The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1857-04-03
DEMOCRATIC EXTRAvAGANCE.
fFrom the Richmond whig.l

| Wing administrators have been the fruitful
theme Of manya denunciatory Democrats
harangue But no Wing administration has
ever equalIed, or even approached, the present
in the matter of reckless squanderng of the
public money.
We have been favored by Mr. NJ. r. II.
Garnett with copy Of his recent speech in
the House of Representatives, in which he
comments upon the wild expenditures of the
general government, "and the frighlful rate ut
which they have increased" Upon this point
he says:
81 need not 90 back to Mr.. Van Burrn's
Presidency, when the whole country was
convuls,d with Indignation ut an expenditure
ot $25,00O,000 to $4,000 900 per annum.-
| Nor viii return TO 1872, when Mr.. Clay
estimated that the government could be fairly
| administered for S26,O00,000. while Mr.. Cal.
houn put il down to SIG 100000. Nor will
dwell on lS45-46, the first year of Mr..
POIk's administration, when the expenditures,
exclusive of payments on account o! public
debt aud Mexican hostilities, were only S22,
s64,296. But, sir, will take II year since the
Mexican war-since the empirenf the Pacific
was added to our duminotis, and tcithin His
present administration, and find that in the
fiscal year 1853 "a the entire expenditures,
erclusire of pubic debt and the installment
due to Mrxic", were S44,OlS 249, while this
last year, 1886, they have suddenly swell
ed up to S57,l72, 2,40l, being Sl,243,3O6 more
than they were in the height of the Mexican
war; when our forces rested on either ocean,
and mn HIn N at p,,lv I'D 4
main, but waved in triumph in every province
of Mexico"
These are the figures of Democratic Con.
gressman from Virginia, and embodied in n
speech for general circulation, we suppose,
aiming his Democratic and Why constituents.
1t will he perceived, is Mr.. Gnrnett shows,
that the expenditures of the general govern
ment, under the Pierce administration, in n
time of profound peace, shave suddenly
swelled up to" "renrly sirty millions of dollars
per dnnum! In view OF this unprecedented
and Startling fact, Mr.. Garne;t says: "How, 1
demand, has this monslrous result been at
tained? By any just expansion of our func-
tons? By any fair exercise of our constitu-
tonal powers? No, sir, nor
Well may, not only the tax. paying people,
hut even leading Democratic politicians them.
selves, be nstonishrd at the rapid aud frightful
increase of the public expenditures under n
Democratic administration. it is enough to
excite both the amuzement and the feurs of
men Of all parties and sections. For it shows
the existence of prevalent and wide. spread
extravagnnce and corruption ON the part of
the servants of the people. We nil recollect,
as Mr. Garnett reminds us, how "the whole
country was chnvulsed with indignation at an
expenditure of S25,OO0,0OO" during the Prcsi
dencY of Van Buren. And why, we ask, is
| there no "indignationh now exhibited, when,
under another Democratic administration, the
expenditures shave Suddenly sweIled up" TO
nearly sixty millions? 1t is because Demo-
cratic politicians have been artfn enough to
divert the eyes of the people from an exalni
nation into the extent and manner in which
the public money has been spent, by raising
great hue and cry upon the slavery ques-
ton! Such is the kind of artfce to which
they invariably resort, when they wish to
conceal from public view the bunders, follics
corruptions and crimes of the rotten and i'm
beetle administration of Democratic Presi.
dent. But the time has now come, when the
| people are not to be frightened from their
propriety by the clap.trnp involved in purely
sectional issues. They desire to know how
it is that sixty millions of dollars year have
been spent by the late administration. They
want to know in what manner they them
selves or the country. have been pro6ted by
this vast expenditure. And they mean, moro
over, TO hold the dominant party to strict
accountability for their gross and profigatc
waste of the public funds.