The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1849-07-26
THE REPUBLIC.


OF the marvellous organization of the Loco
focos, with the aid of their efficient an,
able press at the seat of Government
which conducted the campaign on othe
issues, they were able to sustain them
selves long enough to elect Mr.. VAN Blu
rem to the Presidency.
The Post Office was reformed by tn,
wise Legislation of the WHIGs, and further
opportunities for frauds and abuses in tina
Department were arrested. But many so
Der and rejecting men were, at that time
and in consequence of these develop.
ments, driven from the ranks of the Ad.
ministration, and have been acting ever
since with the friends of Reform.
| The peculators made their next descent
upon the and-offices, custom-houses, and
district attorneyships. In the interval
between 1884 and 1889, the peculators
changed the scene of their labors, because
they had been driven from the Post Office
by the vigor and perseverance Of Mr..
EWING. During the five years last men
toned alone, there were sixty cases OF
defalcation fully known to the Secretary
OF the Treasury, where the defaulters
were warned, watched, reproached, threat
ened, iqrgiyen-and their defaults, while
still existing and continued, in some cases
actually SANCTIONED BY A REMUNERATION
TO OFFICE" We all remember the Con-
gressional investigations of 1889, and their
results. The Wings of those days pointed
to the PRICES, SwARTwoUTs, STERLINGs,
BoYDs, ALIENS, HAwKINsEs, PoLLocKs,
LINNs, MITcHELLs, CHILDREssEs, SpEN-
GERS, Owens, STEpHENsoNs, MsNEILs,
HOLLANDS, BREEDLovEs-and called upon
the people to say if the leaders of party
which had placedpo and emoluments in
the hands of such an army of defaulters
and peculators, were worthy the conf
dence Of the American people Those
leaders on these issues were arraigned,
condemned, and repudiated by the Amer
lean people.
II is a remarkable fact, that the admins
tration of JOHN TYLER never threw off
the force of the influences under which
General HARRISON was elected, to the
extent of peculating on the public Trea-
sury. There was a SOFT of armistice in
the war. We recollect no instance of de-
falcation among the men whom Mr.. TYLER
appointed to Office. False as he was to
his party, and INSCRIPTIONS as he was in
all his operations, there is no known in
stance during his career of those gross Vi
olations of public trust which had distin-
guished the administrations of General
JACKSON and Mr.. VAN buren,. This was
mainly owing to the restrictions and re-
medal legislation which had been adopt
ed in consequence Of the exposures, in
1894 and 1889, of the corrupt condition Of
the Executive Departments. The Who's
are entitled to all the credit of it.
In the Presidential canvass of 1874, the
attention of the people was Withdrawn
from the corruptions, frauds, and abuses of
the Locofoco leaders, by local and section
al issues. The Texas question at the
South-the Abolition question at the
North, and the Tariff in Pennsylvania
became the issues on which that cam
paign was fought and by the course of
the Abolitionists in New York, and the
Democratic Tariff men in Pennsylvania,
MIR. Polk became the President OF the
United States. And now a new theatre
of corruption was to be sought, not in de-
falcations altogether-for that game was
partially blocked-but in the lavish and
peculatve expenditure OF the public money
under the pretence of defraying the cost
of collecting the revenue.
Just before the close Of the last session
bill passed the Senate, and was approved
on the Sd of March by Mr.. Polk, which
provided that the "expenses of collecting
the revenue from customs shall not here
after exceed the sum of one million five
hundred and sixty thousand dollars per an
nun, together with such sums as under the
law are paid into the treasury for drayage,
carriage, labor, and storage, and in proper
ton for less time" This sum was some
FIVE hundred thousand dollars less than
was expended by the late Secretary Of
the Treasury for the same purposes. II
is, therefore, an admission of record that
the late Administration expended idly,
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