The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-08-18


agents The matter attracted good deal oil attention
in the Cabinet and the inquiry made Of the contractors
they would consider their proposals or bids Sappcaoe te
any route that might decided either by the Cabinet
the General To this inquiry they responded In the
Affirmative Upon consideration OF the different routes pro
posed the Postmaster General awarded the contract TO But
teTed Co, requiring them 70 carry the mails by way Of
Fl aso san Francisco Al subsequent time the eontrac
modified to make the intersection al Fort smith
| in Arkansas, instead Of at Little Rock"
In the House, on the 2Ist of February, Mr..
Reagan of Texas, another friend Of the Admins
| traton, said:
This Buttered contract one that by the Gov
eminent great consideration II Is fact, which Is per
haps within the knowledge Of the gentleman from Missouri
that there several Cabinet meetings at which arguments
favor against the several deliberately
considered TRUST the members wlnot IN view oil Wal has
been done. undertake disturb action Of
relation this route The contract entered INTO
after fun consideration by the President and theshole Cab
met and careful review Of the advantages and disadyan
| tages of all the routes"
We have now seen what the law required to
he done, precisely what was done in violation OF
| the law, and who did il. The law left the route
to the contractors, out Of whose hands it was
| completely taken by a high-handed usurpAtion
on the part Of the President and his Cabinet.
| The contractors were illegally required to ac-
company their bids with statements of the routes
! they intended to traverse; and when it was found
| that not one of them contemplated the extraor-
/ binary route upon which the Administration
was bent, they were coerced to assent that their
| bids should be considered as made for a route
! they had never thought of. The contractors
were not allowed the least voice in a matter left
to them expressly and exclusively by Congress.
The President, to whom the law gave no power,
! assumed the whole
BY this extraordinary course of proceeding,
the treasury is now paying the enormous sum of
six hundred thousand dollars per annum for a
service which is Of no value 1t has been shown
by report from the Post Office Department that
| by dividing the expense of this Butterfed con-
tract by the number of letters carried, the car
rage Of each letter costs more than sixty dollars.
The few letters carried might just as well, and
with no additional expenses, be put into the mail
bags sent by the way of the lsthmus, or by the
way Of Salt Lake. As mail service it is con-
fessedly worthless; and for the purpose for which
Congress established it, and which alone justified
it, the tacilitatOn of emigration to the Pacific,
it is equally worthless The emigration thither-
ward goes, and will CO. where it always has gone,
by the central routes, where there is water and
grass, and which are in the latitude and natural
path of that portion of the Union which has pop
ulation to spare. The treasury loses six hum
dred thousand dollars per annum, and California
loses the emigrant facilities which she needs
which eighty thousand of her citizens asked for
and for which the law of March 3, 1857, was in
tended to provide. So far as the extreme South
is concerned there was already a mail from San
Antonio III Texas, by the way of Ell Paso, to Fort
Gumas and San Diego. California gains no sin
gle Immigrant by the running of mail from ST.
Louis down to the thiTty-secOnd parallel of lati-
tude. Western emigration to San Francisco can
never be made TO take such a crcuitous route
over the worst deserts and through the most I'M
tamable sayages of the North American CONT
nent. The Butter6eld route is not a route TO
California, but route to Arizona and it is only
/ "A "A q To hat he of IL
all eXplicable. And this is the true exploitation
of It, Everything has been sacrificed to increase
the chances of a railroad on the 32d parallel of
latitude, and railroad, not to San Francisco,
but to the Gulf of California
But the loss to the treasury is not merely the
six hundred thousand dollars per annum paya-
bic under this Butterfeld contract. One mis-
chief leads to another. The President and Cab
met having, under an irresistible pressure from
the extreme South, subverted the act OF March 3,
! 1851 to make themselves the Texas and Arizona
route were then under party necessity to do
something by way of pacihcaJion, to keep Mis-
souri, and California quiet. The Buttertied con-
tract was odiOus to both those States and most
embarrassing TO the politicians in them friendly to
the Administration. To enable those POLITICIANS
to sustain themselves at home, it was essential
that something should be done for centralfoutes
which could be claimed an adequate cUmpen-
sation and offset for the extraordinary letting OF
the Butterfed contract With this view, the
Kansas City and Stockton line on the 35th par
allel was established and some expansion,
although less than was asked, was given to the
already existing line from ST. Joseph Uid Salt
Lake, TO Placerville. The national treasury was
the common victim, in all these operations. 1t
was from that reservoir, supposed until recently
to be exhaustless, that six hundred thousand dol
lars per annum was diverted to the sustenance
Of a railr cph md II fror
the same reservoir, that about half much more
was appropriated, by way of sop, to allay, or d.
minIsb, political dIsatiectiOn in Missouri.
Under ali these diverse pressures upon il from
various localities, the overland mail expenditures
OF the Administration, assumed the following
truly magnificent proportions:
er,n ,.o,,,. . ,.,,,., So, r... Psy ao M
From Kansas City, Missouri TO Stockton California $4,000
Prom s. Joseph Missouri, 10 Piacervue $4,000
From san Antonio, Texas, to san Diego 10000
From Independence Fc, from NeoshO,
Missouri, to santa Re, and from santa Fe 10 Fl
IasO JOS SS5
Total l 8OI SIS
This, with what has been paid for the trans
portatioR of the Pacific mails ria the Isthmus,
under contracts which do not expire until the
st day OF October, 1859, makes up an aggregate
of nearly two and One-half millions of dollars.
But the worst mischief of the Presidential let
ting of the Butterfeld contract, was not the loss
of money to the treasury, great as that was It
vas ttagant and conspicuous defiance Of the
law making power, by the highest executive mag
istrate. If such acts are tolerated, the Govern
ment is revOlutionized. Legislation becomes q
farce, aud the only power left is the will and
pleasure of the President. No English Minister
could hold Office a day, after defying Parliament,
as Mr. Buchanan, in this instance, has defed
Congress, in which body as yet, any effective
rcbuke of bis usurpation has been stihed IN sec
tional and party influences. Under any censid-
erable repetition of such acts, attended with
equal impunity the Government under which
We live would cease to be, even in form, Gov-
erument of law.
Let us now see what was attempted to be done
IN the Senate and House last winter in reference
to this matter.
1t was first moved in by Mr.. Blair of Missouri
on the 2lst of February, in the House, thar body
having under consideration, in Committee of the
Whole, the bill making appropriations for the
Post Office Department. TO the clause appro
priatng money for the transportation of the
mails, Mr.. Blair moved the following proviso as
an amendment:
irorided ho'Cerer, That the contract with Buttered 4
%, Tor carrying the mail om the Mississippi river 20 san
FRANCISCO IN Oaloa shall be SO construed ALLOW said
contractors to carry the mail by any they may select
IN accordance with the act Of Congress which SAID con
tract plfpOrts e. be made"
Mr.. Blair said:
II Will be recoileced that the last Congress passed law
authorizing the Postmaster General contract for CARVING
the mail overland from point the Mississippi river
10 be selected by the contractors Francisco Caor
ma Under tins law bids invited by the Postmaster
General for several routes The Postmaster General required
the mail 10 be carrc starting from ST Louis and running
down 10 The thty second parallel then Fort Yumas
ana up again Co san Francisco adding nine hundred miles
the distance Tins MIR Chairman was in violation Of the
act, ana IN derogon Of the duty con6ded It the
beginning ct last session. prepared act which wa sent
TO the Post Once Committee TO correct this violation f
on the part o the Postmaster General have eard
Of TIA tins day The law says that the contractor shall Sc
iec tue pout on the Mississippi includes the
selection Of the route itself Does any suppose that II