The Sun.
London, England, 1862-01-28 00:00:00

AMERICA.

LIVERPOOL, MONDAY.

The Cunard Royal Mail steamship Asia, Captain
Lott, has arrived with advices from New York to
the 15th.
In the House of Representatives, on the 13th,
Mr. Dawes, from the Committee of Investigation,
renewed the debate on the Government contracts,
in the course of which he said,—

" The very first contract entered into by this Go-
vernment, after the troops had left their homes to
come here, in April last, to defend the capital, by
which they were to be fed, was a contract entered
into for cattle. It was not made with a man:whose
business it was to supply cattle to the market—
not with a man who knew the price of beef in the
markets of the country—but was entered into
by the Government here with a man well known
in this and in the other branch of Congress,
for the last ten years, as an old stipendiary—
one of the class of men who, in times past, made
their money by such operations as buying the cer-
tificates of members for books at a discount, and
then charging the full amount. The contract was
made sothat the first 2,200 head of cattle furnished
was charged at a rate which enabled their original
contractor to sublet it in 24 hours after to a man in
New York who did know the price of beef, so that
he put into his pockets, without stirring from his
chair, 32,000 dole., and the men who actually fur-
nished the cattle in question put into their pockets
26,000 dols. more, so that the contract under which
these 2,200 head of cattle were furnished to the army
was so made that the profit of 58,000 dole. was rea-
lized over the fair market price. It takes a longer
time for a thousand head of cattle to reach this city
from the States where they are purchased than it
takes the army to consume them. I ask the house,
at this rate, to consider how long the most ample
provisions of the Treasury would be able to meet
the simple demands for the subsistence of the army.
Sir, poorly as the army is shod to-day a million
of shoes have already been worn out, and a million
more are being manufactured; and yet upon every
one of these there has been a waste of 75c. Three-
quarters of a million of dollars have been already
worn out, and another three-quarters of a million of
dollars upon shoes is now being manufactured. In
that department of the Government contracts have
been so plenty that Government officials have gone
about the streets with their pockets filled with them,
and of which they made presents to the clergymen
of their parishes, and with which were healed old
political sores and cured political feuds. Even the
telegraph has announced that high public function-
aries have graced the love-feasts which were got up to
celebrate these political reconciliations, thus brought
about while the hatchet of political animosity was
buried in the grave of political confidence, and the
national credit crucified among malefactors. We
have reported to us the first fruits of these con-
tracts. A regiment of cavalry lately reached Louis-
ville 1,000 strong, and the board of army officers
there, appointed for the purpose, have condemned
485 out of the 1,000 horses as utterly worthless.
The man who examined these horses declared, upon
his oath, that there was not one of thorn worth
20 dols. They were blind, spavined, ringboned,
afflicted with the heaves, with the glanders, and
with every disease that horseflesh is heir to. These
485 horses cost the Government, before they were
mustered into the service, 58,200 dols., besides over
an additional 1,000 dols. to transport them from
Pennsylvania to Louisville, where they were con-
demned and cast off. There are 83 regiments of
cavalry to-day, 1,000 strong. It takes 250,000 dole.
to put one of these regiments on foot before it moves.
20,000,000 dols. have thus been expended on these
cavalry regiments before they left the encamp-
ments where they were mustered into service, and
hundreds and hundreds of these horses have been
condemned and sect back to Elmira, and to
Annapolis, and to this city, to spend the winter.
Any day hundreds of them can be seen round this
city chained to trees, where they were left to starve
to death, Gangs of 200 horses, in various places,
have been thus left to die and rot, till the Committee
on the District of Columbia have called for a mea-
sure of legislation to protect the city from the dan-
ger to he apprehended from these horse Golgothas.
