The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1853-05-09
Washington Gossip.
lcoRaEsro NpxHcs OF THE Rrpuslro,l

learn that since 1874, when a very important
change was made in the system OF disbursing the
FUNDS to cover the expenses of the General Land
once bureau, not dollar has been lost BY the de.
ialcation of surveyors general, VINO, before, were
constantly getting behindhand in amounts varying
from 200 to S 100 900. This change took from
those officers nearly all the disbursements with
which they were previously charged. Thus, in
stead OF sending to them in advance large sums for
the payment of deputy surveyors, the latter are
now paid by the job, as it were, as they close up
their work on each township and forward their
vouchers; the certificate of draft for the amount due
them being duly forwarded to their respective ad.
dresses. l make this statement because COM
plants are uttered against shaving the accounts of
deputy surveyors at distant points 1t is plain
that if, under the present system, deputy survey
ors part with their Government drafts on the Trea.
sury at ruinous discount, the fault is in their own
want of business tact-not in the system IF the
Office. Under the old system, the difficulty was
that the surveyors general gave way to the iempta
tons to spec ulate with the public funds by which
they found themselves surrounded.
Some wag of Wing postmaster in New York.
in sending on his last quarterly returns sealed a.
considerable lock of his hair the outside of the
package, thus telling the tale of his readiness to
yield up his scalp whenever the Captain Scott
choose
level his weapon at him. ~
The Post Office Department, by the by, hope to
have their new stamped envelopes ready for distri.
button by the let of June, though fancy that if
they commence that work early as the lot of
July they will do we'll. These envelopes can
hardly fail for the most part to suppant the pres
ent stamp, as the additional charge for the enve-
ope above the price of the stamp is to be but one
firth of one cent. ,ata eyss
To-day General Charles Gratiot late Brigadier
General of the United States army, AID chief mill.
tary engineer in the service of the Governm emit,
was installed as thousand dollar clerk in the
Land Office Bureau. Ipresume that his good for
tune in obtaining place in the current scramble
for clerkships in Washington is the result of Mr. Sec
rotary McCleland's former acquaintance with him;
for his mind and thorough professional attachments
originated and pushed throu gh most of the public
works of the Government in The northwest, it will
be remembered. 1t ia probab lie that his employ
ment in this position will hardly induce his many
friends to stay their efforts to compass his rein.
statement in the army, which has been and will
continue to be vehemently opposed by gentlemen
who would much 90 oner get rid of those of higher
rank, than submit to having any added to the
number standing between themselves and rapid
promotion. Since General Gratiot's misfortune in
business, he has been laboring zealousIy to induce
the accounting officers to review certain points in
his accounts as he originally contended for them,
which, if conceded he asks, will greatly lessen
the original balance found against him. He has
persevered in this undertaking from Mr. Van Bu-
rens time to the present, hoping against hope as 1t
were, and devoting himself wholly to the one OBJ
ject. Having surrendered all his means to the
Government long aince, in satisfaction of their
judgment, his circumsta noes are said to require
that he should seek to pr Divide for his family he
has DONE II may not be amiss to remark that it is
we'll known here that his or iginal defalcation was
the result of undue confidence in the integrity and
judgment of friends, rather than of any purpose on
his part to be faithiess to his trust No appoint
ment 30 far made by the Administration at this
point, am sure, will give more general and un.
feigned satisfaction in this community than his
for no ones walk in life u man has earned for
him more of the respect and sympathy of the cti-
Gems of Washington.
Certain gentlemen in office are suffering we'll.
nigh the torments of the - from the fattering
attentions of ladies' sent to them on the one hand
by parties who dread lest they may be put out and
on the other by parties who dread that lest they
try that dodge they will not be put in Office. La
dies tears are powerful arguments the world over;
the man incapable of listening to them; to some ex.
tent, being more than infdel. But when
gentleman with office in his gift, as saw one to-
day, finds himself between two most interesting
specimens OF the better half of creation, each in
tears-one beseeching for the retention of the sup
port OF the family, and the other pleading in quite
as melting mood for the appointment of the best
Democrat in the world, also the support of large
helpless, and highly interesting famiIy-what can
he be reasonably expected 10 do? Verify, the ass
Of old, between the two bundles of hay, was in
much more agreeable quandary than that in which
left this gentleman, high in Office.
The Administration still withhold the commits
sions of Joel c. Green, newly appointed pension
agent, and S. w. B. Mclean, newly appointed
surveyor of the port at Cincinnati though DR.. Vat
tier, the newly appointed postmaster there, is said
TO have telegraphed hitherward that they suit
the party in Cincinnati capitally. The ostensible
cause of the hestancy in these cases, take to be
the charge that they are warriors Of the Miami
tribe, whose chief brave, if am not greatly mis-
taken, was other than DR.. Waiter himself
There are symptoms of terrible connections in the
party, in the region Of Cincinnati, growing out of
the grinding of axes under pretence of killing off
those shocking bad fellows, the Miamis. The
main point to be solved, however-the practical
points, who carries the Cincinnati Democracy.
their rights, interests, &C., in his brooches pocket?
have of late made the condition of ssthe partyn
in that quarter the subject of anxious inquiry and
earnest investigation. and propose shortly to write
a chapter on that particular text-going the
leas6n taught by defalcatons there, the effect of
disappointed ambition, the question of the absolute
necessity for taking it for granted that "Democra
Cyl means the duty of satisfying gentlemen who
claim to be the sole recipients of the confidence of
the people, and alone competent to judge for the
best Interests of the party their respective dung
hills. Indeed, the tempest in the Cincinnati tea
pot will afford very fair illustration for the work
Of exposing how completely the purpose of politi-
cal Organization" has, in too many localities,
come to be only the means through which the
smallest specimens of human nature are enabled
to usurp places which. in the days of Thomas JEFF
ferson, were universally filled with individuals
titled by their talents, character, and bona fide
public services, to the respect of their felow.citi
Gems.
My friends, the Wing clerks in the Office of the
Register of the Treasury, are getting exceedingly
nervous. day two since the Hon. MIR. Bigger
'pent an hour in close converse with Secretary
Guthrie. Visions of intended decapitations 10 re-
'ult from the ominous proximity of these two
worthy gentlemen are floating in many brain
10 day in that quarter
trust that such of the Democratic clerks are
AS, r,,,k xrysh IT, l