The south-western. [volume] (Shreveport, La.) 1852-1870, 1856-08-27

DEMOCRATIC FRAUDS AT WAsH1NeroN The
people are little aware of the extent to which
public corruption has been carried BY the party
which regard the spoils as the booty of the vic.
tors. A Washington correspondent writes, that
''Mr. Ball has thrown Paixhan shell among
the depredating confederacy. His exposures
of the stone contracts and of the bribery prac-
ticed in the erection OF the new customhouse
has excited terror throughout the departments
One clerk, R. c. Morgan, in the office Of capt
Bowman, the military superintendent of these
edfces, and Mr.. Youngs, the archiect-in- chief,
has been already dismissed, anil more tho
rough cleaning out will be insisted upon. The
scandal of Gardinerism and Galphinism is COM
pletey eclipsed by these new discoveries in the
art of stealing made easy. .s , .---
In addition to the specific acts of robbery
perpetrated by favortes of the democracy, as
charged in affidavits of democrats of good stand
ing, Mr.. Ball and his committee are bringing
to light an appalling system Of prohigate and
wasteful extravagance, resulting from Jeffer-
son Davis's arbitrary military superintendency
over civil works. .f.- ." .-@.
Mr. Ball shows that when four or Eve years
ago, the enlargement of the capitol was COM
menced the estimate ofthe cost was So, $4,000,
but that $2,7O0,0oo has already been appro-
priated and expended. The additions will not
be finished with total expenditure Of the
amount Of SIS, 900, 600 or $4,000, 600.
In the stone contract awarded to Beals L.
Dixon, Mr.. Ball believes the treasury has been
swindled out of more than 100000. He gives
few items ofhe astonishing extravaganza, to
use no more pointed term, of captain Meig's S
management Of this work. By the original con-
tract the stone work upon the outside windows
was to cost $3.50 for each window That con-
tract has been annuled and the cutting and set
ting of the stone for each window will cost
S 400. The change has increased the aggre-
gate in this one item from 1913, 900 to Sl4O,OO
Captain Meigs, acting by the orders of JEFF
ferson Davis, has changed the original plan
adopted by congress, SO as to introduce vast
number of columns, not less than two hundred
upon the outside and interior of the buildings,
very few of (which were included in Mr.. Walter S
design. The outside columns, AS wrought, will
cost 81 400 each-the whole $4,000. Mr..
Ball charges that this work, totally unnecessa-
ry and superfuous as it is, will cost 800, 900
more than it ought to do. Again, Mr.. Ball has
tuary attached to the capitol extension estab-
lshment. In these shops, the only thing OF
earthly or human resemblance which the COM
mittee on public buildings could detect, was a
statue of the departed wife of one of the work
men, which is to be set up in one of the halls as
the goddess of something or other.
But need not pursue the subject in advance
of the official exposition which the committee
will soon make. The facts thus far elected de-
velop a shameful system of reckless expendi-
ture, and furnish proof sufficient to warrant an
investigation of the most rigid character.
1t is very curious and remarkable that the
affidavit of Wendell, the public printer, on which
these inquiries are based, should have laid un-
noticed two years and half, while all the vii
lanies which it suggests were in full and undis
turbed progress Why was it suppressed? Why
was this charge of a $4,000 bribe, by which
a contractor makes $4,000, kept from the
knowledge ofthe house and the country? Wht
is the ''friend of secretary Guthrie" whom il
was necessary to fix before the wheels would
work smoothly? Whose palms had to be greas
ed before the doors OF the treasury vault could
be made to revolve upon its hinges?
~~--~-~~~--~~-~-~~~~~y-
A ROMANCE SPo11ED.-The August number
of Harper,s Magazine contained very pretty
romance about old bachelor Buchanan, and how
the "course of true love never did run smooth
with him. 1t was thought necessary to conci-
late the ladies, by showing that at one period
he worshipped at the shrine of beauty, but that
be being disappointed in his first love, his heart
in his young days of passon,'' old Buck low
| II, H. IL,
ocean to the river of his thoughts was sud
denly stricken down by the hand of death, and
| from that hour true TO his first passion, his
heart has remained nsensble to the power Of
beauty-buIied in the grave of his young love.
The democratic papers caught at this pretty
story with the avidity of hungry wolves, and re-
published it extensively, but knowing that the
whole story was false as well in fact as in in
| fluence, and knowing also that its falsehood
would soon be made manifest, Mfr. Buchanan's S
chief bugeman, John w. Forney, makes vir-
tue of necessity, and declares that this roman
tic story has not got the slightest foundation in
fact. Forney says, in the Pennsylvania:
1--WE have read the story as copied by the
able editors of the Post, from Harper's Maga-
zine, and we can assure them that it is the gross
est and most baseless fabrication Both them
selves and the editor of Harper's Magazine have
been imposed upon. There was never a more
unfounded romance"
We think bugeman Forney goes little too
far; when he says Of this story of old Buck S
early love, *there was never more unfound-
ed romance" he should have added except
Hawthorne's life of Franklin Pierce! That was
thought to be the best Of all the authors ro-
mances 1t certainly paid better, for he has
been enjoying the honors and emoluments OF
the Liverpool consulate as his reward.
-0---~~~-~~~-~-~~~O-~~~1~-
From the developments, which have already
transpred, it is absolutely positive that Mr..
Buchanan is the weakest of the three candi-
dates in the feld that in the north he is impo-
tent to the last degree, and without the assur-
ance of carrying single State, not even Penn
svlvania, and that the contest in the north is
really between Mr.. Fremont and Mr.. Fillmore.
Prove this, say thousands of democrats in the
south, and We shall vote for Fillmore to defeat
Fremont. Proofs in abundance we have fur
nisbed already, and those who think proper, in
dispassionate and impartial spirit, to investi.