The weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington, Iowa) 1858-1860, 1858-08-31

Id me Ue4M Army Contracts
a, 10 morrow, or the day AFTER, Conrs Of Il
Il quiry, BY order Of the Secretary Of War. y
m meet At Fort Leaven worth. 10 Investigate d
Df conduct Of Captain Van vliet. Quarter Mast
10 a. that post, for alleged disobedence Of instru
ID TONS in the matter Of mule purchases. tt
!. Court will consist of three superior officers AZ
r. the investigation, It il thought, will be CO
: Quoted with open doors. The public, on hea
Y ing for the first time Of the proceedings abo
1 to be instituted At Fort Leavenworth, won
= probably suppose that the Quarter Master
: suspected by the Department at Washington
having acted in collision with the mule con
= tractors, to the detriment Of the public servie
and the national exchequer, IS we'll as to h
n own standing % an officer in the military SCI
!. vice. Vague surmises of his playing fast an
! loose with Uncle Sans pocket, in coniunctio
. with the mule men, would naturally follow tn
reading Of the dispatch ordering the Court Q
inquiry. 1t happens, however, that such suu
/ position Q. demise 10 Numerically opposite IL
iActs. The Issue between the Secretary of Wa
, ana the Quarter Mast r, is that the latter hs
| been too exacting in his dealings with the con
tractors; that in several cases he rejected mule
which they allege came up to the speci6ca,io
. Of the Department, and that the price he Sc
; On those which he accepted was below the
market value. He is also accused OF partialit,
70 lew OF the contractors, but the gravameI
OF the charges against him is that he refused
as the agent of the government, to accept al
the mules which were offered to him by some
contractors, and also abused the discretonar,
powers with which he was invested by paving
them prices, which, though in reality cxorbi-
tant, were below the calculations Of their Gu
Pldity, and the promises of those politicians in
Washington who procured for them the patron
age OF Secretary Floyd. Our readers may now
perceive that it is rot for the laxity, but the
rigor OF his conduct that Van Vliet is brought
20 the bar. He drove too hard bargain with
snese injured lnnOcents, the mule men. He had
no thorough appreciation of the necessities, the
Aoeraiity and munihcence of a government
which suosists by tie judicious distribution of
spolis, and which has spoils to the amount OF
ninety millions to distribute. Hewas unsopbis.
Ncated enough to think that the doctrine of
equivalents should be maintained to some eY-
tent in transactions between the govern
ment and individuals. Hence, if the mule
was below the standard height, under or over
the required age. broken down, diseased, or
otherwise radically defective, he refused to
purchase 1t; and If it passed inspection in all
particulars, he bought it together with the rest
OF the drove at a price which left only some
twenty or thirty dollars head net profit to
the contractors. Out of these injuries inflicted
upon those worthy men-the contractors-haye
| sprung the Court of Inquiry. They are fitly
| represented by Senator Jim Green. He has
| been mixed up with this mule business from the
| hrst day. He attended closely to it in Wash
| ington last winter, and succeeded in procuring
large iavors, or large orders, Fl ON the War De.
partinent, ostensibly for his friends. His brother
Is concerned IN these contracts, and We feel
warranted in saying that the Senator himself
must be participation in their profits He was
the agent of the parties who received the or.
ders to furnish the mules; it was through his
solicitations the orders were granted, and he is
now the attorney before the Court of INQUIRY
Tor these parties; he was chiefly instrumental
IN getting that court appointed, and all the facts
warrant the assertion that he is one of the silent
partners of that great stock jobbing concern
which inflated that monstrous bubble, the Nor.
mon war, and which has made ten millions of
dollars by 1t. So much for Green's connection
with the Leavenworth investigation.
We have no doubt that Van Vet has disre-
garded the spirit OF his Instructions, however
carefully he may have observed the letter. He
must have grievously disappointed tho Secre-
tary OF War, who had him stationed at Leaven
worth because he was supposed to be less rigid
than the Others But military discipline har-
dens character, and of all human clay old SOL
diers are the most intractabe in the hands of
the potter. Van Vliet disappointed expecta-
block to the contractors; and as the whole OBJ
ject OF the second years war against the Nor
mons-the buying or rewarding of Lecompton
infiuences-could not be allowed to be married
in any degree by the stolidity of captain of
Infantry the salesman of Fort Smelling ordered /
an investigation.
"A fellow feeling makes us wondrous kind"
The contractors for the Utah army had a
friend at court, whose power was as high as his |
m fbios un 81
cause-their cause and his own. The constitu- I
ton must be maintained. 1t says that no pri-
vate property shall be taken by the govern
ment, except on condition that full compensa- I
ton is made. Secretary Floyd and Senator
Green have rallied once more in defence of the /
constitution. 1t may not be generally known I
how these mule contracts were obbed out
In the first place there were no formal contracts /
entered into between the War Department. and
the mule traders. The whole business was taken
away from Gen. Jessup, to whose department it
appertains, by Secretary Floyd, who could have
no legitimate connection with it in its executive
aspect Such business has always been tran
sacted by the Quarter Master General, who is
the responsible person. The Secretary having
rendered Gen. Jessup nuty, by arrogating
to himself the powers previously exercised by
that officer, proceed to carry out the duties of
Quarter Master General on a new plan. Hints
were dropped to the Lecompton men in Con-
gress, that it was in the power of the Secretary
to oblige some OF their friends in the country.
These country friends, the Lecompton Demo
Gratis, speedily summoned to the capitol. Jim
Green's clients soon appeared in response TO
the summons. Vice President Breckinridges
friends sped there too. The kth and kin of the
Secretary himself were not hindmost in the
race. The Penns ylvanis clique had also its
candidates on the ground. The Secretary gave
orders to them all to supply SO many mules
The number put down in the order being in pro-
portion to the Congressional influence exerted
in behalf of the recipient No price was fixed,
but the Secretary Sent autograph letters to the
Quarter Master at Fort Leavenworth, telling
him indirectly to allow a large per centage on
the outlay of the contractors. In fact author
ity was given under handed to the Quarter
Master to give any price he chose; and it was
because he did not avail himself OF this author.
ity to the utmost extent, that he is arraigned
before the court. He evidently misunderstood
the spirit Of his instructions, or he refused to
lend himself to the robbing of the Secretary.
These facts are undenabe. The rule adopted
made the contractors indifferent to the prime
cost OF the mules, because their profits were To
be in proportion to the outlay of capital In
fact. the dearer they bought the more they
ma de; and if they paid higher prices than they
blame them? Between Uncle Sam and the
owners of few mules mere and there in the
country, why should they not act in a liberal
spirit? We are not prepared to say the con-
tractors are much to blalne-ws mean the re-
cognized contrac tors-for there are many pro.
minent men connected with these contracts
whose names do not appear, but who share
largely in the proceeds. The mode adopted by
Secretary FIoyd no. only permitted but encour-
aged the recipients of his orders for supplying
mules, to give high prices, and if the standard
of valuation, which has been applied at Leay-
enworth, has excluded the high profits of which
they were assured, the fault is primarily with
the Secretary, and not with them
The condnct OF Van Vliet may have saved
to the Government, but it would be
An egregious mistake to suppose that his pur-
chases were not costly. The average price of
the mules which were purchased for the expedi-
ton this summer not less than one hundred
and seventy dollars 1t is within our knowl
edge that Col. Crossman, d. Q. g., several
months ago, when stationed in this city, receiv.
n n q, sc 1