Fremont journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County [Ohio]) 1853-1866, 1862-01-24

calculates twenty Thousand more upon tho
and on the other details Of
furnishing the regiment. In addition to
the arms in the hands Of the six hundred
thousand soldiers in the field, there are nu-
outstanding contracts, made with
private indiriduNls-not made upon adver-
tisement, not made with tho knowledge Of
the public, but made by ex-members of
Congress, who know no more Of tho differ
ence between one class Of arms and another
than does Methodist minister, There are
outstanding contracts for the manufacture
of Springfield muskets, the first one Of
which cannot be delivered in six months
from this day. There is contract for the
supply Of one million and ninety thousand
muskets, at $2S piece, when the same
quality of muskets are manufactured at
Springfield for 1880 a piece; and an ex-
member Of Congress is now in Massachu-
sets, trying to get machinery made by
which he will be able TO manufacture in
some six months hence, at $21 apiece, those
rifled muskets manufactured to day in that
armory for 1880. Providence, before six
months, will dispose Of this war, or ho will
dispose of us. Not one Of those muskets
thus contracted for will be of the slightest
service in this emergency, or before the
providence Of God, whether for good or
evil, will dispose of it. ask my friends
from the North and Northwest how they
expect to benefit by an armory at Chicago,
at Rock Island, and at Quincy, when l.
o92,00o muskets, will, according to this
contract, be thrown upon the country, and
that after the war is over, aud at such an
enormous price, in addition TO other out
standing contracts for the manufacture,
sometime hence, of 272,ooo Enfield rifles
Besides these 75,343 sets of harness are to
be delivered by and by, at the cost of 81,
987,440. | have not time TO enumerate all
these contracts. When we appropriated at
the last session of Congress, for this pur-
pose S20,o0o,o0o, thirty-seven millions and
some thousands of dollars had been already
pleged to contractors-not for the purchase
of arms for the men in the field, not to pro-
tect them in fighting their country's bat
ties in this great emergency and peril, but
for some future use, for some future occa-
sion, or to meet some present need of the
contractors, l don't know which at this mo-
ment. And not only the appropriation ol
last session has been exhausted, but $17,.
100000 put upon it. The riot of the 9th
of April in Baltimore opened tlis ball; and
on the 2lst of April, in the City of New
York, there was organized corps of plum
derers of the Treasury. Two millions of
dollars were entrusted to poor, unfortun-
ate, honest, but entirely incompetent editor
of a paper in New York, to dispense it in
the best manner he could. Straightway
this gentleman began to purchase linen
pantaloons, straw hats, London porter, dried
herrings, and such like provisions for the
army, till he expended in this way $780,
900 of the money, and then he got scared
and quit. Laughter.] There is an ap-
also, for the supply of wood to
the army. This contractor is pledged the
of seven dollars cord for all the
wood delivered to the different commands,
wood collected after the labor of the soldiers
themselves had cut down the trees to clear
the ground for their batteries; aud then this
employs the army wagons to
draw it to the several camps, and he has
no further trouble than to draw his seven
dollars for cord, leaving the government
to draw the wood. Laughter. 1t costs
two millions of dollars every day to support
the army in the field. A hundred millions
Of dollars have thus been expended since
we met on the 22d day of December, and
all that time the ARMY has been in repose.
What the expenditure will increase to when
that great day shall arrive when our eyes
shall be gladdened with sight Of the army
in motion, l know not. Another hundred
millions will go with the hundreds moro |
have enumerated Another hundred mil
lions may be added to these before the 4th
Of March. What it may cost TO put down
the rebellion l care very little, provided, al
ways, that it be put down effectually. But
Sir, faith without works is dead, and am
free to confess that my faith sometimes
fails mel mean my faith in men, not my
faith in the cause. When the history OF
these times shall be written, it win be a
question upon whom the guilt will rest
most beavy-upon him who has conspired
to destroy, or upon him who has proved in.
competent to preserve, tho institutions be-
queathed TO us by our fathers. 1t is no
wonder that the public Treasury trembles
and stagers like a strong man with too
great burden upon him. A strong man
in an air-exbausted receiver is not less help.
less to-day than isthe Treasury Of this Gov
ernment, beneath the exhausting process to
which it is subjected Tho mighty mon.
arch Of the forest himself may hold at bay
the fiercest and mightcst of his foes, while
the vile cur, coming up behind him, and
opening his fangs, gives him a fatal wound,
and although he may struggle on boldly
and vaIiantly, the lifA blood IS silently trick
ling from his hexl, and he is at last
forceatalpse his grasp, and be grows faint
andC pnd dies. The Treasury notes
issud face Of these immense OUTLAWS,
without ~ revenue from Custom. houses,
from land sales, from any source whatever,
is beginning to pail in tho market. All.
ready have they began to sell at six per
cent. discount at the tables Of the money
changers; at the very time, too, that VIC
here exhibit the singular spectacle offraud,
and of a struggle with tho Committee Of
Ways and Means itself, in an endeayor to
lift up and sustain the Government of the
country. Already tho sutler--that curse
of the camp-is following the paymaster,
as the shark follows the ship, buying up
for four dollars every fiVa dolIare III tho ,va