Indiana State sentinel. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1862-12-22
~ washburne's Report ON Government
Contracts - The stPatriotic- Com
tractors of Indiana--HOw the Va oney
Goes.

! w care IN possession OF complete report oil
the W WAsHBuRNE Select Committee to inquire into
the contracts of the Government. 1t is an in
teresting document Of l7l3 pages in length. and
if the Committee had had time for a full report
of the matters referred to them, it could easily
have been swelled to three or four times its size.
The Committee says that Through the disclosures
made by it and the commissions which have
been instituted thereon, it is estimated that the
sum of from fifteen to twenty millions of dollars
will have been saved to the tax payers of the
country" and that the exposure of glaring
abuses which have been made by the CommitIee
have led to many important reforms. which are
saving large amounts of money daily" As a
matter of special interest to the people of Ind-
ana, we shall quote the substance of the report
which refers to the purchase of military supplies
by our State authorities. The Committee says:
Certain testimony has been taken by tie Com
mittee "a part in Cincinnati and a part in lndan-
apois) bearing directly on the purchase OF mill
tary supplies by the State OF Indiana, and having
but little relation To the contracts of the General
Government, except far the General Gov
ernment has assumed the liabilities incurred by
the several States in furnishing supplies for their
I
that State, General j. II Vajen, was acting at
the time the testimony was taken, but shortly uf-
forwards resigned his office So far. as
General Vajen, the Quartermaster of that State,
is concerned, the testimony compelled the com.
mittee to question the fidelity with which he had
performed his duties. An unpleasant eagerness
to make the mislOrtunes of the nation the source
o. personal aggrandizement, as in the case OF
other officials who have became directly or indi-
rectly connected with the large and lucrative
government contracts elsewhere mentioned, is
unfortunately 100 manifest, and would require
special report il, instead of being officers OF
State, the parties were in the employ ment of the
General Government. Ia this emergency, of all
Others, the State and the nation should demand
the highest integrity oil those invested with public
trusts, and each should hold their agents. by
rigid scrutiny, to a severe accountability.
The Quauermaster General J. II. vAJEs, in Il
letter to the committee. Sptes that the appoint
ment was pressed upon him by Governor Nor
TON, with whom he had but slight acquaintance,
ouly one hour being allowed him to decide upon
its acceptance. which he finally did upon the adj
vice Of friends with whom he consulted He
says:
have since often regretted acting upon IN 1T
advice, inasmuch as found the duties of the
ONCE aruhOuS IN proportion 10 the salary,
and they prevented my attention my private
business, which suffered much in consequence.
Yet on the whole dom regret my course, as
i have obtained much u0iaabfe Information and
experience and haze he satisfaction Of kH0WiBg
that haUe done my duty and serced Bty country
Also, many persons OF this city aud State, aud
nelghbOring States have pronounced their iudg
ment that the business of the Quartermasler Gen
erals Department of this State has been more
promptly, efficiently and honestly conducted, and
its purchases more economically made than has
been done in many other States. NV in
tercOurse with our worthy Governor has been
pleasant. | have often sought bis counsel, and
shall never forget with what uniform courtesy he
has always received me. He has made his mill
tlry appointments invariably with view TO eff
cheney integrity and honesty. aud should regret
To hear in your report that any os his appontees
had fallen short in those respects.
In the same letter General VAJEN says that,
"having learned that or two disaffected con
tractors have given testimony that may cast re-
Election upon my (his) character, (he) have re-
signed my (hs) position as Quartermasler Gen
eral of the State" Another reason he gives is,
that the State Quartermaster's Department had
eient Assistant United States Quartermaster,
Captain J. A EKIN.''
Here is the issue made up between the CON-
mittee appointed by a Republican House of Req
resentatives to investigate Government contracts
and gentleman appointed by Governor MoRroN
to a highly responsible position with a view to
efficiency, integrity and honesty" We have not
space today for a synopsis OF all the testimony
given before the committee bearing upon the
management of the State Quartermaster's De-
partment while under the administration of Mr..
VAJEN, but we will present enough to show its
general character. The committee were in ses-
sion here two days, and the following witnesses
were examined during that time: CALVIN FLETcH-
Err, X NJ PATTERSON, JOIN FAHSEsrocK, ROBERT
ID. BRowN, WILLIAM GLENN. JoHN E. MOONEY.
JAMES NJ. BAKER, j. G. GEIsESDoRFF, ANDREW
J. HISEsLEY. GEORGE l.. DART. DELoss Roor,
JAMES GREENE. JoHN REYNOLDS SAMUEL Q.
MoReAS. JAMES E. EKIN. john B. Cox, JosEPH
SrAUB, I. II. TAPKING. john H. VAJEN. WM. II.
HAYS J. A. HILDERBRASD, J. n. RAY and MILES
MURPHY
The following is the substance of Mr.. j. c.
Ot-iohsfhSnff
quiries OF the committee:
He was engaged in the business of manufac
turing wooden goods, casSimeres, satinets. jeans,
&c He had a contract 20 supply four and half
regiments with jeans suits for the State Depart
ment. These CONTRA Is were made with Mr. Vajen.
The contracts were separate. One in May mt
50 % per suit; the next was at So 75; the next
So rs, and then at 81 90. Made nothing but
profit on the goods nothing on the making up.
Three regiments were supplied with satinet suits
during the same time at 81 go by Glazier & Co,
of Cincinnati but one suit of Geisendorffs was
worth three of GIaziers.
In reply to the inquiry Of the committee why
il was that Geisendorff could get contract to
supply only one regiment, while the Cincinnati
firm got one to furnish three, the witness said:
We had the stock on hand, and would turn out
as many suits we pleased. We could not ex-
actly ascertain what the trouble was. Well, we
were green, as the term is, and | do not know
what reason there was, unless we did not under
stand arranging matters by giving bonus. In
other words, the doctrine given 20 by other
parties. was, that by giving certain bonus we
might have the whole OF il. We did nothing OF
that kind. General Morris was Quartermaster
at the time. but he did not act upon the matter,
but left this department before the contract was
let. Val became the Quartermaster and let
the contract. There was not question on my
mind that there was cause for those men getting
the contract. In other words. ii we bad been
prepared 70 do waHt we thought no person ought
to do, we could have got the contract for the
whole. The fact was, at the time we supposed
the lowest bid would take the contract. To
prevent us from coming in parties welding great
influence endeavored to prejudice parties against
jeans inferior article. There contro
versy in regard to the matter, and after while
it was proven that jeans were superior TO other
goods. When we made propositions for con-