The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1859-05-20

| Aotbi uBNiuHuto IN uCn
Pierces administration, 1922, 4,S74
Average each year,. los, us
| First year of the sdministra-
ton Of Mr.. Buchanan, 1S5S.... 30, $50
Excess Of aggregate expendi-
lures during the four years
Of Pierce's administration
over the aggregate Of tho
four years Of the Taylor
and Fillmore administra.
uon,...... .'''"''Soo,944tso
Excess Of the average expen-
/ diture of each year during
| the Pierce administration
| over tho average of each
| year Of the Taylor and
Fillmore administration, ..........S16, 236, 372
Excess Of expenditure Of the
frstycar Of Mr.. Buchaunn's
administration over tho
| lightest expenditure in any
one year Of the Taylor and
Fillmore administration. ............S2s, 1898
These figures, taken from official docu.
ments, are facts, which defy contradiction.
We invite, we challenge the closest scru-
tiny into their accuracy.
During the .fve last years to which they
refer, the administration of the Govern
ment has been conducted by Democratic
Executives and subordinate functionaries
|
of that party.
During the last eight years, the. Demo
cratic party has had decided majorities in
the Senate; and in the House of Represent
tatives also, except only during the 34th
Congress--embracing the two sessions OF
1886 and lS56-'57--when that party
was in temporary minority in the
House.
These statements, like the figures above
given, are facts which defy contradiction.
Now, let every reader who is willing to
get at true understanding of this mat
ter, cast his eye back with us over the
expenditures during each year of the
Wing administration. In the first year,
we find, in round numbers, an expendi
ture of hirty-e;ght millions second year,
forty-three millions; third year, hirty-nins
millions; fourth year, .torty-three millions;
the third and fourth years expenditure
being each less than that of the second
year, and the aggregate of the two last
years exhibiting an increase over the
aggregate of the two first years, of about
one million of dollars only. An annual
increase of expenditure, therefore, did not
occur in the Wing administration of Gen
Taylor and Mr.. Fillmore.
In the Congress which preceded Gen.
Pierce's accession to Office, the Democrat
ic party had majorities in both Houses
in the House majority of .ffy-one lin
the Senate, OF .,ow,esN.
This was the 32nd Congress-l85l-52-
1928.
In the nert Congress, oiM which Gen.
Pierce came into Office, the Democratic
party had, in the House of Representa-
tives, majority of eighty-one, and in the
Senate a majority Of fourteen. And yet
the expenditures in the first year of tine
Pierce administration were in round num-
bers, .Gtyone millions of dollars; second
year, .6ty,sir millions; third year, sirty-mh
lions; fourth year, sir.y,tour millions; show
ing an increase of seven millions and up
wards in his first year over the last and
Immediately preceding year of the Wing
administration
Nor, did the increase of expenditure,
enormous as it was, in the first year of
Mr.. Pierce's administration, stop there
In the second year, there was an increase
over the first of more than five millions !;
in the third year an increase of near four
millions over the second; and in the fourth
year an increase of near five millions over
the third year!
Mr.. Buchanan's administration sue
ceeded that of Gen. Pierce, and illustra-
ted its first year by an increase Of expen-
diture over Gen. Pierce's last year of up
wards of seven millions of dollars!
1t is mark-worthy that the increase of
expenditures during the last FIVE years of
Democratic rule has been annual regular,
and systematic, until the expenditure of the
last of these five Democratic years ex-
ceeded the expenditure of the last Wing
year upwards of TWENTY EIGHT MILLIONS of
dollars, while the total aggregate of ex-
penditures in the last four Democratic
years has exceeded the total aggregate of
expenditures in tAs-four Wing years very
nearly NINETY MILLIONS OF DOLLARS! 1.-THE
exact amount of the increase being $751;
82S,367.
What commentary upon Democratic
professions, pledges and creeds! Follow
ing the advice of Mr.. Buchanan, in his
Wheatland letter, of February, 1852,
published in our last issue,) the Demo
cratic leaders, organs, and managers made
"whig extravaganza party cry in the
Presidential canvass of that year, and
fought that battle under banners having
inscribed upon them, "a rigid economy in
pubic expenditures" as distinguishing, car
dinal principle of the Democratic party.
If they had faithfully redeemed their
pledges to the people-if they had only
inflated what they then denounced as
"Whig extravaganza they had no
more than eq4aaed what they, with Mr..
Buchanan at their head, held up to the
public as the "lavish expenditure" of a
Wing administration, there would have
been saved to the peoples pockets, in the
short space of FIVE years during which
they have been in power, the snug sum
OF ninety.toar millions, nise hundred and Sou
entyJer thousand, the hundred and seventy