An ex Governor from one State offered to an ex-
Judge of another State 5,000 dols. to get him per-
mission to raise one of these regiments of cavalry,
and when the ex-Judge brought back the commission
the ex-Governor takes it to his room at the hotel,
while another plunderer sits at the keyhole, watch-
ing like a mastiff, while he inside counts up 40,0001
dole. profit on the horses, and calculates 20,000 dole.'
more upon the accoutrements and on the other de-
tails of furnishing these regiments. In addition to
the arms in the hands of the 600,000 soldiers in the
field, there are numerous outstanding contracts made
with private individuals—not made upon adver-
tisement, not made with the knowledge of the public,
but made by ex-members of Congress, who know
no more of the difference between one class of arms
and another than does a Methodist minister. There
are outstanding contracts for the manufacture of
Springfield muskets, the first one of which cannot
be delivered in six months from this day. There is
a contract for the supply of 1,000,000 muskets, at
28 dols. apiece, when the same quality of muskets
are manufactured at Springfield for 13 dols. 50c.
apiece ; and an ex-member of Congress is now in
Massachusetts trying to get machinery made by
which he will be able to manufacture in some six
months :hence, at 21 dols. apiece, those rifled mus-
kets manufactured to-day in that armoury for 13
dols. 50c. Providence, before six months, will dis-
pose of this war, or He will dispose of us. Not
one of those muskets thus contracted for will be of
the slightest service in this emergency, or before
the providence of God, whether for good or for
evil, will dispose of it. I ask my friends, from the
North and North-West how they expect to bene-
fit by an armoury at Chicago, at Rock Island, and
at Quincy, when 1,092,000 muskets will, according
to this contract, be thrown upon the country, and
that after the war is over, and at such an enormous
price, in addition:to other outstanding contracts for
the manufacture, some time hence, of 272,000 En-
field rifles ? Besides these, 75,543 sets of harness
are to be delivered by and by at the cost of
1,978,446. I have not time to enumerate all these
contracts. When we appropriated at the last Ses-
sion of Congress for this purpose 20,000,000 dole.,
thirty seven millions and some thousands of dollars
bad been already pledged to contractors—not for
the purchase of arms for the men in the field, not to
protect them in fighting their country's battles in
this great emergency and peril, but for some future
use, for some future occasion, or to meet some pre-
sent need of the contractors, I don't know which at
this moment. And not only the appropriation of last
Session has been exhausted, but 17,000,000 dole.
put upon it. The riot of the 19th of April in Balti-
more opened this ball ; and on the 21st of April, in
the city of New York, there was organised a corps
of plunderers of the Treasury. 2,000,000 dols. were
intrusted to a poor,unfortunate, honest, but entirely
incompetent editor of a paper in New York to dis-
pense in the best manner he could. Straightway
this gentleman began to purchase linen pantaloons,
straw hats, London porter, dried herrings, and such
like provisions for the army, till he had expended in
this way 390,000 dols. of the money, and then he
got scared and quit. (Laughter.) Theretios
thean 'Mr o-
priation, also, for the supply of wood
y.
This contractor is pledged the payment of seven
dollars a cord for all the wood delivered to the dif-
ferent commands, wood collected after the labour of
the soldiers themselves had cut down the trees to
dear the ground for their batteries ; and then this-
contractor employs the army waggons to draw
it to the several camps, and he has no further
trouble than
to draw his sevenn, dollars for
a cord, leaving the Government to raw the wood.
(Laughter.) It caste
two
i millions of dollars every
day to support the.army n the field. A hundred
millions of dollars-have thus beenexpended since
we met on the 22d day o-
time
and all that
time the army has been in repose. What the expen-
diture will increase to when that great day shall
arrive, when our eyes shall be gladdened. with a
sight of the army in motion, 1 do not know.
Another hundred minions will go with the hun-
dreds more I have enumerated. Another hundred
millions may be added to these before the 4th of
March. What it may cost to put down the rebel-

