Litchfield enquirer., 1831-03-17

nor the Chlef CIerk. were chdIeedOle w"
any act that need fear the light. For HIM
self, Mr.. g. said he was satisfied that u mere
was any thing wrong 10 the allowances, Mr..
Bradley was not chargeabIe with the wrong. J
As to the erasures, they had been innOceniiy
made. He should vote to suspend the print
ing until the next session, that the whole mat
ter might be put right. AT the next session
better opportunity would be offered TO exam
inc into the transaction, and in the mean time
the parties would prepar" for it.
Mr.. Clayton said, he wished the gentleman
from Tennessee, when he expressed his opin-
ion that others believed no fraud was intend
ed by the erasures, had confined himself to
what he knew or had better reason to believe,
than he had condescended to name. The 9TH
er members of the committee would think for
themselves, and had not made that gentleman
their organ TO express any opinion on this
subject. He said. he understood the gentle
man to say, by way of excuse for these mutt
lated documents, that in some of the cases,
Mr.. M'Lean had made the allowances. Sir,
an inspection Of the evidence will show that,
in nearly all, if not in every case, the reverse
is the fact. The Select Committee this morn
ing reported on the affairs of the Department,
and the dispositions and papers to shew this
which have all heen ordered to be printed, are
referred to in, and form a part of the report.
Among these is a communication from Mr..
Mclean, in which he informs the committee
that Mr.. Bradley never made any allowance
while he was in the office of Postmaster Cen
eral. But, sir, there is yet another reason
why these documents should not he printed.
They are entirely evasive Of the resolution of
the Senate. In ajority of all the cases of
extra compensation set forth in them, they do
not state the " additional service" to be per-
formed, and which was the consideration for
the allowance. They are now spread on the
Secretary's table, and you may see that they
do moi constitute. without the contracts, even
an apology for an answer to the rrquisition
made by the Senate. Generally, they do not
give the length Of the routes, or of the time
in which they were to be performed-bnt
leave YOU to refer to the contracts themselves.
which it is not proposed to print. And in
one case, where the excuse for the extra al
l0wance is set down 10 be an increase of OK
petition, by carrying the mail through two
hours sooner, the proof, as you will SEE by
the dispositions, is. that it WAS to he carried
through only one hour and half sooner than
before the extra compensation was allowed.
The law explicitly directs that the extra al
l"wance shall be regulated By the original
contract, and apportioned according to the
mine the propriety of the allowance, the ad-
ditiona service must he distinctly stated and
as this has not been done in most of The ca
SEES, the documents, without reference to tl.,'N
contracts, shelving nothing, are not worth
the cost of printing. But it is enough now to
say that the Senate will not deliberately give
publicity to what they know To be untrue.
MI. Grundy hoped he had not mistaken the
object of tn" motion now before the Senate.
He had thought it was with view to do JUS
tlce to Mr.. Bradley so far he was willing to
g" but let it be understood that he did not
acqnlesce in any dennncIaion Of the officers
of the Post Office Department. 1t was tue
Mr.. Barry's name had been erased. aud Mr.
Bradley's substituted in its place: but the
clerks tell us it was a mistake-tFat it was in
nocenty done. He did not understand that
the answer of the Postmaster General to the
resolution of the Senate was evasive he had
not been abb" to give so full an answer rs was
desirable, perhaps, hut at the next session it
might he obtained. He knew that Mr.
Bradley was charged with paying money,
which he should not have been. but he also
knew that It resulted from an innocent mis-
take of young clerks.
Mr.. Chambers said, he had yielded thc
floor to afford other Senators oppo, tunity toI
NAPi"''' VIEWS IL was no" proper 10
explain the objects Of the memorial 1t was
no part of his duty to go into HE proofs upon
the subject. to shew that the present Post
master General has uiJuNy and corruptly
made an allegation injurious to the reputation
of the memorialst ; or that erGsures of Nj, |
Barry's name, and interlineations of Mr. Brad
ley's, now admitted to have been made at the
Department. were made .trauduienHy and
corr'ptly His object required no such course,
and therefore did not pursue it.
Mr. Bradley has stated and sworn, that the
extra allowances mentioned in tie memorial,
were made by Mr.. Barry, and had made this
fact the foundation Of a charge preferred a. !
gainst Mr.. Barry to the President of the y. !
S. Mr.. Barry's report, bearing the authority
of his official station and his signature, asserts
that the extra allowances were made by Mr..
Bradley. 1t therefore charges the statement
and affidavit of the memorialist To be false
1t is now admitted on all hands, and concu-
sively proved by an examination of the books
OF the Department, that the allowances were
made by the present Postmaster General. Mr. !
Barry, and not by Mr.. Bradley and that the
name of Mr"Barry originally and properly in
serted in the abstract alluded to, has been e.
rased, and the name Of Mr.. Bradley substitu-
ted: and it is therefore conceded, that the
representation given by Mr.. Bradley is true.
and that given by the report of Mr.. Barry, the
POSTMASTER General. false. This false report
L.