Edwardsville spectator. [volume] (Edwardsville, Ill.) 1819-1826, 1822-09-21

DER and organization which have been in.
PRODUCED, under it, into almost every
branch of the public expenditure. In
making this declaration, we are aware
that we expose ourselves TO the charge,
from those who have received differ
ent impression, of being studied culogists
OF the administration but as we know,
from careful examination of facts, that
they will bear out our assertion, no such
consideration shall restrain us from a
correct and fearless dispensa,ion of the
Justice we know to be due. We wish
not to be understood that there has been
10 instance of neglect or mismanage-
ment. That would, indeed, be almost a
miracle. The disbursement Of so many
millions annually, and through so many
hands, must be followed by occasional
losses, and even mismanagement; but
we do assert, and are ready with the do
cnments TO prove, that the present admi-
nistration greatly exceeds those which
have preceded it, in economy, and the
punctuality OF rendering and settling the
public accounts. The assertion is not
made TO raise it, at the expense OF its
predecessors. Our object is neither
eulogy nor censure, but to repel charges
which are unfounded. The capacity and
integrity of former administrations, and
their anxious desire to save the public
money, cannot be questioned but the
state of parties, and the foreign relations
OF the country, and not the public dis
bursemcnls, claimed their chief attention.
The present administration, on the con-
trary, being freed from all such difficult
ties, has turned its attention, in great
degree, to the disbursements of the 60
yernmenl. 1t vii not be expected that
we should establish these general asser-
tons by minute review of the whole
monied transactions ofthe administration.
A few striking facts will suffice. The
list of unsettled balances may itself be
appealed 10, with the utmost confidence.
This black list, as it has been called,
which has been placed in hostile array
against the administration, will be found,
on examination, to contain very few items
" ith which j, can be fairly charged. We
have sufficient reason to know that these
balances do not deserve the importance
attached to them. They are not, as has
been often asserted, an exhibit of the
losses of the. government; but simply,
as they purport to be, accounts remain
ing unsettled on the books of the Audi
tors of the Treasury. Such, however,
as they are, and the blame resulting from
them, must be charged, not to the pre-
sent administration, but almost wholly
to the preceding ones; particularly to
Mr.. Madison's,* most of them having
originated in the late war. II is strik-
ing proof ofthe little regard to truth with
which political accusations arc made,
that the very party in Congress which
has made SO much ofthese balances, and
has attempted to bring the whole weight
Of them against the administration, COM
prises the protested euogists of the sys-
tenn of economy and accountability which
they assert to have prevailed under the
administrations of Mr.. Madison and Mr..
Jefferson, during which period the greater
part of the balances accrued. We have
heard of the impotence of malice: Fac
ton is not less impotent. The very per-
sons who have given the greatest i'm
portance to the list of balances, thereby
designing and expecting to shake your
confidence in the administration, when
facts come TO be understood, will be
found, very unintentionally, to have
given it the most efficient support. 1t,
indeed, the amount on the list OF default
ers be such as to excite alarm and dis
trust, then the praise which ought to be
bestowed on. the administration for the
efforts by which they have been reduced,
ought to be great in proportion. This
praise is fairly due to the present adj
ministration. II has done, as we have
already asserted, but little to augment
these balances, while its efforts to reduce
them have been incessant and greatly
successful. Without referring to the
other branches of the government, we
will turn to the lists on the books OF the
second and third auditors, who have the
settlement Of the disbursements made
through the War Department, against
which the opposition has made the
greatest efforts, The balances of unset
tied accounts, on the 4th ofMarch 1917,
the day on which Mr.. Monr"e's admin
istration commenced, according to their
statements amounted to S59.447, 1856 ;
at the close Of 1921, this amount had
been diminished to about S6,2OO,OOO,
and still further reduction has been
doubtless effected by this time. The
lists of the other auditors have also been
greatly reduced. The truth is, that the
late war, as we before ntimated, greatly