lion I care very little, provided always that it be '
put down effectually. But, sir, faith without works
is dead, and I am free to confess that my faith
sometimes fails me —I mean my faith in
men, not my faith in the cause. Th) Treasury
notes issued in the face of these Immo:: se outlays,
without a revenue from Custom-houses, from land
sales, from any source whatever, is beginning to pall
in the market. Already have they began to sell at
six per cent, discount at the tables of the money
changers ; at the very time, too, that we here ex-
hibit the singular spectacle of fraud, and of a
struggle with the Committee of Ways and Means
itself, in an endeavour to lift up and sustain the
Government of the country. Already the sutler—
that curse of the camp—is following the paymaster,
as the shark follows the ship, buying for four dollars
every five dollars of the wages of the soldiers paid
to them in Treasury notes. I have no desire to
hasten the movements of the army or to criticise the
conduct of its leaders, but in view of the stupendous
draughts upon the Treasury, I must say that I long
for the day of striking the blow which will bring this
rebellion to an end. Sixty days longer of this state of
things will bring about a result one way or another.
It is impossible that the Treasury of the United
States can meet, and continue to meet, this state
of things sixty days longer, and an ignominious
peace must be submitted to unless we see to it
that the credit of the country is sustained, and sus-
tained, too, by the conviction going forth from this
hall to the people of the country that we will treat
as traitors not only those who are bold and manly
enough to meet us face to face in the field of strife,
but all those who clandestinely and stealthily suck
the lifeblood from us in this mighty struggle."
Mr. Baker, of New York, reviewed the financial
condition of the country, and advocated the passage
of a tax bill to realise 100 million dols. The appro-
priation for continuing the coast survey, stricken
out in committee of the whole, was restored by the
house, and the bill was finally passed. On the 14th
the house resumed the consideration of the bill to
abolish the franking privilege, and after a lengthy
discussion passed it by a vote of 107 against 42. In
committee of the whole the bill making an appro-
priation of 35,600 dols. for the exhibition of Ame-
rican products at the London World's Fair was
taken up, and a lively debate followed, from which
we extract the following :
"Mr. Julian (Republican), of Indiana, made a
speech, maintaining slavery as the basis of the in-
surrection, and that national life and liberty can be
saved only by giving liberty to all.
"Mr. Conkling (Republican), of New York, said
At the extra session a joint resolution was adopted,
authorising the President to do certain things
touching the World's Fair, and appropriating to
carry out that resolution the sum of 2,000 dols. The
bill now before the committee proposes to appropri-
ate 35,000 dole. in addition, to eventuate the pur-
pose of this resolution, and the amendment submit-
ted by Mr. Maimard forms and parcels out and de-
votes to certain specific purposes indicated the whole
or a large portion of the appropriation. Now, for
one, I am opposed to the original bill, and equally
opposed to the amendment offered by the gentleman
from Tennessee. If the question now before the
house is a motion to strike out the existing clause, I
am for the motion. I believe that, at this time, we
have matter of much more importance to do with our
money, whether it be the sum of 35,000 dollars,
or any greater, or less sum, than to send any commis-
sion to a fair in England, or to pay freight to Lon-
don on any articles there to be exhibited. We have
a World's Fair now in session on this continent.
We are all on exhibition before the world, and we
are within the sight and within the hearing and un-
dergoing the examination of all Christendom. There
is a competition going on here, a grapple for the
mastery in the fine arts, and in the arts that are not
so fine, and we are destined here, if deserving of
them, without this appropriation, or any portion of
it, to receive premiums and diplomas, and to have
monuments erected to our national industry and
skill, which will stand in very conspicuous places on
the banks and shoals of time. There is a theatre
here, abundant for the display of every species of
national proficiency at this time, affording an oppor-
tunity to record, high up as any man desires to see
it recorded in the Temple of Fame and on the page
of history, American capacity. It is said that it
might seem at this time like turning a cold shoulder
to Great Britain if we were not represented at the
coming carnival of industry of all nations. I do not
think that the English Government—l do not mean
the English 'people—has been at this particular
time inclined to stand so very much on what I have
heard called the high pints' of good behaviour, as
she has been on some other occasions ; certainly not
so much that we are called upon to devote 35,000
dols. to purposes of urbanity, if for otherreasons we
ought not to do it. I think we have treated England
exceedingly well. If recent reports in the papers
are true, we have extended recently at least one
marked act of courtesy to the British Government
as to the transit of troops. If, therefore, we•ought
not for other reasons to appropriate this money, I
think that considerations of politeness will not con-
strain us to do it. I hope that the amendment will
fail, and that every proposition will fail to give, at
this time, one cent. to send abroad from this conti-
nent, to find another theatre on which we may make
an exhibition of any arts or sciences or powers that
we may possess. _

