The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1835-03-17 00:00:00

ceeds: --

"The report demonstrates that from the organization of the
government, down to the year 1829, the clerks in the depart-
ment were authorised by law • their salaries regulated, and
their number, at all times, specified; and when an increase be-
came necessary, they were employed iu pursuance of law.
But in the year 1829 the reform administration commenced its
operations. General Jackson came into power, and exclaimed,
I am to expound the constitution and to see the laws executed,
as 1 understand them. My secretaries, and other subordi-
nates, are my agents. They are to do my biddings. I take
the responsibility! From that period we hear nothing more,
or very little (and that little incomprehensible) as to congress
authorising, from time to time, an increase of the number of
clerks. They are only called upon to appropriate the money to
pay them. The law on this subject, as on every other con-
nected with the execative department, has become a. dead
letter, and is totally disregarded.
"The report presents, in a clear and intelligible manner, the
effects of this glorious system of reform, so far as the Post-office
department is concerned, and the means of ascertaining the
facts, were furnished to the committee. A similar probing into
the Indian, the pension, the land, and other departments, it
is believed, would unveil enormities- equally, if not more cip--
palling. What are these effects? According to the report,
there is employed a! present,
" In the Post-office department 90 clerks, receiving salaries
per annum, 82,500 dollars.
"The law authorises only 38, at salaries amounting to 39,700
dollars.

"Employed without authority of law 52, receiving salaries of
42,81 X) dollars._

" Is there a patriot in the-nation that can cast his eyes upon
such a picture, and not feel that the goyim nment is rapidly ap-
proaching a consolidation of all power in the hands of one man;
and that iran tauntingly proclaiming to the nation and to the.
world—' 1 take the responsivaity.,
" It is admitted, by the report, that contingencies will arise,
where occasional expenditures must be rnadewithout the pre-.
vious authority of law; and they, therefore, instituted au in-
quire into that desc,ription of expenditures 'wilder previous ad-
ministrations. ThOlesult of this-laberfi proves` thitt.from-1189•
to April, 1829, forty years, the excess of expenditure . beyond
. what was previously authorised by law, and .for which subse-
quent appropriations were made, was 26,713 dollars, being an
average of 670 dollars per annum.
"From' April, 1829, to December 31, 1834, being less than
six years, under the reform administration, the excess.of expen-
diture, for these contingencies, beyond what was authorised by
law, was 120,434 dollars, being au average of more than twenty
thousand dollars a year, or nearly as much, in each year under
the reforming system,. as was expended iu the whole period of
fur:y years before it commenced operation. •
" The incidental expenses of the department, exclusive of
salaries and clerk hire, Bce.,,now amounts to the gnomons sum
of about ninety thousand dollars a year. •

In the above, three departments alenamed in which
" enormities equally, if not more appalling," prevail.
These, however, are to be probed by and by. Mean
while, we continue with the Post-office; in which Ottit-
DIM' B. BROWN, a personuge whom we have before
now had occasion to make honourable mention of, cuts

