Wisconsin Mirror (Newspaper) - September 30, 1856, Kilbourn City, Wisconsin ALANSON VOLUME I to Mirror in Cirr County by A Editor a ADVANCE liu of ri or one lut J h Kir On Tin Six Out Kix On- KH tho above rates B r rates f ffi Ail tv bu 25 4.00 10.00 10.00 15.00 10.00 15.00 23 00 15.00 40.00 Investigation of State Affairs REPORT IK ASSEMBLY IS 1856 for in iwi Business l- linn OMM BUCK CITY A AX I- AW ix rii r anil Will vf fy Ab uf uf 1J 0 -I II John Tilin J H Kll iii li Jacob J Ci 11 Dr urn Hun ly II UK A 11 AN u REAL AGENT ii and to curry nick examination to the oj our State That they have a full thorough and careful examination of the books and papers of the several offices mentioned ing to nil transactions prior to January 1st and have taken such testimony as they could obtain relevant to the subject matter of tho investigation From the time of tho appointment of tho Committee in February to tho close of the session of tho in oat of March but littlo progress made in tho investigation on account of the in- convenience from tho fact that the books of the School Land Office were re- quired to bo kept most of the office during tho hurry of business and also from the fact that no convenient room could bo obtained for tho accommodation of the Committee until after the adjournment the Legislature As soon however ai the session closed tho Committee employed as many clerks as could bo employed to tage on the work with tho view to prosecute investigation with as much dispatch as would be consistent with tho proper discharge of tho responsible duty imposed them by tho Legislature The amount of mechan ieal labor required bo performed to your Committee to examine fully all thi books of the several Departments has boon very great It was found necessary to tran all tho books in tho School order that wo should have our owi books to work from and it was also found no to recast tho interest on all sales laud for each year from tho lime of the chase to 1856 in order to ascertain it u in Si I ilc 111 in in April 15 Tl village Hi 13 HOUSE till I 1 SMITH W A iTB in Iron Sin Work JOHN S r r U lil M A 11 lil nt ill iv k mi s lit tin nl AiN II mill nl Warrants il 111 Mr A H mid Public with sonio degree of certainty the amount of money paid into tho Treasury arising from the of School and University lands Owing to tho loose and careless manner in which the books in the offices of the urer nml School Land Commissioners havo heretofore been kept tho prosecution of this investigation has been greatly retarded the labors of tho Committee much more onerous and tho lime necessarily expended much more extended than it would have boon had tho books been kept in a correct and atic mariner In tho School Land Office in particular the books are disfigured and de- with erasures of mimes and figures and mimes and figures substituted with in- remarks and alterations which in many rendered it impossible to either the original entries dates or amount of principal and interest entries in tho Journal of tho without any regularity of dale being made for instance ns late as July or August and then going buck to rom the Treasury on his To what practice has prevailed your Com- have able to It of er and irer lifter the of Janssen was discovered Governor gave en his note or Mr or seven hundred and twelve and dollars which was received by as cash and There Janssen and sideration of this swears it was given for lands purchased by Win M Seaver was given for money or and for the payment due on School in the names of ler O W H safes of 1855 Gov Barstow also makes a1 statement in regard to this tion which is herewith transmitted to the first examination of Mr Seaver the Committee and after the statement of Gov Barstow wais made to the Committee Mr Seaver requested lie might On the second ex- amination by his affidavit hereto annexed he thinks that this was not given for purchased by Gleason would also call the tion of the to another sible which prevailed in the Office in the Acceptance of drafts by Treasurer parties either having an appropriation or in anticipation of one TJn der this system mistakes have doubtless oc currod by the payment of both the accept auco arid the It would ap pear that in this way an overpayment was made to ik Wendt of doyen hun dred dollars and to Mr of cee five hundred and fifty dollars Mr Sea ver seems quite positive that they Andrew Proudfit one thousand dollars for their own use And et if the testimony of Messrs Janssen er and Byrne is to e only the spirit but the letter f this law has been violated Mr Byrne admits an his examination that in the name of In entering School Lands ni that it by from he Attorney General Mr Besley admits hat he entered lands for his own use in the name Howell Mr Seaver r Assistant Secretary of State was in the of entering land he name of Gleason and and that 10 has seen Chandler assign ovet certificates o Hunt Dr Hunt contradicts this Mr so far as relates to will more his the principal and interest duo thereon has been paid and the holder of such is entitled lo a Patent lands described thereon the original and duplicate certificate shall be cancelled and