" Mi. Lovejoy, (Republican), of Illinois—l am
very decidedly opposed to this bill. I think it is
enough for us, in all conscience, to have been hum-
bugged, and dishonoured, and disgraced by the
British nation, without now appropriating 35,000
dols. for the purpose of an American Exhibition
there.

" Mr. Kellogg, (Republican), of Illinois, inquired
if it had been through the action of the British Go-
vernment, or of our own Government, that we have
been thus dishonoured and disgraced?

" Mr. Lovejoy—l understand how it was done.
That disgrace was all that the nation could bear.
We marched up to it sweating great drops of blood.
We came to it as Christ went to the cross, saying,
' If it be possible, let this cup pass from us;' and
yet we are required to say that we did it cheerfully
—that we did it gladly—and that we now appro-
priate thankfully 35,000 dole. to fit out commis-
sioners to appear at the Court of St. James's. In-
asmuch as we have submitted to that disgrace, as
we have submitted to be thus dishonoured by Great
Britain, I think the least we can do is to acknow-
ledge it, and to stay at home till the time comes
that we can whip that nation. Then I will be will-
ing to go and appear at their World's Exhibition.
Every time I think of that surrender, the words
come instinctively to me which /Eneas used when
requested by Queen Dido to rehearse the sufferings
which had befallen the Trojans during the siege
and capture of Troy—' Oh, Queen, you require me
to renew tho intolerable grief of that siege by re-
acting it.' Every time the Trent affair comes up,
every time that an allusion is made to it, every time
that I have to think of it, that expression of the
tortured and agonized Trojan exile comes to my
lips—l am made to renew the horrors which I suf-
fered when the news of the surrender of Mason and
Slidell reached us. I acknowledge it, I literally
wept tears of vexation. I hate it, and I hate the
British Government. I here now publicly avow and
record that hate, and declare that it shall be un-
extinguishable. I mean to cherish it while I
live, and to bequeath it to my children when I
die; and if I am alive when war with England
comes, and if I can carry a musket in that war,
I will carry it. I have three sons, and I mean
to charge them, and do now charge them, that
if they shall have at that time reached the years
1 of manhood and strength, they shall enter into that
war. I believe there was no need for that surrender,
mid I believe that the nation would rather have gone
to war with Great Britain than have suffered the
I disgrace of being insulted' and being thus unavenged.
I have not reached the s
—that exaltation of Christianity which u
bli
ma
tion
hoifeh aChristianityallows
m
e
and ti
to be insulted, abused, dishonoured. I can bear
say that I do it all that as a Christian, but toi a
cheer-
fully is more than I can bringai myself
nt to. I trust in
God that the time is not far when we shall
have suppressed this rebellion,- and be
have
we
prepared to
avenge and wipeout this insult that
received. We will then stir up Ireland
appeal to the Chartists of England, we Ireland, we will
will g. to
the old French habitans of Canada, we wili-joio,

THE SUN, LONDO

hands with France and Russia to take away the
Eastern possessions of that proud empire, and will
take away the crown from that Government before
we cease. I trust in God that that time will come.
I trust the appropriation will be voted down. One
of our commissioners, I understand, is the individual
who writes those pleasant letters, asking us to sub-
mit to insult cheerfully—to smile at this bitter cup,
drugged with the bitterest ingredients that were
ever pressed to human lips, and not to make a face
about it. I don't believe there was any necessity for
this surrender. I am strongly inclined to believe
that we should have been all the stronger for this
difficulty with Great Britain, for it would have
made us feel the necessity of making short work
with the rebels.

" After further debate the house passed the bill
by a large majority,—Adjourned."
The bill reported by the Committee of Ways and
Means, making appropriations for the support of
the army, provides for the support of the army for
the year ending the 30th of June, 1863, as fol•
lows :

Dols. Cts.

For expenses of recruiting, transportation
of recruits, and compensation to citizen
surgeons for medical attendance .. .. 180,000 00
For purchase of books of tactics and instruc-
tions for volunteers 50,000 00
For pay of the army .. .. 8,905,318 00
For commutation of officers' subsistence .. 1,574,186 50
For commutation of forage for officers' horses 283,414 00
For payments to discharged soldiers for
clothing not drawn • • • • • • 150,000 00
For payments in lieu of clothing for officers'
servants .. .• 71,630 00
For pay of volunteers under Acts of 22d and
25th of July, 1861 147,283,282 00
For subsistence in kind for regulars and vo-
lunteers .. • . . • • • • . 58,429,170 80
For the regular supplies of the Quartermas-
ter's Department .. 3,300,000 00
For the incidental expenses of the Quar-
termaster's Department. 16,000,000 00
For the purchase of cavalry and artillery
horses .. .. 3,913,680 00
For mileage or the allowance made to offi-
cers of the army for the transportation of
themselves and their baggage, when tra-
velling on duty, without troops, escorts,
or supplies .. 1,000,000 00
For hire or commutation of quarters for offi-
cers on military duty, hire of quarters for
troops, of s orehouses for the safe keeping
of military stores, of grounds for summer
cantonments, for the construction of tem--
porary huts, hospitals, and stables, and
for repairing public buildings at estab-
lished posts 3,500,000 00
For heating and cooking stoves .. .. 75,000 00
For gunboats on the Western rivers 1,000,000 00
For contingencies of the army .. 400,000 00
For clothing for the army, camp, and garri-
son equipage, and for expenses of offices
and arsenals • • .. 30,630,717 91
For the medical and hospital department.. 3,500,000 00
For contingent expenses of the Adjutant-
General's Department, at department
headquarters •200,900 00
For compensation of the clerk and mes-
senger in the office of the Commanding
General .. 200,000 00

