The Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1861-1862, 1862-01-25

of dollars upon shoes is now being manufac-
tured. In that department fthe Government
contracts have been so plenty that Govern
ment officials have gone about the streets with
their pockets filled with them, and of which
they made presents to the clergymcn of their
parishes, and with which were healed old no.
ltical sores and cured old political feuds.-
Even the telegraph has announced that high
public functionaries have graced the. love
feasts which were got up to celebrate these
political reconciliatons, thus brought about
while the hatchet Of political animosity was
buried in tho grave Of political confidence.
and the national credit was crucifed among
malefactors. We have reported to us the first
fruits of these contracts. A regiment of cav
airy lately reached Louisville, one thousand
strong, and the Board of Army Officers there
appointed for the purpose, have condemned
four hunlrel and cightv-fvc out Of the one
thousand horses as utterly worthless. The
man who examined those horses declared, nm.
on his oath. that there was not one of them
that was worth twenty dollars. They were
blind, spawned, rinGboned afflicted with the
heaves, with tine glanders, and with every dis
case that horsc-nesh is heir to. These four
hundred and eighty-fve horses cost the Gov
ernment, before they were mustered into the
service, S59. 200, beside more than an add
tional $1,000 to transport them from Pennsyl-
vania to Louisville, where they were COR
demned and cast Or.
Mr.. Mallory (Un.. Ky.,l asked what r.si-
ment those horses belonged to, and who fur
nished them.
Mr.. Dawes-They belonged to Col. Will
liams's regiment of cavalry, and they were
purchased in Pennsylvania, from which State
they were forwarded to Louisville, where they
were condemned. There are S3 regiments of
cavalry to-day one thousand strong. 1t takes
S25O,OOO to put one of these regiments on
foot before it moves. Twenty millions of
dollars had thus been expended on these cav
| airy regiments before they left the encamp-
ments where they were mustered into service.
and hundreds of these horses have been con-
demned and sent back to Elmira, and to An
napolIs, and to this city, to spend the wint r.
Any day hundreds of them can be seen round
this city chained to trees where they were
left to starve to death. Gangs of two hun
dred horses, in various places, have been thus
left to die and rot, till the committee on the
District of Columbia have called for measure
of legislation to protect the city from the dan.
ger 20 be appreh onied from these horse Col.
gothas. An Ex-Governor of one State offered
to an ex-Judge of another State, $4,000 tc
get him permiSs on to raise one of these regi-
ments of cavalry, and when the ex-Judge
brought back the commission, the ex-Govern-
or takes it to his room at the hotel, while an
other plundcrer sits at the keyhole watching
like mastitf while he inside counts up $40
900 profit on the horses, and calculates $40
900 more upon the accoutrements, and on the
other details of furnishing these regiments.-
In addition to the arms in the hands of the
100000 in the field, there are numerous out.
standing contracts, made with private ndivid-
uals-not made upon advertisement not made
with the knowledge of the public, but made
by ex-members of Congress, who knew no
more of the difference between one class of
arms and another than does Methodist min
lister. There are outstanding contracts for the
manufacture of Springfield muskets the first
one of which cannot be delivered in six month,
from this day. There is contract for thu
supply of one million and ninety Thousand
muskets, . twenty ight dollars picc,, whel
the same quality Of muskets are msnufac
tured at Springfield for thirteen and hal
piece; and an ex-member Of Congress 10 nov
in Massachusetts,, trying to get machiner.
t made by which he will be able to manufac
: ture in some six months hence, at twenty
one dollars piscc, those riled muskets man
ufacturcd to-day i'll that armory for thirtee,
, dollars and a half.
Providence, before six months, will dispos'
of this war, or He will dispose Of us. No
one of these muskets, thus contracted for, will
be of the slightest service in this emergency
or before the Providence of God, whether 70
good or for evil, will dispose of it. ask m,
friends from the North and the North-wes
how they expect to benefit by an armory a
Chicago, at Rock Island, and at Quincy, whe
1902, 900 muskcts WILL according to this con
tract be thrown upon the country, and tina
t after the war is over; and at such an enor
; nous price, in addition to other outstandin
contracts for the manufacture, some tim
hence, of 272,oOO Enfield rifles ? Besides
: there are 75,543 sets of harness, to be deliver
ed by and by, at the cost of $1.979, ,446.
! have no time to enumerate all these contracts
When we appropriated at the last session o
r Congress, for this purpose, $20,00O,00O, thir
ty-seven millions and some thousands dollar
, had been already pledged to contractors-no
for the purchase Of arms for men in the feld
not to protect them in Sighting their country
battles in this great emergency and peril, bu
for some future use, for some future occasion
or to meet some present need of the contrac
tractors, don't know which at this moment
And not only the appropriation Of last sessio
has been exhausted, but $17, 100000 put upo