The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1849-07-04
For the Republic.

For the Republic.
The Union of Sunday jast contains a notice CO.
pied from the Hartford Tunes, full of misstatements,
upon the removal Of Mr. Gideon Weles from the
Bureau of Provisions and Clothing of the Navy
Department.
Mr.. Weles was appointed TO this Office by the
late Administration. If our memory serves US, he
well as an editor of this same famous Hartford
Times When the Navy Department was reorgan-
lied l842, into separate bureaus, the trainers of
the bill in Congress designed that the Bureau of
Provisions and Clothing should have for its chief
purser, as the nature Of his duties in the service,
and his experience should make him the most
proper person to fill il; just as they designed and
placed the surgeon in the Bureau of Medicine, be-
cause from the nature of his profession he was the
most proper officer. The new organization, how
ever, throwing out of employment Mr.. Colds
borough, an old and faithful chief clerk of the Navy
Commissioners, themselves ceasing to have ex-
stence from that period board il was ardently
pressed by several captains of influence that he,
Mr. G., should be permitted to fill the Bureau of
Provisions for the present. This was consented to
by the authors ofthe bill, with the understanding,
that when Mr.. Goldsborough vacated it the bu-
reau should be assigned to purser In the mean
time, Mr. Goldsborough dying, the captains filed
claim for the Office, and with accustomed fortune,
aided by the efforts of the little permanent corps de
rsserpe always on hand in Washington, succeeded
in obtaining it for themselves. 1t was left, how
ever, to the late Administration TO make the first
partisan appointment to bureau, from which, be-
yond all others, politics and politicians should be
scrupuousIy excluded; and Mr. Gideon Welles
was directed to become its chief. At the LIST SEES
sion, Both Congress, the pursers and their friends
succeeded in placing this matter in its true light be-
fore Congress- and proviso was inserted in the
Civil and Diplomatic bill Of that year, requiring
" that when a vacancy occurred this bureau should
be filed by purser." 1t was civil hint that the
services of Mr.. Wclles could at time be dis
pensed with. The Administration has seen fit to
carry out the intent and spirit of the law of Con-
gress and place the proper officer IN charge OF this
bureau. II is entirely untrue that the appointment
of purser William Sinclair to the bureau is po-
litical one. That of Mr.. Welles was eminently So
Mr. Sinclair has been assigned to the duty on &c
count of his well-known capability and judgment as
an officer, and because nearly every member of his
corps, as we'll as many Of the most efficient officers
of the Navy, of their own accord, came forward and
recommended him to the Secretary as most suta-
be officer His compensation is the same as he
would receive at sea for service in line fbattle-
ship, and no additional pay whatever. The Times
tells us g the pay for rations he will get will also
be considerable" BY law all persons attached TO
pessels for sea service entitled TO ration per
day." This would equal in year, in money, the
sum of S73. As the bureau is a part and parcel of
the Navy Department proper, and not vessel for
sea servicc,n the ration will not be allowed.
Instead of the political prescription in this case
costing the Government annually material in
crease of salary" as the sapient Times informs
in its article, WILL the contrary, be the means
of economzing considerable sum. The purser
receiving for his services the same pay which he
would at sea in line-of-battle ship, less the S73
for rations, his appointment makes no increase to
the annual estimate for pay of the navy; while the
employment of Mr. WeIes was dead loss to the
Government of $1,000 per annum. In short, the
prediction may very safely be made, that this act
of the Secretary of the Navy in deposing politi-
clan, and substituting the officer to whom law OF
Congress had virtually assigned it, will reflect credit
upon him and upon the Administration.