patent from the State for the land described in such certificate shall be issued by ers person or persons entitled thereto which patent shall be sigued by the countersigned by the Secretary of and tho great seal of the State thereto Sections 32 and 33 of tho same Chapter that whenever a person shall desire to purchase any land hie shall make application to the Secretary of State iii writing for the lot or tract which he poses to and that the shall be filed in his office jut Mr Proudfit as will be seen by his test mony is as confident that Mr Seaver is taken The Treasurer also paid Beriah Brown three thousand dollars without any of law on the certificate of the Secretary of State that Brown had done work to that amount Among tho vouchers in tho office of tho Treasurer the Committee found an en- graved draft and acceptance of which the following is a Wis Oct 1856 John Warren Hunt y On the fifteenth of next ai State Bank par the order of Andrew five hundred and od W HUNT To the State Treasurer of Wisconsin Across I he face of the draft is written Accepted E H Janssen State Treasurer Seavor asst davit Mr Daniel Howell and 3r Gleason joth swear they person o use their names in had no interest whatever in these lands It will be seen by the annexed list of of School Land that largo quantities of lancii have been entered name of Mr Mr Gleason Mr McKinnon Mr Chappell and Mr Chandler which shows degree the which this system iff fraud has be en carried There are other which have been used this way quite as extensively but the committee could not without great expense and the witnesses before them The wisdom of the law which intended to prohibit these transactions will be denied when their legitimate fruits laid before the of the slate It was unquestionably as pears from the testimony Hugius of some persons in of the to mark land or reserved from to enable parties interested in the purchase to explore and examine them before the purchase was thus those in tho office or such of their friends whom they might desire to favor not only a great advantage over outsiders but investing them Arbitrary power which was used to the of those who may have applied forthe lands before the purchase was consummated This matter was presented to the attention of the committee by the appearance in eral instances of marginal notes on the sales Book in pencil to the effect that tha lauds opposite which the note was made were re- served from sale for the accommodation of tlie person named As ah instance we will mention that on the sales book in tBo of the Commissioners of School lands op- sections 21 and town 25 range 18 in the County of St Croix there is an entry in pencil which Mi Habich thinks is in the hand writing of Daniel Seaver in the following viz for Wm A This was subsequently sity be supposed to have some regard for the best of the fund should have been willing to enter this land for his own use at an acre when it had already been sold for twelve times that amount The recommend that thp ent 703 arid the certificate to ell for numbered from 102 to both inclusive be recalled and cancelled In connection with this subject it may Ife well to allude to in which the busing of the office of the has been conducted The testimony Messrs Powers By rite Habich and shows beyond The Secretary of State shall then enter on a book to be kept for the purpose a note of such application specify the day when made the name of the applicant and description of the land applied for and shall also give to such applicant a memorandum stating such application and describing the tract and lot of land specified in his tion stating tho price at which the same may be had and the amount to be paid at the time of sale which memorandum shall be signed by the Secretary The applicant shall then produce such memorandum to the State Treasurer and pay to him such sum as shall be required by law to be prepaid The Treasurer shall then give a receipt therefor not only without system but in a grossly careless and negligent and without regard to law By the law as cited it seems the of the that the ing of the certificates by the Secretary of State should be a check upon the issue of without prepayment of the amount required by law But it appears that the Secretary of State Attorney General and Treasurer wore in the habit of signing large quantities of certificates in blank and ing them in the bauds of clerks in the School Land Office to bo filled out as occasion might require These certificates after being signed and countersigned in blank were left in the office where every one had access to them they were not even locked up For the purpose of enabling parties holding these certificates to have them recorded the Jaw provides that they may be acknowledged The clerks in the office were in the constant practice of filling out the certificates of acknowledgment and signing their names as Notaries without their haying been acknowledged by either of the Commissioner Mr a clerk in the office says that it was customary while he was there to de- liver certificates of School Lands tq parties on to settle with the Treasurer for them and that they