For contingent expenses of the office of the
Commanding General .. 300 00
For supplies, transportation, and care of
prisoners of war .. 1,124,576 00
For amount of fortifications .. 1,620,500 00
For the current expenses of the ordnance
service • • • • • • • . • . 732,600 00
For ordnance, ordnance stores, and supplies
including horse equipments for all mount-
ed troops • • . • • • • • • • 7,380,000 00
For the manufacture of arms at the national
armoury .. .. 1,800, 00 00
For repairs and improvements and new ma-
chinery at the national armoury at Spring-
field, Massachusetts .. •150,000 00
For the purchase of gunpowder and lead .. 1,100,000 00
For additions to and extension of shop-
room, machinery, tools, and fixtures at
arsenals .. .. 500,000 00
For surveys of military defences .. .. 100,000 00
For purchase and repair of instruments .. 10,000 00
For printing charts of lake surveys • . 10,000 00
For continuing the survey of the Northern
and North-western lakes, including Lake
Superior .. .. 105,000 00
For pay of two and three years' volunteers 50,000,000 00
For payments to discharged soldiers for
clothing not drawn •50,000 00
Fc,r subsistence in kind for two and three
years' volunt ers 26,668,902 00
For transportation of the army and its sup-
plies .. 14,000,881 00
For the purchase of dragoon and artillery
horses .. 1,661,040 00
For clothing, camp and garrison equipage 12,173,5i6 77
For the medical and hospital department.. 1,000,000 00
For amount required to refund to the Sates
expenses, incurred on account of volun-
teers called into the field.. .. 15,000,000 00
Mr. Cameron had retired from the Secretaryship
of the Army. It is alleged that he did not agree
with the President in managing the war on sound
principles with reference to slavery questions. Mr.
Cameron was inclined to take the Abolitionist view
of things, and advocated arming slaves. Therefore
the President had permitted him to retire, and had
placed in his stead a man who was presumed to be
sound on these questions. The new Secretary, the
Hon. E. M. Stanton, is a lawyer, and has been for
many years a resident'of Pittsburgh, in Pennsylva-
nia. He acquired in his profession a reputation
for great ability, industry, and administrative skill,
and those who are best acquainted with him unite
with those who know him by reputation only, in
according the highest praise to his personal cha-
racter, honour, and integrity. Mr. Stanton is in
politics a Democrat, of very firm principle. In ac-
cepting office under the President it is understood
that he makes no compromise of his principles.
The present necessities of the nation rise altogether
above political distinctions and party names, and,
while the President is a Republican and Mr. Stan-
ton a Democrat, both are agreed in devotion to the
Constitution and the Union, and in approving a
constitutional administration of the war. •On the
slavery question it is well known that Mr. Stan-
ton's view, like those of the President, are firmly
opposed to any of the schemes of proclaiming eman-
cipation or arming the slaves. Mr. Stanton was
Attorney-General in the Cabinet of Mr. Buchanan,
at the close of the last Administration, and was
then distinguished for the firm and patriotic course
which he adopted. The appointment was said to
be highly satisfactory to General M'Clellan, and
the entrance of Mr. Stanton upon office would, per-
haps, be signalised by army movements which
would show that the Commander-in-Chief had been
no laggard in the great work.
The Washington correspondent of the New York
World alludes to other probable changes in the
Cabinet :
" The city is filled with rumours respecting the
probable* retirement of at least two other members
of the Cabinet. The Hon. Caleb B. Smith, Secretary
of the Interior, and the Hon. Montgomery Blair,
Postmaster-General, are the gentlemen indicated by
the gossip of the hotels. Mr. Smith, who enjoys
in a high degree the confidence of Mr. Lincoln,
will, it is said, assume one of the vacant seats in
the Supreme Court, while Mr. Blair will decline
any other appointment at the hands of the Presi-
dent. People who profess to know say an un-
guarded letter to General Fremont, in which Gene-
ral Scott and other high officials are criticised, is at
the bottom of this matter. Mr. Holt may fill Mr.
Smith's place, and Mr. Colfax, of Indiana, Mr.
Blair's, but of course nobody knows anything about
it. The President has every confidence in Mr.
Weller, and he is not to be disturbed."
In a collision which occurred on the Bth inst., on
the Michigan Central Railroad, Judge William T.
Barron, of the Probate Court, in Chicago, met
death in a most remarkable manner. He was among
the passengers on an accommodation train, which
was overtaken by an express train near Hyde Park,
and with the rest of the passengers in a rear car
rushed forward to get out of danger, Just as he
got on the platform of the car the collision occurred.
The force of the collision drove the platform of the
passenger car under that of the baggage car, so that
by some means Judge Barron's body wad drawn
beneath the platform of the latter, where it stuck
while his head was cut smoothly off and hurled
along upon the snow. Both hands were also cut
off just above the wrists, one of which was found
only after a long search. When the head was
picked up the eyes were .open and every expression
of the face was as natural as when in life.
The Boston Journal of the 13th instant makes