Constitutional Whig. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1824-1832, 1830-10-19

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winch wswoOd be boundin honor resist and win VI
seancs never 90 be aPpeascdBut pardon much on ,be
esteem q nj ri,OIrp" o
TO Messrs John Taylor Wade Hampton Jr John G. Brown
Pierce NJ Butler, aud w liam arper. "'
From the Frankfort Kentuckiap
REFORM.
we have recently had our reflections excited by
Ie-iesoing the celebrated retrenchment" report 81
1875 The retrenchment committee was pot nm sor
party effect. No man, to whatever party be NAV
oe'ong will deny this, if he respects his Character
~, tne h"moiest dlscernment, or the most ordinary
Sanoor ne committee was composed of five Jack
sonians and two friends of Mr. Adams The com
nttee was instructed to examine all the expenditures
OIL government, and to determine whether ard where
retreuchment could be effected The co,nm,ae
made the examination, and the jackson nort Of :, ~
proved nothing. 1t rarely, indeed that .thpp.
part OF the committee became Sufficiently d;st;n., -
max MAKE spechc censure However an implied cen
sure covered the whole face of their report. A.
particular example CT it we here give an extract
Fhey had inquired of the heads of the several d.
partmente IT the number of their clerks or their SAL
ares could be reduced and had been answered that
they could not In commenting upon these answer,
they say: e'S
your committee feel great difficulty in concurrno
IN thls opnien This difference between their im
pressons and the opinions of these officers has COW
WINGED them of what could in no event have hoar,
doubtful that without the cordial aid of the Execm-
tive, no effective scheme of retrenchment con h.
,lsuteu: nenceh u.s. that the conviction expressed
oy tnese ofhcers added to the fact that it was i'm
possible for the committee to ascertain bv Their o,
examination, the amount of labor done by each claw
In the several Offices has prevented them from nro
posing any specific reduction in the number of c,,
IN the several offices, because thev were arnrah
sive' without the concurrence of opinion and coon.
ratlons OF the chief of each Department. thew mjrh,
cut OF some useful branch of the public service in
aiming at the excelsior of some unnecessary ono,
Your committee, however, as will be seen in tho ,es
timony reported in the appendix obtained information
enough to satisfy them shat, by udcious system of
institute ed by the executive officers themselves
at least one third of the present number of clerks in
the departments might be reduced with safety tn the
public interest" ~
Now it is not here asserted that there was extr,
yagahce In any one department; is nsinuated that
there was extravaganza in all of them But what
has been effected since these reformers have had
possession of the government? 1t is now esh,een
months, and have they abolished one office, or redu
ced one salary. They have one; but on the con
trary they have increased the number of cerksbin.
in the departments of the Tresury of the Nav an
OF the Post Office and we believe they have ipcreas
ed them also in the Department of War Such has
oeen the practical commentary upon this text sa&
forth by the committee retrenchment
But IN looking through, the report the contrast he
tween precep and example has struck us in thar
part which relates to the patronage of the press
Ihe paragraphs of the report relating to this sub
ject as follows:
"There are, throughout the u States, about eipb.
ty-two regularly appointed publishers of the laws
who also enjoy the incidental profit of pubsbnn tho
advertisements of the Government and abou, .iy
teen or eighteen printers other than those ed
70 print the laws who do occasional advertising or
COB work for the Government
Your Committee will not stop to arrpe what tho,
predicate as an undena5le fact that bv The emnlov
meDt of the expenditures of the contingent funds If
the departments, Government press 10, to all in
tents and purposes effectualy established as much
40 as there were an annual item the appropra-
ton bil for the purpose of purchasing the Joint and
harmonious action of one hundred papers in the nm,
comprom'slng ylndlcation of those in power, and in
Mt auho DyI-
ger which assais the freedom of the press throuob
the nsnuation of this species Of influence is far more
serious than any star chamber code of pains and pen
allies For, IN the latter case, the pride of man
which revolts at oppression, insures in the end 3
triumphant resistance; but in the former the very
weakness of his nature invites subjugation of his
independence.
This pecuniary censorship of the press must end in
Its utter prostitution to ndiscrminate support of
the acts of the Government, however injurious to tho
rights and interests ofthe people"
ne animal expenditures which caused these
fears and forebodlngs, was, in the entire United
states, about eighteen thousand dollars. The ex-
pence of publishing single daily paper, of ex-
tsnsve circulation. is not less than thirty thous-
anc dollars Yet this melancholy committee coud
see nothing less in the danger attending the ex
pendlture OF eighteen thousand dollars by the then
administration, than the corruption of the whole
press of the country. Their fears on this SUBJECT
HE administration of the state department Mr. Cav
transferred, IN about half a dozen instances the
printing OF the United States laws from papers
which were unfriendy to others which W, re friendly
to the administration. The price for publishing the
laws ID usually about hundred dollars to each pa
per In W hlcb they are published. The committee ap-
Prehended that amount of patronage sufficient,
greatly to endanger the purity of the press But the
committee and their friends are now in power. VIVA.
reforms have they introduced? They have augmen-
ted, fifty fold, the dangers which they professed to
fear There IS not one paper in the United States
which does not support Jacksons admiuist ton that
employed to publish the laws--whereas at the
close OF Adams administration third of those so
small matter The great nroad which has been ade
upon the independence of the PRESS has been made
through the agency of the civil list-by bes'owiDg
upon editors, generally Of the most violent character
Offices worth two and three md four and FIVE thou
sand dollars each. 1t is by these means that the pre-
administration has realized the fears and fulfill
cd the prophecies of their committee on retrench-
VIII has henn No mai hnatn on