The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1852-06-23

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The irst complaint Is thu, the vessels wers
not ready for service within the time specified
In the contract That is true, bat they are
much larger than the contract requires. The
stimulation was for four vessels of fifteen hun
bred tons each and one of six hundred, making
$500 tons in all. The tonnage of the Falcon,
Ohio, Georgia and Illinois amounts to more
than s5O0--and for this extra tonnage the con-
tractors receive no extra pay. IL OF course de-
layed the completion of the vessels, ana the re-
ceipt of mail pay. The increased size gave IN
creased speed and safety and greater efheiency
in every respect. And the promptitude with
which these vessels were built IS perhaps with
out enthusiastically without precedent IN
the navy yards. The very law that authorized
the contract required the Navy Department to
build four war steamers for government use
exclusively And yet with whole navy yard
for each vessel, with accumulated stores of tim
Der, and with abundant means in the treasury,
the Ohio and Georgia were completed long be-
fore the Saranac and San Jacinto. And the
Powhatan, the last of the four, is not done yet.
And although the mail steamers were thus con-
structed so much more rapidly than those of
government, the mail steamers have displayed a
strength, endurance and precsion of perform
ance incomparably superior. The Saranac, the
San Jacinto, and the Susquehanna haysiall had
their engines broken, and voyages interrupted
soon after coming out. The New York, New
Orleans and Chagres line has run with more
regularity and less accident than any line OF
ocean steamers in the world.
The next complaint is that the government
has paid the full contract price from the begin
ming, instead of paying pro rata according to
the service actually performed. This allegation
is utterly untrue, and precisely the reverse of
the truth. The government has never paid,
except in proportion to the service performed.
And this the very statement of the Secretary OF
the Navy proves, though tits quoted by the Po@
to prove the contrary. The Secretary wanted
to pay only in proportion to the number OF
ships completed in disregard, both Of tonnage
and of service perjormed--an idea perfectly wor'
thy of the county court genius of the Secretary.
But the Attorney General decided according TO
the law of 2Sth September, lS5o-that the pay
should be according to the service actually per-
formed.
This company has built, with extraordinary
promptitude the ships now in service, and their
performances have not been equalled by any
line on the sea. The company has received pay
only in proportion to service actually rendered.
without any extra compensation for extra SIZE
or tonnage. The contract has actually been
lucrative t. the government, the service having
paid more postage money into the treasury,
than the contractors have received There
probably never was public contract so COM
nletely successful in all the objects for which Ii
was made, postal, naval, and commercial. AND
vet gang of envious and lazy grumoiers' VINO
had neither the sagacity TO see the value OF the
enterprise, nor the capacity to accomplish lt'hnd
an organ of their discomfort, that can do nothing
better in the way of opposition than to publish
the grossest calumnies against lt-calumnes
that are refuted by the very evidence pro
duced TO sustain them.