had no means of knowing whether they were paid for Ho moreover says that clerks employed purchase required to be prepaid he in- several usually shall countersign and deliver the the kept a deposit with the Treasurer to meet any amounts which might be due tor cates taken by them and that they usually took their certificates and said they would settle with the Treasurer for them but ho did not know whether they did so or not It cannot be a matter of surprise that un- giv to the applicant and shall make out execute and deliver to such person a duplicate of sale in which he shall certify the description of the land sold the sum paid the amount remaining thereon and if it shall be duly discharged the purchaser or his assignee shall be entitled to a patent for such land and the original and the duplicate certificate shall be properly numbered and signed by the and countersigned by the Secretary of State and the original shall be filed and recorded iu the office of the said Treasurer and no certificate unless the duplicate shall bo so signed shall bo valid in law Section 39 provides that pre- to the Secretary of State of the duplicate certificate and the receipt for the purchaser and make a note thereof in the book of entries stating the sum paid and the amount of purchase money due Section 38 of the same chapter provides that upon Thoy could only be governed by the The books in the office of tho show that these penalties are attached and that the parties were liable for them but the amount is not found on the books the Treasurer's office nor is there any dence that it was paid except tion arising from the testimony of Messrs Janssen BesTey and Keuhn which goes to show that the practice was to enforce ment The Committo havo no longer any doubt that penalties to a large amount were attached for the nonpayment of internet on sales of Laud in which some of those in the several offices of the State -t f Whether paid or not in either to the School Fund is the same Mr sen in his statement Committed swears that he received of Mr in ruary the sura of which had already been entered on the books and charged This was for in- terest and principal required by law to be prepaid on lands purchased long before the time they were paid for as appears by date of some of the stubs others of them were not and may have been for certificates issued the year previous Janssen thinks as the amount of these stubs had been ged to him on the Treasurer's books before the of Byrne other have been charged in tho same way never paid It may bo so and probably is but there M no way of ascertaining tho amount So and long as the Clerks were permitted to eni uary of sumo year This confusion of Mirror 1 Vo Mill iir I Ei in ucs ami 11 i ii In ami In ti liberal it O ri- ut tho of SV U Jan I W JENKINS 1 1 I A X A- S N IOW TOUT WIS BOWM AN N WIS UKO K NOBLE CITY kind I calle 1 d for N VAN A 13 i- A jai N on t his u liis ol Horse Shooing will Work uf nil done on e manner of lint 1 Wisconsin Mirror JOB OFFICE to do all kinds o increased to a groat extent tho amount of labor necessary to bo The vouchers of the wore found in great confusion There was no arrangement either if namn or but they wore thrown into confused mass Those extending through i of eight years had to bo arranged mil com pared with tho corresponding entries MI tho Journal of the Treasurer Many of vouchers are missing and many of those aid tho Committee as vouchers were because they afford no evidence of the payment of money to any person A list of missing and rejected vouchers is hereto annexed marked B Tho rule adopted by the committee in re- lation to those vouchers in connection with tho settlement of tho Treasurer's was to allow tho Treasurer credit for all which had been mado by the ture oven though there should be no er or only a defective one for the payment It may bo proper horo to call tho attention of the Legislature to a practice which bus pre- to some arising out ot the present defective system of auditing accounts against the State The practice alluded to of tho auditing ry of State or his auditing and allowing drawing and ins amount of tho sumo for the it purports to belong This prac tico is liable to gross abuse and should corrected at onco It appears that as been drawn from tho Treasury in without authority of law Legislature of 1855 refused to make ny appropriation for tho i the School Land Office It the of Messrs Janssen and Seaver that the adjournment of the the Secretary of State Mr Gray and the Geo B made an ar- authorizing Walter H Besley to raw on tho for tho sum necessary o tho salary of tho clerks Mr Besley n with this arrangement drew his on tbo Treasury and overdrew tho amount due tho clerks in the of nine dollars or thereabouts see the list narked T It would scorn from tho testimony ot Mr that this arrangement in us absence with Mr Soaver the Assistant Treasurer and tho overdrawn has never been refunded by Mr Boaley It This draft is endorsed by Andrew fit and from the fact that it was among in the office the pre- sumption is that it wits paid at the Treasury no amount on tho Treasurer's book corresponding with the draft