The report of the commission sustained the charges of the governor but in part. It was shown that the amount of the warrants had in some instances been fraudulently increased; that warrants to the amount of $240,000 had been issued in excess of the appropriation of 1871[377]; that many warrants for extra pay to officers and clerks had been issued on the resolution of but one house, contrary to law; that $40,000 had been fraudulently issued to committees for mileage on official duty, when, according to the journals, they had not left the city; and that the signatures of the State officers had been forged in various instances. The commission condemned the loose manner of conducting business in the warrant office, but brought no specific charges. The opposition press charged the governor with holding up this report for months and publishing it at the opportune moment for him--just before the assembling of the legislature in 1872.[378] An important decision in regard to the limitation of the State debt was rendered in May by the State Supreme Court. The matter came up on appeal from the Eighth District Court of New Orleans, where a suit had been instituted to compel the auditor to issue a warrant on an appropriation of $50,000 made in favor of a Mr. Nixon. The auditor had refused because the law authorizing it violated the recent amendment, as it increased the debt above the constitutional limit. The Supreme Court affirmed the decision of the lower court in favor of the auditor, contending that “the evidence in the record leaves no doubt that the debt of the State exceeded twenty-five million dollars on or before the first of March, 1871.”[379] FOOTNOTES: [282] Jan. 15, 1870. “Whereas different persons and separate organizations are contending for recognition as the Central Republican Club of the State of Louisiana.... Resolved That the organization thus attempted be permitted to take a back seat in the gatherings of the great Republican party of this state, and that the door of the Republican Temple shall hereafter, like gospel gates, stand open night and day, until all political sinners, including even the erring ones from the New Orleans Customhouse, shall have time and opportunity to return decently and in order to their father’s house.” La. House Jour., 55. [283] See above p. 29. House Journ., 1870, 252. [284] Warmoth himself thought that “if it had not been for that amendment there would have been no division.” House Misc. Doc., 42 Cong., 2 Sess., No. 211, 380. Dibble, however, thought that opposition began when he refused to sign the civil rights bill of 1868. _Ibid._, 298. [285] _Ibid._, 298. He alleged that the custom-house party printed 500,000 tickets in opposition to the amendment and distributed them through the State. It is also significant that almost all the Republican votes against the amendment were cast in the third ward where Dunn and Lowell lived. _Ibid._, 382. [286] _Ibid._, 128.