Cooper's Clarksburg register. [volume] (Clarksburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1851-1861, 1852-09-22

we'd four thousand seven hundred andfif
all the while drawing his regular pay, al
though officers can be required under
the laws of the United States to act as In
dian agents, whenever necessary, and
without any extra compensation whatever.
The Cherokee per diem in the above list
is special incident. During the time
for which he claimed it, Gen. Scott was
receiving treble rGtions on account of the
expenses in that country. The per diem,
therefore, was disallowed by Mr.. Poinsett,
when he was secretary of War, and again
by Mr.. Bell when he filled that Office; and
was finally paid on Gen. Scott's applica-
cation, by clerk iw tie absence Of tie
Secretary Of tOar.
1t also appears that Gen. Scott received
some sixteen or seventeen dollars a day
while acting Secretary of war for twenty
ty three days, in 1850,-drawing his
full pay as general officer the whole
time. How far this and all the last men
toned items are justifable, we leave the
reader to judge after he has perused the
following extract from the act of Congress,
August Esd, 1842:
"SEc. 9. And be IL further enacted,
That no officer in any branch of the pub
lie service, or any other person, whose
salary, pay, or emoluments, is or are FIX
ed by laws or regulations, shall receive
any additional pay, extra allowance or
compensation, in any form whatever, for
the disbursement of public money, or for
any other service or duty whatsoever, I'M
less 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 Auditors statement makes
mention of 800 dollars of house rent in
Washington paid for Gen. Scott while he
was in Mexico, against the opinion and
protest Of the Auditor himself. The
Third Auditor also states that balan ce
of 1883 dollars and cents, received
by Gen. Scott in Mexico, has never been
accounted fer. Gen. Scott alleges it to
have been expended in "secret services"
but that vouchers forit have never been
received at the Auditors office.
We have now glanced over the princi-
pal heads in these remarkable papers. l.
is thought that they justify the assertion
which we made in commencing their ana
lysis, that they present the most extraor-
binary, most unprecedented, most une-
qualled history of official greed that has
ever been opened up in this country
The amount of money received by Gene
raj Scott for his various services as officer,
author and commissioner, amount to near
ly three hundred thousand dollars. 1t
must certainly, then, be said, that
whatever those services may have been,
that he has been fully paid for them all.
And when it is recollected that after get
ting all this money, and while still in re-
ceipt of an acting Generals pay, he petit
toned Congress to give him part of the
sum set aside for invalid and disabled SOL
diers; it must also be said, that this labo.
rer has never been backward in asking
for his hire.
There are items in these accounts
which we look upon with utter amaze
ment. We dare not trust ourselves to a
full comment on them yet. We cannot
do otherwise than hope that some expla
nation, some rxculpation, may yet appear
to throw different light upon them
For the present we conclude by drawing
one deduction from the whole. 1t is this:
That Gen. Scott is not the man best
adapted to reduce the present oxpendi-
lures of the Federal Administration
Whatever they may be under Fillmore,
they would probably remain as great du-
ring the REGIME of Winfield Scott. In
stead of sinking down, they will be much
more apt to rise from fifty-two to one
hundred and four millions during the
four years, should he unfortunately grasp
the keys of that Treasury, at whose doors
he has so often knocked. The Depart
ments would be thronged, the White
House crowded with applicants for extra
pay for every imaginable species of SER
vice, and at every period of past time
They would point to the example of the
President himself for their right, and
how could he answer them? The Def
cheney Bills of those years would exhaust
the resources of this nation. War, pesti-
lence and famine would be naught to
them. If the American people therefore,
are disatisged with Wing expenditure
of tifty-two millions in time of peace, as
we believe they are and if they desire
this expenditure and their own taxation to
be reduced, as we also think they do -
the way to accomplish that object is not
to set a man upon the work who has al
ready received from the public treasury
forty thousand dollars to which he had
no right.
FEoM TEXAS AND New MExIco.-Later
o6vicaS from, ToNoS boyo baon ,ooo;,,oJ