•
a conspicuous figure
" On the 27th April, 1816, a joint resolution passed congress,
requiting a register to be annually published, containing a• list
of all the officers, with their salaries, 8:c. Obadiah B. Brown
is here reported as chief clerk, at 1700 dollars per annum. In
the course of his examination he 'was compelled to state that
as superintendent of public buildings he received 500 dollars
per annum in addition. This &ice is unknown to theilaw, and
is not reported as having any existence ; nor . does any but the
initiated know from whence the money is drawn. How many
hundred such cases there are under the government, as now
reformed, can only be conjectured. •
"In relation to the state of the books, and the manner .of
keeping the accounts, the report affords. information of a cha-
racter not less astounding. '1 he law as it now exists, requires
that the accounts of the Post-office'department shall be settled
at the treasury quarterly. By a communication from the trea-
sury to the committee, at appears that the accounts arc. only
settled up to the Ist July, 1829; and that when they are under
examination, no inquiry is made as to the legality of •any ex-
pentlitures•by the department.
"The post office patronage is presented in the report, in bold
relief ; and a pretty exhibition it is, under the reform system. The
number of postmasters is about ten thousand seven •hundred.
Their emoluments about nine hundred thousand dollars a year.
The compensation to Contractors is nearly two millions of -dot-
lars a year. Until 1829, being a period of forty years, no.
removal of these officers took place but -for cause. Since that;
period thirteen hundred have been dismissed: The minority. of
the committee wished to examine into the causes of these,re-
movals, but the majority overruled the proposition.
"Previous to 1829, all bids for contracts.were delivered at the
office, sealed and kept sealed, until the day for receiving bids
had expired. • As soon- as the reform conarnenved, however, Mr.
Addison, a clerk in the office swore that by the direction' of
0. B. Brown from 1829 to 1832. he opined the bids froin day
to day, as they came in. That they were kept locked up in a
room, of which he had the key. liOtiody had access to this room
but himself :and Mr. Buco. From conversations with Mr.
Barry, he has no doubt they were opened. with his knowledge:
What glorious pickings the reform system, •in those days, must
have afforded the disinterested theippiodl of the azteninistration.
"But in 1833, the clamour on this subiject beeame loud and long.
The whole hog. men took the 'scent. • lhe tuarnals wereprolific.
The stye was in an. uproar. There were:mote pigs titan teats
Mr. Brown was, therefore, removed from the arduous, duty of
examining these bids. It.was then assigned to the two assistant
Post Master Generals. The reform system retrograded. The
old hacknied mode. of.keeping the, bids sealed tip was-again
resorted to;. and on a.reference to the report it will be seen that
during the years 1829, 1830,' 1831, 1832, the most *flagrant cases
of improvident contracts and: wasteful, if riot corrupt, allowances
took place.
The report states, that no authority by law has .ever been
given to the Post Master General .to alter or change contracts,
or to give .up one and substitute another,, and yet, under, the
reform system, this has • been the, daily pracrice„since 1829;
and this, too, without. the idle .(orrnality. of,ailvertisiug, which
only tends to produce competition and create divisious " among
brethren of the same principle." In 1795. a case occurred
where it was necessaay to make en alteration. Congress passed
a special act authorizing it. In, 181, a case arose where, the sub-
stitution of a new contract for an existing one was required. •A
special act was passed granting the authority. In 1825 the Post
Master General.was authorized to grant additional compensation
for additional services, provided. Such compensation waspro 'rata,
and not otherwise.
_ _ _

In titter contempt and defiance of, these legal prohibitions,
or the want of legal authority, the report
.demonstrated :that in
numerous cases, some of threat, of,vatt magnitude,. allowanees
have been made where no services were rendered; in other
cases, where the services weremorpisra/, the provision that allow-
ances should ",be pro ram" is disregarded. Contracts have
bean made totally different fromthe advertisements; thus com-
mitting a fraud tiprin the fair and Aionett •P,Truietitnr,. who was
not a favourite with the department:.
" Anothersystem of frauds upon the
,goveriunent and the ini-
tiated is what is called combined,
.amalgatnated, di impro,.;ed
bids. :This consisicin linking tl,ether various routes,. so as to
render it:diflicult to understand tuoir bearing.and Operation.—
The effect of whiqh
,is to drive front the road small capitalists,
unless they,will consent u bec;one su6contractors.
" A practice bas,prevailed also which is noticed in the. report,
and ekamples of
.its opetation given, where. low bids ate made,
in some cases fiet4inus,, and when the contract is to be executed,
the parties are not tube found.. In. these cases, so* kind friend
of theslepartmeot usually steps in, and takes the contract on. his
own terms. These bids have bectithq
‘so comzuoa .that they.aie
technically termed straw bids." •

The above will suffice for. The present, it being, we,
calculate, as fine—p
a dish as ever was' set before are-
sident! Poor Sir•Joim KEY was a deeply injured man:
America is the place for patriots of his '-order.