Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1866-05-02
QDbio Statesman.
A Bureau Of "COxcOmbs and
ThieYeSO


During the consideration of the Army
bill, in the House, on Monday, fierce on
slaught was made on q section (sec. 20),
which proposed to make life Office of Pro-
vOst Marshal General, which has been and
is now filled by one General Fry-an indi-
Vidual who has been eXtravagantly lauded
as "Christian Soldier" and very marvel
OF disinterested patriot. Who and what
he is and what he made his Office, may be
inferred from what Mr.. COnkling, of New
York, said of him, in the debate:
"Mr Conkling moved to strike out the
section. Efforts, he said, had been made to
throw the responsibility of continuing this
unpopular Office on the Lieutenant Cen
eral; but to show how false that suggestion
was, he sent up, and had read, letter from
General Grant to Senator Nesmith, in
which he says: Il am opposed to multiply
ing bureaus, and think there Is no necessity
for Provost Marshal General. La fact, if
we had to organize the army anew, ! would
not have as many bureaus as we now have.
In my opinion, the country would be just
as well and much more economically
served if the cOast-survey duties were
added to the Engineer Bureau, and if the
Quartermaster's and the Subsistence De-
partments were merged into one.' 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 $4,000 600 which, under the act of
March l3, 1863, went to its credit
"lle protested in the name of his constit-
uents and of the people of the West against
perpetuating power under which they
have suffered beyond his capacity to eX-
press. They had sent to rule over us as
Provost Marshal member of the Veteran
Reserve Corps, a man who had never seen
battle or suffered scratch in the service
OF the country, crOny and coniidant of
General Fry, and who went on until the
business of recruiting in the Western Di-
vision became a paradise Of CopCOmbS and
there's. False quotas had been put upon
the people, and exaggerated orders sent to
Boards Of Surveyors, and in his own dis
trict under one call $433,000 was stolen from
an outraged and grOaning people. Com
munities and individuals, immeasurably
the superiors of General Fry, had protested
against it, and had been Sp,uned with mag
nitcent disdain. Never had the insOlence
of office been exhibited more than was elu-
Cidated by that man whom this section has
proposed to make for life Brigadier Gen
eral.
MIR. Conkling had been directed by the
Government to prosecute the Assistant
Provost Marshal, Mai or Haddock, who was
Justified by his superior officers down to
the time when his sentence was published,
he having been convicted of the very buSeSt
forms of official atrocity. Every ofiense,
from htgb,oay robbery up and dOl0n, had been
charged and proved against him and al
though this man has disgorged $2OOO00,
under the prosecution, he had purchased,
the other day, an establishment in PhiladeI-
phia for which he had paid $7l, 200 down; /;
and that mans case was not a peculiar one.
There never had been greater mockery, a
greater burlesque, or greater fraud, on the
pretense of honest administration, than the
Provost Marshal Bureau averaged and il
lustrated through the whole country. 1t
would turnout that, of the six, or seven,
or eightihundred 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 ignobly tailed. Even
Schenck made a sort of apology for report
ing the obnoxious section; when Thad.
Stevens moved instead of the section, the
following, which was accepted:
"SECTIoN 20. AHd be it further enacted,
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; and if there is any other reason
than that for their being at large and still
in office, the country has yet to find it out.
-DaNOn Einnile.