Southern standard. [volume] (Columbus, Miss.) 1851-1856, 1852-09-25

of War, and again by Mr.. Bell, when he filled
that Office and was finally paid on Gen. SCOTS
application, by clerk in the absence cftbe Secre-
targ Of War;
It also appears that General Scott received some
sixteen or seventeen dollars day while Acting
Secretary of War for twenty three days, in 1850,
drawing his full pay as general officer the whole
time. How far this and all the last mentioned
items are justifabe, we leave the reader to judge
after he has perused the following extract from the
act of Congress, August %, 1842:
''SEc. 2. Afad be 1t further enacted, That no Of
fcer in any branch of the public service, or any
other person, whose salary, pay, or emoluments,
is or are fixed by law regulations shall receive
any additional pay, extra allowance, or compensa-
ton, in any form whatever, for the disbursement
of public money, or for any other service or duty
whatsoever, unless the same shall be authorized
by law, and the appropriation therefor explicitly
set forth that it is for such additional pay, extra
allowance or compensation"
The Third Auditor statement makes mention of
800 dollars of house rent in Washington paid for
General Scott while he was IN Merico, against the
opinion and protesto the. Auditor himself. The
Third Auditor also states that balance of $12.-
852,03 received by General Scott in Mexico, has
never been accounted for. General Scott alleges
it to have been spent in 'secret service " but that
vouchers for it have never been received at the
Auditors Office.
|. We have now glanced over the principal heads
in these remarkable papers. 1t is thought that
they justify the assertion which we made in com
mencing their analysis, that they present the most
extraordinary, most unprecedented, most une-
qualed history of official greed that has ever been
opened up in this country. The amount of money
received by General Scott for his various services
as officer. author and commissioner. amount to near
| ly three hundred thousand dollars. 1t must. GER
tainly, then, be said, that whatever those seryi-
ces may have BEEN that he has been fully paid fo1
them all. And when it is recolected that-aftel
getting all this money, and while still in receipt
an acting Generals pay, he petitioned Congress tc
give him part of the sum set aside for invalid and
disabled soldiers it must also be said, that this
laborer has never been backward in asking for his
hire
/ There are items in these accounts which we looE
upon with utter amazement. We dare not trus
ourselves to full comment on them yet. We can
not do otherwise than hope, that some explanation
some exculpation, may yet appear to throw adif
ferent light upon them. For the present, We con
Fclude by drawing one deduction from the whole
1t is this :-that. Gen. Scott as not tie man 6eS
adapted TO reduce tie present expenditures Of til
Fdderal. ADMINISTRATION Whatever they may b
under Fillmore, they would probably remain a
great during the regime of Winfield Scott In
stead of sinking down. they will be much more ap
to rise from fifty-two to one hundred and four mil
j, lions during the four coming years, should he un
fortunately grasp the keys of that Treasury, a
whose doors he has so often knocked. The De
partments would be thronged, the White Hous
crowded with applicants for extra pay for ever
imaginable species of.service, and at every perio
/ of past time, They would point to the example 9
The Presideet himself for their right, and he's
kcould' he answer them? The ssDefceney Bis
Eof those wears would exhaust the resources of thi
nation War, Pestilence and Famine would b
naught to them If the American people there
fore, are dissatisfied with Wing expenditure Q
fifty millions in time Of peace, as believe the
are and if they desire this expenditure an
their own taxation to be reduced, as also thin
f they do the way to accomplish. that object
f! not to set man upon the work who'has alread
Y received from the public treasury forty thousan
r dollars 10 which he had no right.