Indiana State sentinel. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1862-01-20


collected after the labor Of the soldiers them
selves had cut down the trees to clear the ground
for their batteries, and then this contractor en-
ploys the army wagons to draw ID TO the several
camps, and he has no further trouble than TO
draw his 81 for a cord, leaving the Government
70 draw the wood lLaughter-l Ii costs two
millions of dollars every day to support the
my in the field. A hundred millions of dollars
have thus been expended since met on the 22d
day of December, and all that time the army has
been in repose. What the expenditures viii in
crease 70 when that great day shall arrive when
our eyes shall be gladdened with sight of the
army in motion. do not know. Another hun
bred millions will go with the hundreds more
have enumerated Another hundred millions
may be added 70 these before the 4th of March.
What it may cost to putdown the rebellion care
very little, provided, always that il be put down
efectually. But sir, faith without works is dead,
and am free to confess that my faith some
times fails mel mean my faith in men, not my
faith in the cause. When the history Of these
times shah be written, il will be question upon
whom the guilt will rest most heavily-upon him
who has conspired TO destroy, or upon him who
has proved incompetent to preserve the institu-
-tions bequeatked to us by our fathers.
1t is no wonder that the public treasury trem-
bles and staggers like a strong with too
great burden upon him. A strong man IN an
air-exhansted receiver Is not more helpless to day
than is the Treasury of this Government beneath
the exhaustlDg process TO which it is subjected.
\ The mighty monarch of the forest himself may
hold at bay the fiercest the mghtiest of his foes
while the vile cur, coming up behind him and
opening his fangs, gives him fatal wound, and
although he may struggle on boldly and yaliantly
the lite blood is silently tricking from his heart,
and he is,at last forced to loosen his grasp, and
he grows faint. and falters and dies The Treas
ury notes issued in the face of these immense
OUTLAWS. without a revenue from custom houses,
from land sales. from any source Whatever, are
beginning to fall in the market. Already have
they begun to sell six per cent. discount at the
| tables of the money changers; and at the very
| time too that we here exhibit the singular spec
tacle OF fraud, and OF struggle with the Com
mittee on Ways and Means itself in an endeavor
to lift up and sustain the Government of the
country. Already the sutler-that curse of the
camp-is following the paymaster the shark
follows the ship, buying up for four dollars every
/ five dollars of the wages OF the soldiers, paid to
them Treasury notes. have no desire to hasten
the movements Of the army, or to criticise the
conduct of its leaders, but in view of the stupen-
dous draft upon the Treasury, must say / long
for the day Of striking the blow which will bring
this rebefson 10 end Sixty DAYS longer of
this state of things will bring about a result one
way or another. 1t lie impossible that the Treas
ury of the United States can meet. and continue
20 meet, this state of things sixty days longer;
and an ignomiaious peace must be submitted to
unless see to 4 that the credit of the country
is sustained, and sustained too by the conviction
| going forth from this hall to the people of the
country that we viii treat as traitors not only
those who are bold and manly enough 20 meet us
face to face on the field of strife but all those,
also, who clandestinely and steathily suck the
likelihood from us in this mighty struggle. What
ever measures may emanate from the Committee
on Ways and Means TO meet and retrieve this
state of things they will bat fall like dead pail
upon the Government unless they give this ASST
rance, that these extraordinary and extreme
measures to resuscitate, revive and replenish the
Treasury, are not made to fill further and longer
the already gorged pockets of the public plumber.
ers- How, then, are we to contribute in this
matter to revive public confidence in our public
men here, if il be not when these appropriations
come up that we probe them, that we ascertain
whether there be anything in them that at this
moment can be spared. Our pressing duty now
is to protect and save the Treasury from further
wholesaleor other systems Of plundering. In con-
cusion, he argued against paying for printing the
Treasury notes, on the ground that the contract
was improperly obtained. ~