and tho Committee are satisfied that it never was entered on the books Mr Proudfit ted to the Committee that ho had no lection of tho circumstances in relation to it Dr Hunt in his testimony that this draft with two others: of the same iu all amounting to about were as payment for that sum was Mr on appropriations and he sum for which the drafts were accepted vas receipt given by to he Treasurer fortho sum of the time the The testimony of Mr Habich who was a cleric in tho office of the State Treasurer while Mr Seaver was Assistant Treasurer crives -some of the manner iri which justness office was taken in connection with tho statements Mr Haipin and Mr Martin shows that while Mr Janssen was absent from Madison called OB ami Particular niton POSTERS OF ALL KINDS 1 M HAUL I nn KUd home by the sickness of his family Mr ver was under no bonds for the faithful performance of his duty was not only grossly inattentive duties of the but habits such as totally unfitted discharge those duties It seems that he frequently found in the office in of with doors of the other persons not connected with tho were with that upon two occasions he into the of- fice in the night time and opened the vault That on- another found in the vault with another of them intoxicated These things were well known to persons about the it seems there from what was that on hen :Mr.: SeaVer went into the vault of the nt night on that same night he ost several hundred dollars gaming It was also known that liquor was tept in the vaults It is a matter of as that such of things should lave been permitted to continue for a day and the question which naturally to person is was no one o exorcise any authority in this matter? no check to the gross and improper of one who had the solo charge of os of It seems also known to several of the witnesses that Mr Soaver was in the habit of speculating m purchased in the name of Augustus Story in February 1854 The book on which the entry is made to Story copied from a book of previous date and opposite his entry in pencil rather indistinctly written also in pencil kept for W Brewster have a of some months be- tween entry in pencil and the date of the entry of Story's name on the books was opened in 1851 and this land have remained on the book a long time before the entry of name It will also be seen that Mr Frary a clerk in the Office testifies that in while the the amount of School to any one was iu the Legislature and before its passage ha took pains to mark some of the now standing on the School Land books as sold to Daniel sold to him at that time and that he did so by direction and under the authority of persons who had the control of the sale of School Lands but declined to state which of them gave him those directions It is apparent that entries of names were frequently made oii the sales book originally in pencil and afterwards the batne name en- tered in Tho object of this becomes tho receipt or other writing the Secretary shall charge the Treasurer with the amount received by him as therein ed and shall enter the name of the person paying the same the number of the cate upon which tho amount shall be paid nnd the time of payment It will here be seen that the Legislature endeavored to guard closely against tho improper issue of certificates and Patents without the ment of the amount registered by law Section 10 of Chapter 24 Revised utes provides that not less than ten per cent of the purchase money and interest on tho balance from the date of tho purchase to the first day of January next following shall bo on all School and University lands sold This law has been repeatedly violated issue of certificates to in the and others without the ment of any portion of the amount required By law Mr Besley admits in his testimony that he did not pay for the Patent which was issued to him for Section 18 Town 23 Ratine 22 but he says that nothing of the previous sale of this section to This is very strange when he was chief Clerk and had frequent occasions to examine and refer to the books in the office It will be seen by his testimony that he states that at the time Ludington purchased his section it had not been appraised and it was not appraised till some time in 854 That he examined the books and ers in the office and could find no other of the land than that at one parent after reading the testimony of Capt Hugins who was for some time a in that office By the sales it appears that on the first day of May 185.4 James Ludington purchased the 1 6th section in Town 23 Range 22 in Brown county at from ten to fourteen shillings and on each lot for expense of appraisal Upon this chase Mr paid ton per of the purchase money the interest to to the sum of On the 8th day of is however but right to state loy denied this when before the Committee and stated that ho had settled his account with tho Treasurer and had a receipt in fill from him which ho promised the to produce before them but did not do so It will bo scon moreover by the of Messrs Habich and tha State officers and clerks wore allowed to take money from tho Treasury in anticipation of their salaries leaving no other of