Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1834-06-13

dollars from the treasury to enable the PostmaS-
ter General to redeem its credit, and carry onlts
essential operations -,
And before determining whether they should
recommend such appropriation. your commit
tee thought it their duty to ascertain, as far as
nracticable the accuracy of the several official
statements which We're made TO them, as well as
those which have from time to time been trans
mitted to Congress touching the condition OF
the department; also, that they should investigate
the cause of the sudden insolvency of this i'm
portant department of the Government, which
has heretofore sustained itself from its own re-
sources, which, in former years, actually contrl-
buted ST. 100, O63 to the general revenue OF the
country, and which was but few years since in
a most 1ourishing and prosperous condition
The prosecution of that inquiry was attend.
ed with much difficulty and embarrassment.
The annual reports of all contracts entered
into by the department within the preceding
year. have, in two instances, been wholly omit
ted by the present Postmaster General and IN
third, the report came in too late to be refer
red to by your committee, and to aid them IN
their investigation. No answer has yet been
given by the Secretary ofthe Treasury to re-
solution of the Senate adopted on the 18th day
of March last, on motion of one of your commit
tee, which call for copies Of the duplicates OF
contracts, bids and extra allowances which the
law requiresf should be filed in the office of the
Comptroller of the Treasury. The duplicates
of contracts and bids are said to have been con-
srmed in the Treasury building; and it was al
so communicated TO us by the officer employed
to answer the calf that no statement OF extra
allowances had been filed there by the present
Postmaster General. And the report OF the
Postmaster General which accompanied the
Presidents message at the opening OF the pre-
sent Congress- apprizcs us that his prior reports
as to the abties-an resources OF the depart.
ment are erroneous. Thus the checks few and
inaffp rs
upon the transactions of the department having
been in great measure diSregarded, or render
ed abOrtive, and no certain means being lett-us
to determine the accuracy OF the statements and
reports issuing from it, except by causing CAL
culatiOns to be made in all cases where there
were data to found them, and by comparing
those reports with themselves, and with each
other, your committee adopted this course, and
thus they believe have been able to arrive at
conclusion very nearly correct, as to the gene
raj value of those reports and statements
In order to account for the increase of expense
IN the transportation of the mail, the POstmaS-
ter General has, in his several annual reports,
presented us an enormous increase also of mail
transportation. In his report accompanying the
Presidents message ofDecember 1882, he states
that the annual transportation Of the mail on the
lst OF July, 1929, was Is, 700 900 miles; and in that
accompanying the Presidents message at the
commencement of the present session of Con-
eress, he states that on the 1st day of July, 1888
it was &c, 9j4 ass miles, making an increase OF
transportation from the 1st of July, 1929, to the
1st of July 1884, Of - i54, 495 miles
From the knowledge which your committee
possessed OF the general situation and business
of the department at those periods, it appeared
to them that the statement carried the stamp of
improbabity upon its very face. They there
fore, for the purpose Of ascertaining nearly as
possible the state Of the matter called on the Of
fjcprS n 10 he ri LAT
| on which they had founded their estimates and
asked also for the original papers showing the
calculations but they were told that those pa
pers We're all destroyed Your committee hay
ing subpGnaed Doctor Thomas Bradley to at
tend before them, and give evidence, placed in
his hands the advertisements for mail contracts,
and the book containing the statement Of extra
allowances, and gave directions that he should
be furnished with all such information from the
department as would enable him to make full
and fair estimate; and they instructed him to
make out and report to them, under OATH true
statement OF the amount of transportation, in
miles, at the periods above mentioned. After
he had proceeded very far with his estimates,
and was nearly ready to make his report, your
committee was informed through their chair
man, thatthe calculations from which the report
Of transportation for 1882 was made out, had
been found, and that copy could be furnished
1t was accordingly DONE but came too late for
yott Coluuilltee W COiupdle IL WIN lne aCtudl
routes and with the advertisements and books
of the department And it contains nothing Of
itself to enable us to determine on its correct
ness 1t stands, therefore, on precisely the same
ground with that of the annual reports above
mentioned and requires the same evidence to
sustain it.
The report of Doctor Bradley, in whose dill.
gence, integrity, and knowledge of the subject,
we have the fullest reliance, is hereto attached
verified by his oath 1t shows that transporta-
tons of the mail on the 1st of July, 1929, just
after the department came under the superin-
tendence OF the present Postmaster General
was IL, 039 miles, being 1,509O39 miles more
than it is stated in the annual report above re-
terred to; aud that the transportation on the 1st
of July, 1888, was 81, l56,844, instead of 1884,
1885, being 5,697 65l miles less than the Postmas-
ter General has reported it.
Thus, by undertaking the amount of trans
portation at the time he came into office, and
exaggerating it since that time, the Postmaster
General has fallen into an error, as to the
amount which he has increased the transport
tation of the mail, of no less than 7,2O6,69O
miles,
lo,,