Phenix gazette. [volume] (Alexandria [D.C.]) 1825-1833, 1831-03-31


.oa, thus sunnressed by a vote of the Senate. the
committee proceeded to the remaining duties as
s,gned them By the resolution. and from the en-
animation Of Mr. Bradley in regard to the jiScd'
concern, of this Department, ii became necessary
IN recur to the report Of the Postmaster Generai
an tho o xtra allowances. which was reierreu to
tho committe. on the esl February. MIR. Brad
Low the witness. had on the l7ih Of October, 1877,
written letter to the President, preierfing char-
ses against Mr.. Barry. apd among others eNua'-
aeance in making extra allowances 10 man con
tractors, against law, particularly the case OF mar
rail-. where the allowance per aunum was . 49,
80 cts in contract of 600, and the cons'GeFar
ton for this was an increased expedition ohy vi
Il hour in twenty four. Here Il Is impor'an, 70
remember dates Bradeys letter to the ffesident
WAS on the 18th OF Octobcr, 1929, III "h'ch 'h''
extrayagant allowance in Harral''s case MAS ciiafS
ed upon Barry. That the President con'uian'-
Gated this letter to Mr.. Barry. it would be un-
charitable to doubt Six months after this, viz
| April. 1880. Mr. Burpet made his call upon the
Postmaster General for information in regard to
those extra allowances, and after taking ten
months more for deliberation, Barry reports I"
the Senate ,alder his official signature that ms
| Harall contract, with forty SIX Others, Dad been
made BY Bradley himself during the short time
| that he was the acting Postmaster Genera' oe-
tween McLean's leaving and Barry's assuming
The ofice-to wit, from the 10th March to IN
April.
Here it is proper to make remark i'll regard
to these .sal.tracts" Of allowances reported to
the Senate. III order 10 correct some errors both
of the (rcds and opposcrs OF The adnnlstra'lnn.-
They are not pretended to lie copies % any re-
cord in the department. They appear IN the re-
port in form like this: No. 1911. Harraii
contract for carrying the mail from Georgetown
to Charleston, S. c. for S6J0)-alditlonal allow.
ance 1882 so per annum for twn hours increas'
ed expedition--alowanc by A. Bradley, acting
p. NJ. G. 1899 5O.'' In most OF these abstracts,
the consideration for the allowance is omitted
and ia this it is mis.tated-the increased expedl-
ton being an hour and half only. Now there Is
no document in the department which speaks this
language, but il is an official certificate or report
of facts compiled from the contract, the cores
pondence and the books. When we are told there
fore that no record in the department has been
! altered the assertion amounts to nothing. Bar
nv certfes upon his official responsibility, that
these abstracts contain the truth. Nor is it ma
terial, as some have pretended that it is, whether
this report was faIsfed before after the official
signature. II it was first made out correctly,
and afterwards, and before the official signature,
it was fa!sifed by the erasure OF Barry's and the
insertion of Bradley's name, the fraud is as pa'Pa.
ble to say the least, as If it had been hrst signed
and then mutiated.
The committee must have been surprised to see
that in the short period oftwenty-sx days, Bradley
who was the acting PostlnastcrGcncral only to hill
the chasm until Barry should assume the duties
TO which he had been appointed, and vino held
the Office Of assistant by a very precarous ten.
ure (the promise of Barry should have made ex
ira allowances Of $4,000, and by this prodIsa-
ity have furnished an apology which Barry would
have so gladly seized on, for his removal. lhey
must have been surprised moreover, to hnd that
Bradley had charged upon Barry an eXtravagant
allowance in Harral's case. when by Barry's
official report it appeared that Bradley had made
il himself But it must have excited their spe.
cial wonder, when it appeared by this Official
document that of the forty-seven cases OF allow
ance charged upon Bradley, in htTy-str msfa''-
ces Barry's name was erased and Bradley's lu-
serted, and Bradley has disclamed these on oath.
Whatever apology there may be for these .. mis-
takes,' as they are charitaby called. the fact is
that in these cases tho right names mere originally
inserted and ,rere erased, and The Trong one
was substituted
! Ii is now said, as an apology for MIR. Barry,
that - he knew nothing Of the circumstances
1t is indeed admitted that the abstracts, as orgl-
nally drawn up ,cere true, and that the erasures
and insertions have made them false, and that
the falsehoood is calculated to exonera.e Barry
from thrty-six extra allowances, though he made
them, and to cargo them upon Bradley, who did
not make them. !
The manner IN which the truth was converted
into falsehood is equally extraordinary Those
clerks who compiled the document had made 1t
/ up according to the facts, and afterwards MIR. o.
B. Brown, by an authority from the Postmaster
General directed these clerks to look to the escr
only, where the accounts were adjusted with the
contractors, to the end of each quarter. The
allowance to Hsrral, for example, was included
in the adjustment up to the first of April, when
Bradley was the acting Postmaster General. but
this ad justment wasnOt made IN fact until June
Bradley ceased to act as Post Master General on
the .th April, and it was found by the sub-com-
mittee that Barry made this allowance himself
on the 18th, six days after Bradley's time bad
expired Now to resort to rule so utterly falla- !
cious, after every thing had been done right, and
thus reverse every thing and make all wrong,
and byso doing to throw of responsibility from
4. Il