Indiana State sentinel. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1862-01-20
The why the money Goes-rreasury
Pfundering.

rhe why the money soe.-rreasury
Pfundering.
Mr. DAVIS, Relub lean member ofthe House
from Massachusetts, and member of the Com
niittee Of Investigation on Government contracts,
made scAthing speech on Monday last. e1-
posing and denouncing the wholesale system of
plundering which had characterized the man
agement of the war tins far, and all under a
pretended patriotic devotion to the country.
The New York Tribune attributes the retire
ment of Gen. CANNON to the Developments made
in the speech of Mr. Dawes and that he had been
surroundedby improbable friends, "who.' to use
the language of that print, "would have scorned
the idea Of selling their God for thirty pieces of
silver so long as there was the faintest hope Of
making it forty The picture presented by Mr..
DAWES is disgraceful to the Government, and
shows that the Treasury has been beseiged by
set of cormorants who have been fattening upon
the misfortunes of the country. The following
is a condensed report Of Mr.. DAWES speech in
the House:
SIR: have not failed to notice and believe
the Committee of which am member have
not failed to notice, in common with the whole
country, that for some unaccountable reason, the
charges upon the National Treasury, at this time
of war, have been such to reach nearly the bot
tom of the public chest. During the investigation,
startling facts have come before the notice of the
Committee, and before the notice of the whole
country, touching the mode and manner of the
expenditure OF the public money. Some of these
items propose to call public attention to, and
to- mis- ffofa hox.
they propose TO meet this question: il at all, and
if so, how, when, and wherer
The very first contract entered into by this
Government, after the troops had left their homes
to come here, in April last, to defend the Capt.
tai, by which they were to be fed. was contract
entered into for cattle Itwas not made with
man whose business it was to supply cattle to the
market, not with a man who knew the price of
beef in the markets of the country, but
tered into by the Government here with man
well known in this, and in the other branch of
Congress for the past ten years. as an old stipen-
diary-one of the class of men who in times past,
made their money by such operations as buying
the certificates OF members for books at dis
count and then charging the full amount. This
contract was made 80 that the first twenty two
hundred head of cattle furnished was charged at
a rate which enabled their original contractor to
sub let it in twenty-four hours after to a man i'm
Il
so that he put into his pockets, without stirring
from his chair, $32. 900, and the men who actual
" furnished the cattle in question, put into their
pockets $40, 900 more, so that the contract under
which these 2, 200 head of cattle were furnished
to the army was so made that the profit of $685.
600 was realized over the fair market price, 1t
takes a longer time for thousand head of cat
tie to reach this city from the States where they
are purchased than it takes the army to consume
Al. a.
how long the most ample provisions of the Urea
sury would be able to meet the simple demands
for the subsistence of the army. Sir, poorly as
the army is shod to day, a million of shoes have
already been worn out, and million more are
being manufactured, and yet upon every one of
these shoes there has been waste of seventy
five cents. Three quarters of million of dol
lars have been already worn out, and another
three-quarters of a million of dollars upon shoes
is now being manufactured. In that department
of the Government contracts have been so plen-
tiful that Government officials have gone about
the streets with the pockets filled with them, and
of which they made presents to the clergymen
of their parishes, and with which were healed old
political sores and cured political feuds. Even
tho telegraph has announced that high public
fnnctionaries have graced the love-feasts which
which were got up to celebrate these political
reconciliations, thus brought about while the
Ratchet of political luminosity was buried in the
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 cavalry lately reached
Louisville, 900 strong, and the Boardof Army
Officers there appointed for the purpose, have
condemned 4S5 out of the l 900 horses as utterly
WORTH, IS. The man who examined those horses
declared, upon his oath, that there was not one of
them that was worth 800. They were blind, spa
vined, ringboned, afflicted with the heayes, with
the CHAMBERS, and with every disease that horse
| flesh is heir to. These ASS horses cost the
| Government, before they were mustered into the
81 900 to transport them from Pennsylvania to
Louisville. where they were condemned and cast
off. II IS s,i..-s.s.
Mr.. Mallory (Un., KY asked what regiment
those horses belonged to, and who furnished
| them. sf r <. F-s
Mr.. Dawes-They belonged to Colonel Viii
liams's regiment of cavalry, and they were pur-
chased in Pennsylvania, from which State they
| we're forwarded to Louisville, where they were
condemned. There are eighty-three regiments
of cavalry to-day, 1 900 strong. 1t takes $780,
600 to put one of these regiments on foot before
it moves, Twenty millions of dollars had thus
been expended on these cavalry regiments before
they left the encampments where they were mus
tered into service, and hundreds of these horses
have been condemned and sent back to Elmira,
and TO Annapolis, and to this city, to spend the
winter Any day hundreds of them can be seen
round this city, chained to trees where they we're
left to starye to death. Gangs of two hundred
horses, in various places, have been thus left to
die and rot, till the Committee on the District OF
| Columbia have called for a measure of legisla-
ton to protect the city from the danger to be APP
pretended from these horse Golgothas. An ex-
Governor of one State offered to an ex-Judge of
another State $1,000 to get him permission to
raise one of these regiments of cavalry, and
when the ex-Judge brought back the commits
sion, the ex. Governor takes it to his room at the
hotel, while another punderer sits at the keyhoe
watching like mastiff while he inside counts up
$40 900 profit on the horses, and calculates $780,
600 more upon the accountments, and on the
other details Of furnishing these regiments. In
addition to the arms in the hands of the 60O, 00O
soldiers in the field, there are numerous out
standing contracts, made with private individuals
not made upon advertisement. not made with
the knowledge of the public, but made 10y ex
members of Congress, who know no more Of the
difference between one class of arms than does a
Methodist minister. There are outstanding con-
tracts for the manufacture Of Springfield muskets,
the first one of which can not be delivered in six
| months from this day. There is a contract for
the supply of one million and ninety thousand
muskets, at sos apiece, when the same quality OF
muskets are manufactured at Springfield for
Sl3 50 apiece; and an ex-member of Congress il
now in Massachusetts, trying to get machinery
rnadeb, which he will be able to manufacture in
some six months hence at SCI apiece, those rfied
muskets manufactured to-day in that armory for
Sl3 SO.
Providence. before six months, will dispose OF
this war, or He wldispose of US. Not one OF
hose mnslxets thus contracted for, viii be of the
slightest service in this emergency, or before the
Providence of God, whether for good or for evil,
will dispose of it. ask my friends from the
North and Northwest how they expect 20 benefit