The Daily empire. (Dayton, Ohio) 1865-1867, 1866-04-27
\ Bureau of "Coxcombs
Thtnvaa -

/ buIlnR lne fOnsluefdJlOn OF tne army
bin, IN the House, on Monday, a fierce on
siaught was made on section (seo. 30,
which proposed TO make life Office OF Pro-
vost Marshal General, which has been and
is now filled by one General FRY-an in
dividual who has been extravagantly
lauded as "Christian Soldier" and very
marvel OF a disinterested patriot. Who
and what he Is aud what he made his Office,
may be Inferred from what Mr.. CoNKLISG,
Of New York, said OF him. In the debate
I MIR. Conkllng moved to strike ont the
section. Efforts, he said, had been made
20 throw the responsibility Of continuing
/ this unpopular office on the Lieutehaut
General: but to show how false that sug-
! gestion was, he sent up, and had read,
letter from General Grant to Senator
Nesmith, Ia which he says: II am opposed
to multiplying bureaus, and think there Is
no necessity for a Provost Marshal General.
I In fact, IL we had to organize the army
anew, | would not have as many bureaus
as we now have. In my opinion. the corin-
/ try would be just az well and much more
economically served II the coast-survey
duties were added TO the Engineer Bureau,
and IL the Quartermastcr's and the Sub
sistence Departments were merged into
one.h There was one important thing for
the Bureau of the Provost Marshal General
to do. and that was to close Its accounts,
and allow the country TO know what has
become of the S26,000,000 which, under the
act of March Is, 1853, went to its credit
| He protested In the name of his constit-
uents and of the people of the West against
perpetuating a power under which they
have suffered beyond his capacity to eX-
press. They hau sent to rule over US as
| Provost Marshal member of the Veteran
| R0c orxye a mar xxrbn oil cf
battle or suffered scratch In the service
of the country, a crony and confdant of
General Fry, and who went on until the
business of recruiting In the Western Di-
vision became a paradise OF eo1cOmbs and
thieves. FFlse quotas had been put upon
the people, and exaggerated orders sent TO
Boards of Surveyors, aud in his own dis
trict under one Call S433,000 was stolen from
an outraged and groaning people. Conn
munities and individuals. UNNECESSARILY
the superiors of General Fry, had protested
against 1t. and had been spurned With mag
nificent disRdin. Never had the insolence
of office been exhibited mere than was elu-
cidated by that man whom this section has
proposed to make for life Brlgadier Gem
leral.
Mr.. Conkling had been directed by the
Government to prosecute the Assistant
Provost Marshal, Major Haddock, who was
justified by his superior officers down TO
the time when his sentence was published,
he having been convicted of the very bdsest
forms of oificia, atrocity. Every offense,
from highlC0y robbery up and dOtcn, had been
charged and proved against him; and al
though this man has disgorged $200,000,
under the prosecution. he had purchased,
the other day, an establishment In Philadel-
phia for which he had paid $1,000 down
and that mans case was not peculiar one.
There never had been greater mockery, a
for httr ot,.r tI,a
pretense of honest administration. than the
Provost Marshal Bureau averaged and IL
Illustrated through the whole country. 1t
would turn out that. of the six, or seven,
or eight hundred thousand men for whom
enormous bounties had been paid, not two
thousand had ever gone to the front.
A puny defense of these damaging
charges, of official robbery and infamy
was attempted, but It igRobly failed. Even
SCHENcK made a sort of apology for re-
lporting the obnoxious section; when THAD.
STEVENS moved instead of the section, the
following, which was accepted
SECTION 20. And be it further enaG cd,
That the Provost Marshal Generals Bureau
shall be continued only as long as in the
Judgment of the Secretary of War may be
necessary TO close up the business thereof
not exceeding, however six months after
the passage of this act"
1t may be wondered at, why such Whole
sale robbers and plunderers, as are thus
publicly stigmatized on the floor of Con-
gress, are not in custody of some bastile-
keeper or in the hands of the courts of law
They have been the pets Of the War De-
partment; andif there is any other reason
than that, for their being at large and still
In office, the country has yet to find it out