New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1858-01-16

traitor TO bis country, the descendant seized upon
Walker in completely with those who seek to discover
the Union Washington hung the spy Buchanan
tolerates the fibusteT.
But would ask your attention also 10 the Post
Office Department, and in this shall not descend to
the minuii@ OF neglect and delays irregularities and
losses, unfit appointments and unworthy partialties
but rather indicate some Of the leading features that
characerze its management. The now Vice-Pres
dent of the United States signazed his entrance upon
the arena OF national notifies bv scathng exposure
Of the ehormiiies and fraud. embraced IN Tho postal
steamship contracts. The postmaster.Genera how.
ever, takes occasion in his annual report to recon-
mend The renewal of those identical contracts which
are t about to expire. The former in his searching
inquiry sci forth the magnitude Of the sums that were
thus piliered from the Treasury, the latter with de-
ciency alleged, yet plays the patron OF the plumber
ers and gives their schemes an nerenal Endorsement.
Perhaps the most venal of all these postal arrange
mems ore those which made with the Isthmus
routes, and yet they, OF all Others, meet with most
favor in the department The encouragement held out
to them has it, origin too not so much in facilities of
carriage az ID maturing views against the possession
Of the Isthmus itself II is part and parcel Of the ultra
secession policy which looks TO the speedy establish
ment of a Southern republic. Strange as all this may
SEEM il s nevertheless true and what Is stranger sun
the Administration that now gives full countenance 10
tropical post routes, for Interior sectional purposes,
was in no small measure indebted for success 10 the
fact that both its candidates from central states
and pledged to the early prosecution OF posa anu run
nent II has been somewhere stated that this depart
ment ofthe Government was given to southern man
IN conformity with stpulaons made anterior 10 the
election How this was cannot certainly De khown,
but it's management will fully bear out the charge:
Systematically the entire West has been cut OH
from all connection with the Pacific. Frontier
States such as Missouri have petitioned Congress for
overland mails to California, and when the demand
could DO longer be refused the Administration has
interviewed and diverted the intended lines TO the
south Missouri and California, through their repre-
sentatives succeeded at the last session IN procuring
an act for the immediate establishment of such mail,
and accordingly the PostmasterGeneral was ordered
TO let the contract. No other States had applied for
IT, no other Legislatures memOralized IN its behalf.
and the law was SO explicit that there could be no
room for constructive meaning. Several companies
bid for the contract and the successful one desired to
go work forthwith upon the line of central travel
from st. Louis TO San Francisco 1t was at this
stage that the Postmaster General, in direct viola
tion of the law which left the route open to the
lection of the contractors, refused to make the award
until he had compelled an agreement to start from
Memphis, and stipulated that not even branch
should pass through the State of Missouri further west
than Springfield The violation of the law was ap-
peaed from and the attention of the President drawn to
the papable iniracOn. He sustained the illegal act
Of the PosmaserGeneral, and confirmed the southern
Texas mail route. And that was the treatment the
petition from Legislature received at the hands OF
the Department. Had Tennessee and Arkansas first
moved in this behalf might have felt sighted but
net insued. AS it was, began In Missouri and Call
excuse is the temperature. Government it seems, can
send an army to Winter in the South Pass but cannot
trust mail coach through lower attitudes OF a more
central route Apart, however, from the just cause OF
grievance which citizens of this State may have there
are other controlling considerations which must con-
denim this measure AZ Federal policy. The immedi-
ate wants of the Government, the operations OF the
army in the interior the speed and drecness OF trans
port, would all torcibly Indicate the wisdom OF so
establishing central trunk mail line, that ts branches
might easily diverge to the north and the south, and
hatx ,an thn
States and all the Territories. The ignoring of such
considerations the other hand betrays either cor
rupton incompetency in the chief OF the bureau.
regard for the best interests of the service itself
would require that the termini of such postal route
should be the focal points of the existing mail sys-
tens of the Atlantic and the Pacific but the interests
of the service seem not to have been taken INTO ac-
count at all in the eagerness OF Cabinet ofcer TO
confer a home favor. OF recommendations which re-
late to Improvement in the carrying and certainty IN
the delivery of the mails, know OF but one OF
practical nature that has emanated from the present
head of the Department Ii amounts IN substance 10
the dspatching of mal-agent to accompany every
mailbag; but while this might greatly extend the
patronage at disposal it may be doubted whether 1t
would comport with postal revenue which Is esti-
matedto fall three millions of dollars below the amount
necessary TO defray expenses. One discovery wmch
the Department has made should not be passed over
without fitting notice. 1t is late and it Is refreshing
1t il that the Mississippi River begins at Memphis and
ends at New Orleans; and accordingly in total obiv-
ion of the source whence its mighty waters h0w, 1t
has divided il into four routes between the points
named Let me do him full justice, however. The
Postmaster General does recommend in his last report
moved, doubt, by a spirit OF exploration, That "a
subdivision be added from Memphis to Caro-. Land
of Egyptian darkness. hail with delight the promised
dawn!
In like manner, ] might pass in review other
branches of the public service, from that OF the
Treasury in its dealings with the currency to that of
the Interior in its dealings with the pubic ahds, ana
demonstrate equal if greater inefcency, than in
those already commented upon. MIR. Guthrie, when
he retired from office, carried with him reputation
for honesty, competency, and rigid compliance with
the law that has been surpassed by no other man who
has filled that position The enconums which he re-
ceyed and which he Justly merited, did much to re-
deem the Administration OF which he was part, and
left to his successor not only financial system that
could be reproached with few faults but the most EN-
phatic Endorsement of that system in the shape OF an
oyerfiowing treasury. What is its condition now l
will not say exhausted- know it is not pethoiic; but
even the Secretary of the treasury himself mas IL
impossible 10 deducc from ts confusion true state
ment on which to base his demand for an issue OF notes
For the past year, phlebotomy has bean practced
so unsurgicay, that restoratves have to be applied;
and yet in this critical condition OF Inc PARENT, the
learned doctor prescrbes what may he termed water
cruel After expending large sums of gold and sl-
yer in the buying in of United States bonds at high
premium he now proposes to emit United States snal
notes at heavy discounts to supply the dehclehcy'
And that one operation is fair criticism upon me en-
tire management. Did time sadmit l would also
press an inquiry into the various c0nupons that
within the few months of the present ncumbency have
crept into the land offices scattered throughout the
West, whereby rapid succession Of appolntees are
rewarded for their party service and enabled to draw
constructive salaries 70 the utter neglect Of their e-
climate duties In one office in Missouri, three per-
sons have filed the place within year, each having
drawn full salary and then retired. And this, which
was an occasional incident of the last administration
has become the standing rule of the pres
ent. As Western men, too, it might not be
amiss to note the abandonment by the government of
all protection to inland commerce. The shores of the
lakes brste with Notifications, the estuaries of the
eat nre carefully dredred hnf the creat rivers that