The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1859-02-26
lFROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENTS

WASHINGTON, February %, 1852
! The Washington Union comes out to-day for the
| revival of the Tariff of 1916, as compromise be-
tween the two extremes upon the tariff question 1t
argues that the session is too near close for any
general Encouragement of the revenue svstem and
that Democrats ought not hesitate to go back to
an old Democratic measure, the details of which
are already well understood all disputed points I'M
der it having been settled by the Department or
the Courts. There is much strength in these sug-
gestions, and | have little doubt that they
will be adopted. The Pcnnsylvanans are in
excellent Spirits because of the success with
which they voted to reject the Post-ofice Appro-
priation Bill yesterday Still they are not strong
enough to boast too loudly of their triumph Other
causes than the failure of Tariff revision operated
to swell the large majority against the Postal Bill
That measure contains several millions of dollars
of appropriations for public buildings which MANY
Southern men think might well be suspended du
ring the present Treasury collapse, and for
voted in the negative because Mr.. DAVIS amend
ment failed, authorizing Butterfeld & Co. to run
the overland mail on such route as they NAV them
selves select. If the friends of the bill should
agree to strike out the building appropriations,
and toletin the BLAIR'S amendment, they light vet
be able to reconsider the rejection of the bill and
to pass it. Certainly they would come within a few
votes of it.
CATION luto NaTal abuses cannot fail to starte the
country when the evidence accompanying them is
fully published The resolutions of the Democratic
members of the Committee, while they do not
charge improper mOtirey upon the Administrat ton
clearly admit that in the administration of the
Navy Department gross abuses have existed which
need to be reformed. This is a sort of damning
with faint praise not calculated to elevate the char
acter of the Government in the estimation of man.
kind. The resolutions reported by Mr. BococK,
stripped of sophistical phrasng, would read as fol-
| lows
Resolced, That the PRESIDENT of the UNITED
STATES and the SECRETARY ofthe NAVY have suffered
gross abuses to exist in departments under their
| control-and that these abuses have invariably
tended to the pecunary benefit of their personal
and political friends to the great detriment of the
public service, and at serious cost to the Treasury
Resolved, however, that these transactions do not
establish dishonesty upon the part of these officers
although it cannot be denied that they reflect seri
ousy upon their reputation as men of ordinary dis
cernment and common sense, and show them to be
mentally unit for the positions which, moraUy they
| dignity and adOrn.
Vulgarzed, but not changed at all in true mean
ing they would thus be epitOmized
Reso0ed, That the officers aforesaid are fools, not
knaves.
A pamphlet, which would totally eclipse the eel
ebrated Ogle 'gold spoons document, might be
written upon the expenditures of the last few years
in extending andfurnshing the Capitol A recent
! y published exhibit by the Clerk of the House of
Representatives, of his contingent expenditures for
| furniture, discloses degree of extravaganza I'M
heard of in the history of Congress. From list
OF over $4,000 of purchases, made during the last
year or eighteen months, numerous items NAV be
selected where prices have been paid double and
sometimes quadrupe those at which competent par
ties estimate that the same articles could have been
purchased by private citizens. In the list is
nearly $4,000 for the one item of mirrors.
A single mirror for the Speakers private
room is put down at cost of 81 $50 Tables SINH
lar to those which any man can buy at twenty five
or thirty dollars are set down at S75. Window
hangings marked at from Sl20 to $3.50 per window.
are offered to be duplicated by city upholsterers at
from $40 to $50 per window. These are sample
items only, from a long list equally remarkable,
and equally demanding examination. Who is re-
sponsible for the purchases do not know. Legal
ly, the Clerk of the House is the man: but it is
well known that as general rule some subordinate
attends to this kind of business
That the Government has been shamefullv swim
died in some of the purchases the reader will find
1t difficult to doubt--but whether through the con-
nivance of the purchaser, a most remarkable OBJ
tuseness of intellect which permitted the par
r ties selling to charge what they chose.
their wares, is legitimate subject of inquiry and
speculation. One thing is eertain-to wit that the
great body of regular dealers hereNh come to
the conclusion that an honest cannot well sell
goods to those who disburse the contingent fund of
Congress with any reasonable hope of securing the
ordinary profits, for the simple reason that they
cannot SELL or if they do SELL can never obtain the
money upon ther pllls unless they the gauntlet
OF set of leeches who insist upon their share of
tribute. They have learned that if they are ssin'
with subordinates about the Capitol, they NAV
charge what they choose, and get their price; and
that il they are not Sim their bids are rejected or
their bills professionally cut DOWN. For the mode
in which this sort of thing is sometimes managed,
we have but to refer to the evidence just taken be.
fore the NICHOLS Committee of Investigations The
natural result is. that those who bid for Govern
ment contracts, here, who offer goods for sale.
ofttimes charge from 90 to 100 per cent more than
they are willing to take, for their own share, in
order that they may flch from the Treasury the
money necessary to pay the contingent fees. That
these structures are in no degree exaggerated any
man may satisfy himself by week of inquiry upon
the streets of Washington. 1t is high time that a
remedy was devised and applied.