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


competition would fix.
-~@~O~
astound Ng Frauds !n Governmen
CUnGrac4S..Speech of Mr. Dawes, OF
M.L>SachUseEts.
We take the following from the New York
TijNne's report of the proceedings had in the
House of Representatives in Congress on Mon
day, January 13. The disclosures made as
to the almost boundless corruption and fraud
IN Government contracts, and the pointed and
direct manner in which Mr. Dawes makes his
statements, cannot but arrest the attention Of
the reader and will amply repay an attentive
perusal. Mr.. Dawes, ii will be seen, is a Re-
publican member of Congress from Massachu-
sets, and member of TIM House committee
appointed to investigate Government COLI
tracts. His statements are, therefore, made
upon facts proven before the committee:
Mr.. Dawes (Rep., Mass.,) from the COM
mite. of InveSti At OF on Government Con-
tracts in resumns his remarks, commenced
on Friday last, said:
Sir: l have not failed to notice, and be-
licve the committee of which am a mem
bar have not failed to notice, in common with
the whole country, that for some unaccounta-
bic reason, the charges upon the National
Treasury, ct this time of war, have been such
as to reach nearly the bottom Of the public
chest. During this investigation, startling
facts have come before this committee, and to
the notice Of the whole country, touching the
mode and manner of the expenditure of the
public money. Some Of these items l pro-
pose to call public attention to, and then to
ask gentlemen the plain question, when they
propose to meet this question, if at all, and i
so, how, when and where? Tho very frs
contract entered into by this Government af
ter the troops had left their homes to come
here, in April last, to defend the Capital, by
which they were to b, fed, was contract ell
tered into for cattle. 1t was not made with
a man whose business it was to supply cattle
to the market, not with a man who knew the
Il price of beef in the markets of the country
but was entered into by the Government here
with man we'll known in this, and in the
other branch of Congress- for the last ten years
as an old stipendiary-one of the class of mer
who, in times pas, made their money by such
operations as buying the certificates of mem-
bers for books at discount, and then charg
ing the full amount.
4 This contract was made so that the frs
|. twenty-tw hundred head of cattle furnished
was charged at rate which enabled their or
ignal contractor to sub-let in twenty-fou
hours after to man IN New York who die
not know the price of beef, so that he put in
to his pockets, without stirring from his chair
$4,000, and the men who actually Furnished
the cattle in question put into their pockets
$4,000 more, so that the contract unde
which these twenty-five hundred head of cat
tie were furnished to the army was SO made
that the profit of $4,000 was realized ovel
the fair market price. 1t takes longer time
for thousand head of cattle to reach this city
from the States where they are purchased
than it takes the army to consume them.
ask the House, at this rate, to consider how
long the most ample provisions Of the Treas
ury would be able to meet the simple de-
mands for the subsistence of the army. Sir
poorly as tbs army is shod to-day, milliol
, of shoes have slready been worn out. and