Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1862-01-22
SPEECH OF HON. HI. DAWES,

On Monday the 18th, in the House, Mr..
Dawes from the ssCommttec of Investigation
on Government ontracts,' made the follow
ing remarks:
SIR : have not failed to notice, and be-
lieve the Committee of which l am a member
have not failed to notice, in common with the
whole country, that for some unaccountable
reason, the charges upon the National Treas
ury, at this time of war, have been such as TO
reach nearly the bottom of the public chest.
During the investigation, startling facts have
come before the notice of the Committee, and
to- the snoticc of the whole country, touching
the mode and manner of the expenditure of
the public money.
Some of these items l propose to call
public attention to, and then to ask gentlemen
the plain question, when they propose TO meet
this question, if at all, and if so, how, when,
and where 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 Capital, by which they were to
be fed, was contract entered into for cattle.
1t was not made with a man whose business it
was to supply cattle to the market, not with
| man who knew the price Of beef in the mar
kets of the country, but was entered into by
tie Government here with a man well known
in this, and ia the otheri branch of Congress,
for the last ten years, as an old stpendiary-
one OF the class of men, who, in times past,
ing the certificates of members for books at
discount, and then charging the full amount.
This contract was made SO that the first twen-
ty-two hundred head of cattle furnished was
charged at a rate which enabled their orig nal
contractor to suh-let it in "a hours after to
man in New York who did not know the price
OF beef, so that he put into his pockets, with
out stirring from his chair, S32, 900, and the
men who actually furnished the cattle in ques-
tion put in their pockets S26, 600 more, so that
the contract under which these 2,2U0 head of
cattle were furnished to the army was so made
that the profit of S5S, 600 were realized over
the fair market price. 1t takes a longer time
for thousand head of cattle to reach this city
from the States were 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 Treasury
would be able to meet the simple demands for
the subsistence of the army. Sir, poorly as
the army is shod to-day, million of shoes
have already been worn out. and a million
more are being manufactured and yet upon
every one of these shoes there has been q waste
OF seventy-fve cents. Three quarters of
million Of dollars have been already worn out,
and another three quarters of million of dol
lars upon shoes is now being manufactured.
In the department of the Government con-
tracts have been so plenty that Government
officials have gone about the streets with their
pockets filled with them, and of which they
made presents to the clergymen OF their par
ishes, and with which were healed old politi-
ca. sores and cured political feuds. Even the
telegraph has announced that high public
functionaries have graced the love-feasts
which were got up to celebrate these politi-
cal reconciliations, thus brought about while
the hatchet of political animosity was buried
| in the grave OF political confidence, and the
national credit was crucified among maIefac-
tors. We have reported to us the first fruits
of these contracts. A regiment of cavalry
lately reached Louisville, 900 strong, and the
board OF Army Officers there appointed have
for the purpose, condemned 4S5 out OF the
900 horses as utterly worthless. The man
who examined those horses declared, upon
his oath, that there was not one of them that
was worth 500 They were blind, spawned,
ringboned, afflicted with the heaves, with the
glanders, and with every disease that horse-
flesh is heir to. These 4S5 horses cost the
Government, before they were mustered into
service, S5S ECO, besides more than addi-
tional 81 900 to transport them from Pennsyl-
vania to Louisville, where they were con-
dem ned and cast off.
Mr.. Mallory (Un., Ky.) asked what regi
ment those horses belonged to, and who fur
nished them.
Mr.. Dawes-They belonged to Col. Will
liam's regiment of cavalry, and they were pur
chased in Pennsylvania, from which State
they were forwarded to Louisville, where they
were condemned. There are SO regiments of
| cavalry to-day l 200 strong. 1t takes $780,
600 to put one OF these regiments on loot be-
fore it moves. Twenty millions of dollars had
thus been expended on these cavalry regiments
before they left the encampments where they
were mustered 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 thew were left to starye to
death. Gangs of two hundred horses in va
rious places, have been thus left to die and
rot, till the Committee of the District of Co.
lumbia have called for a measure of legislation
to protect the city from the danger to be ap-
pretended from these horse Golgothas. An
Ex-Governor of one State offered to an ex-
Judge of another State S5 900 to get him per-
airy, and when the ex-Judge brought back
| the commission, the Ex-Governor takes it to
his room at the hotel, while another plunderer
sits at the keyholc watching like mastif
while he inside counts up $4,000 profit on
the horses, and calculates $780, 900 more upon
the accUuterments, and on the other details of
furnishing these regiments. In addition to
the arms in the hands of the 100000 soldiers
in the field, there are numerous outstanding
contracts, made with private iIdividualS-not
made upon advertisement, not made With the
knowledge of the public, but made by ex-mem.
bers of Congress, who knew no more of the
difference between one class of arms and an
other 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 twen-
ty-eight dollars apiece, when the same quality
of muskets are manufactured at Springfield for
thirteen and a half apiece and an ex-member
| ~ Al