MINNESOTA. 



566 





and criminal remedies. No private UNO of public 



. |.iililie officer*. 

 tuurtered corporation* by 8tat6 always supor- 



te iii the interest ol tin- |.e..pli-. 

 I". The party in power IB responsible lor thu ud- 

 ininiHtration of ilu- L'OVI rnment whilf in imwrr. 



RoU'e<l, Tliat tint nomination l>v the Republicans 

 of u noted lalary-grabber in the Brut congressional 

 di-tiiet, of an apologist and defender of thai outrage 

 in the second, and of one of the m<>>t un>eriij>ulouM 

 congressional lol.KyistH in thu third, shows tin- inter 

 holli\vne-s ..fall Republican promises of n -form. 



''<</, That the stintling exposures of corrup- 

 tion in '['the State Treasurer and Auditor, 

 ied tlirou^'li MI many years of Republican ud- 

 minUtration, eause just alarm to all good citizens, 

 nonsirate anew the impossibility of reform 

 within the Kupublican organization. 



The election, hold on the 8d of November, 

 resulted in a Republican success. 8. J. R. 

 McMillan, Republican, was elected Chief-Jus- 

 tice by a majority of 10,492 over his Demo- 

 cratic opponent, Wescott Wilkin. The former 

 received 51,607 votes, and the latter 41,115. 

 Republicans were elected to Congress in each 

 of the three congressional districts, viz., Mark 

 H. Dunnoll in the first, Horace B. Strait in 

 the second, and William S. King in the third. 

 The Legislature is classified as follows : 



In the early part of the year facts came to 

 light which indicated that, by official corrup- 

 tion extending over several years, in the Audi- 

 tor's department, the State had lost large sums 

 of money. The official against whom these 

 charges were made was Charles Mcllrath, who 

 had been State Auditor from January, 1864, to 

 January, 1873, having been elected for three 

 successive terms of three years each. During 

 this period Mr. Mcllrath was also ex officio 

 Commissioner of the State Land-Office, and had 

 the general supervision of all lands belonging 

 to the State, of those in which the State had 

 an interest, and of those held in trust by the 

 State. Of the class last named were large 

 tracts of land held by the State in trust for the 

 University of Minnesota, for other educational 

 purposes, and for internal improvements. The 

 law provided for the sale of the timber on 

 these lands, and for the payment of the pro- 

 ceeds into the State Treasury. The charge 

 brought against Mr. Mcllrath was, that he had 

 not only neglected to collect the full amount 

 of money actually due the State from this 

 source, but had neglected to pay into the 

 Treasury large sums of what ho had collected. 

 In February, 1874, a committee of three was 

 appointed by the Legislature to investigate the 

 affairs and management of the office of State 

 Auditor. This committee was authorized to 

 sit during the adjournment, and was directed 

 to make its final report to the Governor. This 

 report was filed with the Governor, September 



4, 1874, and showed that the late State Audi- 

 i. r had received, on account of timber tut on 

 ad- lands, $77,041.18 more than he had 

 paid the State Treasurer; that his management 

 :tain .-tumpage traii.-actinns in Kandiyohi 

 ( 'oimty, and of certain hind.- in ll un- pin ( 'r,un- 

 t v, had resulted in a loss to the State of tin- 

 further gum of $12,618.04; that the examiner- 

 appointed by the late State Auditor to i 

 t> him the, quantities of timlxT cut on the State 

 lands had made a systematic business of de- 

 frauding the State for pecuniary considerations, 

 hv r, porting the quantity cut as less than the 

 actual quantity, leaving the unreported quanti- 

 ties as the subject of spoliation by those whose 

 duty it was to protect the interests of the State 

 in these matters. 



It was also shown by the report that the 

 quantities cut were, by collusion between the 

 claimants of the logs and the examiners, so 

 under-estimated that, allowing for all that the 

 State received, and all that its officers received 

 and did not pay over, the State has been de- 

 frauded of large sums of money. 



The committee conclude their report as fol- 

 lows : 



One of the most astonishing developments of this 

 investigation has been the utter lack of material in 

 the Auditor's office from which your committee 

 could obtain information, or even a clew regarding 

 transactions involving thousands of dollars. In 

 place of a clear exhibit upon the pages of the books 

 of the office of important transactions, we find in 

 some instances loose memoranda giving indefinite 

 information of an ambiguous character ; and in many 

 cases involving matters of great consequence, nothing 

 whatever can be found in the office in any manner re- 

 ferring to them. The labors of your committee would 

 have been greatly lessened if they could have had ac- 

 cess to any authentic record of the transactions re- 

 ferred to, but the almost entire absence of data in the 

 Auditor's or Land Commissioner's offices upon which 

 to base our investigations, has imposed upon us a 

 vast amount of labor in obtaining the information 

 from other sources. 



Tinder the instruction of the Governor the 

 Attorney-General at once brought suit against 

 the ex-Auditor for the recovery of $94,641. 

 When the inquiry arose as to what remedy the 

 State had to indemnify itself for the losses sus- 

 tained, the surprising fact was developed that 

 Mr. Mcllrath had executed no official bond at 

 the beginning of or during his last term, and 

 therefore there were no sureties to proceed 

 against. 



The financial transactions of the State ore 

 summarily presented in the following exhibit : 



Total receipts during the fiscal year ending 



November 29. 1878 $1,881.810 87 



Total disbursements 1,148,06996 



Leaving a general balance of $188,150 91 



The acknowledged bonded debt ot the State 

 December 1, 1874, amounted to $480,000, which 

 has been contracted since 1867, chiefly for the 

 erection of buildings for State institutions. 



There are, however, bonds amounting to 

 $2,275,000 outstanding against the State, the 

 validity of which has been disputed. These 



