmuch as the Treasurer had ever declined to receive any moneys for this fund. To the fifth question Mr. Dubuclet slated that be had no meanij of knowing of the facts personally. To the sixth question Mr. Dubuc'et stated that he knew that such settle- ments had l>een made by the Auditor : but, although he had an impression that in one case, atlt^ast, the securities were solvent, he could not swear to their sol- vency. In the case of State of Louisiana ex rel. Auguste vs. State Tax Collectors. Charles Clinton, Auditor, sworn for respondent, says — I am Auditor of Public Accounts. Mr. Folger ottered to settle with me before the Oth of this month. I did not settle with him because I could not. It was the same way with all the other city tax collectors. I did not see their funds. They had warrants. The chief reason why t could not settle atid receive their warrants was because of an injunction by this court and the pending of a certain suit regarding the validity of act No. SI, of 1872, providing for the registration and payment ot State warrants and certificates of in- debtedness. I allude to the injunction issued re- straining tax collectors from paying pre- ferred warrants in settlement of li- censes. To the best of my knowledge the tax collectors came for the purpose of settling. They were then ready, and are now ready. The reason why I did not settle was for the cause above stated. Cross-Examined — As Auditor I am au- thorized to receive efiects of the State under the revenue law. I think they did all present a sworn statement to me. If they did, of which I am not certain. I told them that I was not ready. I think I had a right at that time to teU those gentlemen that I was not ready to receive them. I can't swear that any one of these tax collectors presented a sworn statement. My impression is they did. I undertook to tell them that I was not ready, because I thought it was to the interest of the State. These tax collectors gave me individ- ually, not officially, some of the money for safe keeping, collected by them for' taxes. .j^*^' The tax collectors paid to me iu the aggregate about $13,000 in casli— nowar- rauts. There was, perhaps, more than that. I told them that they sUouId send me some money, that the deposit should he made into the treasury so that I could pay the necessary expenses of the Government. I refused a full settlement because I lost, the suit -wherein the va- lidity of act JN'o. 81 was m qiaestiou— the full amoniit would bo absorbed. I did not do it officially and the tax collectors couW refuse to do the same if they felt lite it. I had the constitutional ofScers, pay- ment of judges, militia, and for the sup- pression of those rebel skunks out iu the parishes, to pay. I did not get more than $13,000 because I did not want it. The tax collectors did not make their settlement because I was not ready. There was no injunction against mo as tp these warrants. It is my business to take care of the State and protect its administration. I do not say that in my settlement with tax collectors I objected to their paying in money. I would not object to any collector paying in cash. I said that the tax collectors had these warrants, and because they had these was why they could not settle. That they had accepted warrants in payment of taxes, and that they could not settle except in warrants. One cause was the injunction before referred to. When a tax collector came to make a settlement I make out a state- ment to the Treasurer and state to what fund this money is to be applied — so much to the school fund, " general fund," etc. Mr. Field, Attorney General, in his argument, stated that ho did not arise for the purpose of defending the action of the State Auditor. The latter was only a witness, and he (the Attorney General) was not responsible for any remarks made by the witness. He did not believe m dragging politics into questions as regards judicial matters. Any man whose political prejudices in- terfered with his ofticial duties was not a fit representative of the people, tie then went on to sustain the grounds taken by respondents that inasmuch as they presented their respective aceounts to the Auditor within the time required by law, they had fully fulfilled their du- ties, and were not amenable to a writ of mandamus. After argument the mandamus was made peremptory. (f) New Orleans Herald, May 14th : The whole case showed that the tax collectors, although prohibited by an injunction of the Superior Court to re- ceive warrants in payment of taxes, had done so, and are now screened by the Auditor. After several little tiffs between Judge Hawkins and the Attor- ney General, in which the Attorney General claimed the right to diliet from the opinion of the Superior Conft, the Judge made the mandamus peremptory commaudiug tiie tax collectors to mak4 a settlement with the Auditor, and took occasion to reaffirm his decision with regard to bill No. 81, and denied the right of the tax collectors to refuse obe- dience thereto, even under the advice of the Attorney General, They must make a schedule of v/hat they have received, and offer to pay this in. If it is in war rants, the Treasurer will have to refuse to receive it. ACT NO. sx. This act provides, in eimplo and \\n- techuicol phrase, that the past due taxes, cellectablo previous to 187:3, should bo made a special fund to pay the war- rants issued previous to January' 1 , ]87;i, which warrants were ordered to bo duly' registered by the State Auditor. Ju case the taxes so collected were insuffi- cient to pay the warrants (a pretty cer- tain contingency,) then a special tax was authorized to be levied to (supply the deticieucy. Of course the object <(f this law was to assist those who had in- vested in that description of warrants. Some ring was to be prohted thereby. Still it was an act of the Legislature, and embodied a pledge of the faith of the State. There were honest peo])le, operators and investors, who accepted it as an assurance of this character, and who were enticed to hazard theii" money in such well secured warrants. It is impossible to conceiveof a clearer pledge and obligation of a State to a^?- ply a particular fund to a particular class of debts than is expressed in this law. But time moves on, and the Kellogg dynasty usurps the Government of the State, "and among its lirst acts places Hawkins on the bench, wliich has exclu- sive jurisdiction over all suits' against the State or its officials. Through the same usurpation Clinton is foisted into the Auditorship. Quickly after the con- summation of this stupendous fraud it is discovered that the general fund of the State, that which could be honestly drawn upon to support this usurpation to enrich its followers and supporters, was as empty as a village charity box. But there were special trust funds which were iiowing gradually into the various apartments of the treasury. As long as the laws forbade the use of these funds, except for certain pur- poses, that pink of piety, the Auditor of the State, and that trimmest of trim- mers, the usurping Governor, were greatly incommoded in their designs. How could they get tlie money to main- tain their army and navy, to satisfy the appetites of their Carondelet street brokers.and the ring holding the interest coupons of the State, to say nothing of p.aying the retinue of official retainers f Were all these to be left to " lick their dry chops," whilst the special fund set aside by a solemn ret of the Legisla- ture, to pay a special class of debts, was filled to overflowing ? The act 81. that hatefnl anti-repub- licaij act, so llagrantly violative of the iourteentl^and lilteenth constitntioual auieuclmenls, iinist 1)6 set aside, made uaught, aud the creditora who iuvested on the faith thereof lunst. tahe their chancea ^A')th the nuH(!ellaneou.s aud iiowliiig crowd of warrant- holders around the public crib. Let the abomin- able statute be nailed to the block. To this eml a niaudauius was liatched at'iiiust thtt Ano that it uiiglit bo reached in the tjjaiiiitr auil foi- the piirporfen, cia.Di3t^si and individuals named. Yesterdiiy the maudamua vras heard. The stout old acting Attorney General, innocent of the motive and end of the eet-up game, vi.gorously defended the Auditor against tlie demand, and in- sisted that the law shouhl bo main- tained and the special fund preserved. 'i"he Auditor did not appear to enter info the spirit aud zeal of this defense. On the contrary, his face was lit up with a radiant and joyful expression, when Hawkins cut short .all discussion by de