Holmes County farmer. [volume] (Millersburg, Ohio) 1857-1926, 1862-02-27

QUESTION Of Mr.. Cummings, without hi
producing TO them any vouchers.
Strange as it may appear, while th
money was there to respond to his re-
QUESTION, he draws kSlG0, 900, and de
posts it in his name, With his private &C
count, in one Of the.city banks. Stran
ger still four morfb% after his agency
ceased, he leaves 30 fs.hcrS with tn,
War department in 6 63Eherous conf
dencc, seeks no settlcmsntwith the Doc.
tor, nor an inspection Of his vouchers.
Such were the prominent transactions
occurring at time when a mans gener
Gus instincts should freely have Offered
every thing to his country.
THE MANIA FOR STEALING.
This was the cloud no larger than Z
mans hand which increased and spreal
until the whole sky has been wrapped in
/ gloom, and men go about the street,
wondering where this thing will end
The mania for stealing seems to have run
through all the relations Of Government
Almost from the General to the drum
merboy; from those nearest the throne OF
power to the merest tide-water. Near
ly every man who deals with the Govern.
ment seems to feel or desire that it would
not long survive, and each ha | a com
mon right to plumber while it livei.-
Even in the matter in the purchase Of
two sailing vessels, two men of New
York, to the crime of larceny, added the
sin of perjury, that they might rob from
the Treasury $4,000.
In the case of the Stars and .Str;Des
the President Of the New Haven Propel
Ter Company, after taking from the Gov
ernment $4,000 more than she cost
took of that amount nearly $500 tC
line his pockets, and in excuse to his
company baseiy pretended that he had to
bribe an eX-membcr of Congress to al
audience to the head of the bureau; anC
from that cowardly insinuation an hon
orable, high-toned ex.member of Con
grcss, in Connecticut, had been subjected
to calumny. That President, before the
committee, testified that after taking
$4,000 in profits from his country, ht
was so anxious to serve her in this, the
hour Of her extremity, that he appropria.
ted near y $4,000 of his colleagues mon
ey to his private use, so he could devise
some machine to take all the Southern
cities, and no one get hurt.
Colonels, intrusted with the power of
raising regiments, concluding with con-
tractors, bartering away and dividing
contracts for horses, and other supplies,
to enrich personal favorites; purchasing
articles, and compelling false invoices to
be given.
DEPARTMENT PARTICEPS CRIMINls.
While it is no justification, the exam
plo has bren set in the very Department
of Government. AS general thing,
none but favorites gain access there, and
none other can obtain contracts which
bear enormous profits. They violate the
plain provisions of the law requiring bids
and proposals, on the false and shallow
pretext that the public exigency require:
it. Should this last as long as the Pei.
openesian war the same excuse would be
used. The Department which has al
lowed conspira clos, after tho bidding had
been closed, to defraud the Government
Of the lowest bid, and by allowing the
guilty to reap the fruits of their crime,
and itself become pdrticepS criminis.
Who pretends any publit exigency for
giving out by private contract without
bids, over one million muskets, at fabu-
lous prices ? Who pretends a public ex-
igency to make private contract far.ri-
fling cannon, to the amount of $500, 600 ?
prxNCvrv.NI, uopcrs
Kcntuckyis proverbal for her splen-
ded horses. Her loyal citizens would
have been benefited by sales to the Gov
ernment. Who will pretend that the
public exigency required that when cav
airy regiments were to be forwarded from
the State of Pennsylvania to the land of
"tho da-k and bloody ground" it was
necessary to transport, at great expense,
the remaining diseased horses left in the
Keystone State ? My colleague on the
committee (Mr. Dawes) few days since
spoke of the peace offerings to Pennsyl-
vania politicians, and referred to the hor-
ses of Colonel Williams Regiment.
CAMERON CHARGED WITH FALsEHooD ABOUT
CONTRACTS.
There is yet an other case. A con-
tract, not made upon the responsibility
of the Bureau, as the late Secretary said,
but by lis cypress order, and refused to
be made until so ordered. | refer to the
contract to purchase one thousand horses,
to be delivered at Huntingdon, Pennsyl'
vana. Such horse market the world
never saw. The fist inspector-an hon
est man--of the first hundred, rejected
three in five. The next day, owners re-
fused to present themselves, and by some
legerdemain he was removed and others
substituted; then horses of all ages, from
two to thirty of all diseases and defects,
secret and open, were from day to day
received The whole neighborhood were
in arms. The people remonstratcd,-
Lawyers and clergymen were present at
the inspection, and sought to deter the
buccanoering crew by open condemna-
ton; the inspector needed not this clam
or. but ordered the horses to be ridden
upon the crowd, to drive them away,
if possible.
ABUSES BEYOND DESCRIPTION.
Horses with running sores, which wore
seen by the inspectors and branded; and
if one outraged common decency he would
be rejected, and an opportunity sought
tbn Same day to passand brand him.