their indebtedness than slip of on which was written Good for mentioning the Amount uken names to it Mn Wn ScaVer has frequently lent him mone unpaid School Lands in direct of the law which precludes the Commissioners of School and University Lands from purchasing any of said Lands cither in their own name or in of other person See Sea 54 Chap 24 RS It may said that Mr was not a he was as the unon which the law preclude him all the fn the School Land office weH is Uie i object of certificates Ludington were still out uncancelled and i recalled H chief clerk in the School Land Office purchased the same land iri the name of Daniel Howell for twelve and one-half cents per acre and on each lot fori expense of appraisal making the the section upon which were Howell and upon which there pur ports to have been paid by the sales book cents per lot and interest to 1 1856 but upon which there by sthe of State to have been nothing paid By tho Patent book it appears that on th 14th day of September 1855 a Patent for the of this same section was issued to W H without the payment of a lar and while thirty-two certificates were out and while Ludington or the holder of was still paying in- terest on the purchase for this same land Here was a direct and tion of the law by a person holding a re- sponsible position in the School Land nient Section 24 of Chapter 24 Statutes provides that when full payment shall have been made for any such lands as der such a state of things with such ces prevailing in express violation of law there has been a lanje issue of School Land certificates upon which nothing has over been paid This is the case with of certificates issued in tho names of Daniel flowell Wm Chappell and K H Gleason in which land it appears the clerks and some of the acting commissioners were di- interested It will be recollected that the certificate the amount paid and is in the hands of tho holder an acknowledgment on behalf of the State that the amount required prepaid with the interest to the following January has been paid The subsequent in- terest upon many of those certificates has been paid and many if not all of them are now undoubtedly held by ers without notice of their fraudulent issues It will be on important question for tho consideration of the Legislature as to tho tion to be taken in relation to them They were issued in violation of law but the sub- sequent holders had no means of knowing that fact as they wore fair upon their face The amount of loss to the School Fund ing from this source is sixteen thousand two hundred and forty-five dollars and ninety-four cents as will more fully pear from the table hereto annexed marked While it appears from the testimony that the rule of the Commissioners in relation to extensively in buying and selling School Lands by those to whoso care the people had entrusted them these frauds were to havo been expected and are tho direct result of the allowance of such practices After Mr Byrne had been once examined by the Com- in relation to the entry of lands by himself and others Mr Geo B Smith tho former Attorney General requested the Com- mitteo to permit Mr Byrne again to appear before them and explain his former ny As Mr also expressed a desire to be again heard tho Committee ined him as will appear by his affidavit with submitted marked 2 In tho first affidavit he stated that the Attorney eral gave him permission to enter lands In the second one ho says that while ho was a Clerk in tho office he had permission from all the Commissioners to enter School Land That subsequently the Attorney General found ho had entered a largo quantity and objected to it and told him he ought not to have bought too much and said that when he Byrne asked permission to he posed he only wanted to buy or 320 acres Mr Byrne then told Smith that he had a perfect right to buy school lands and if Commissioners considered it wrong or inconsistent with his duty as a Clerk So was willing to bo Mr Byrne that after this ho was permitted to retain his position in the office for more than a year Mr Frary also stated that the Clerks entered lands by permission of tho Tho fact that tho Attorney eral objected to the entry of these lands by Byrne is evidence of the ho took ng per acre n It is rather remarkable that his examination of the books and search or the appraisal ho should not have found halt the whole section had already to ludington at an appraised value of from ten o fourteen shillings per acre The ee find a small book without any ion oath or even signature to be an appraisal of this section t one shilling per acre Had this appraisal sworn to and certified according to the of the it would have been void as to this land for section 11 of the act approved March 15 1852 providing for the appraisal of school lands in counties therein named is as follows in this act shall bo appraised or sold at a less sum than one dollar and five cents per acre And the act approved March 19th 1852 Act in Relation to School provides that all School or University lands that shall remain shall bo appraised in the manner vided by the March 15th 1852 then that pretended appraisal of 1854 at one shilling per acre was void only because there is no evidence that the appraisers were sworn and that the is not signed or certified but because it was violation of the law And O enforcing the payment of penalties was in accordance with the requirements of tho law which provides that in case of a failure to pay interest on a Joan or on money due on sale of School Land within the time specified by the statute the party so failing shall for- feit and pay to the State five per cent of the due there appears a largo de- in tho Treasury arising either from the non-payment of these penalties or from the amount collected not having been ed on tho Treasurer's books and credited to the Slate The amount of loss to the School Fund from this source is twenty-three thousand six hundred and seventy-eight dol lars and seventy-seven cents which wil more fully appear in the accompanying table marked K It is said by some of the clerks in the of- fice that it was not in the hurry of business for persons desiring to pay interest hear the expiration of time prescribed by of the impropriety of his so doing under tho law prohibiting the Commissioners of School and University Lands from any of said lands This view undoubtedly was that tho Agents or Clerks had no right to do what tho Commissioners could not And as the Attorney General knew that Mr had been guilty of entering quantities of land it is certainly remarkable that he was retained in the office especially as Mr Byrne intimated to him that he should continue to violate the law which ho did do by subsequently entering large tities of land This not only brings home to the Commissioners a knowledge of these transactions but shows a on their part that they should be continued It will be seen by the testimony of Mr Gen Wm E Smith and Mr Keuhn that are made to a certain letter by some one in the city of New York to Mr n 1 Besley cates in relation to School Land This letter was found in a desk in law for the payment to make a deposit of tho School Land Office and was placed in the possession of Mr Powers for tho of Committee by Gen Smith as will be seen by his testimony But permitted Mr Besley to take tho letter after it was deposited with hini Mr thought that Mr Janssen took a copy of it but Mr Janssen says that it WM letter which he copied The Committee could not therefore avail themselves of the information which ter would have afforded them in relation to the illegal issue of except M they could gather its fro'tn theno who had read it It seems from tho mony of Gen Wm R Smith that the ter was addressed to Mr Besley from money wil it would seem that there must have been an appraisal of this section previous to the chase of Ludington else how could ures have been obtained for which it was soW to These figures are opposite each y- added as usual to the appraised value for of Mr Williams a clerk n the office in his testimony says that the fact of the figures being there and being ried out opposite each is evidence that it appraised for they only could have been obtained from the appraisal In the they are put down heading uj T produce to the the duplicate certificate of jury and This appraisal cannot be found At a one in New York upon the subject of School ith the Treasurer for the payment I Lana Certificates That the general bf the interest duo and that the receipts port of the letter was that there wta were made out subsequent to the expiration organized club or company for the of the tune This may hare been so but of school hinds or purchasing the Committee was governed hy the books in order to sell the same in of the Treasurer presuming that they were york or elsewhere and that the correct as to the dates It would have been ter was an operator for the Company or dob an easy matter to have made the time of and that sode person under a disguised payment appear on tho books if the namo in the letter was in New York merits had been made in timel of making deposits is one under law easily have been evaded and come from Madison to New York An should not be allowed in any case The dication was also given that ing out a blank receipt could occupy but be sent on as it was a good time to lie more time than taking the deposit and if the testimony of Mr potting it into the vault Iri some cases money due on a deal of land WM which came to tho knowledge of the Com- never also found to be the the penalty was paid by the party fict by an investigation of the of the but no entry of the amount was found in Treasurer and other the Treasurer's This so in the crs and the Clerks m the School Of- case of Andrew Proudfit where appears fice were interested in the penalty attached of aome twenty-five these and the testimony of Mr not found credited to the School Quu Cbw J Kaiie k of The practice another person under disguised name r which the was either in Madison or was expected to is um- the School which was not found credited J but which he for agents for the of Mid which he took a receipt from the Treasurer and tbU or his assUUrii Tbe could not to them for UM i from all the parties from 1 of Mr that whom it Appeared that penalties were due
