New-York tribune., 1868-07-29
MR.. WFLLS'S REPORT.

Certain Democratic journals have lately
laborcd hard to induce the belief that our
National expenses are enormous, that the public
debt is being increased instead of diminished,
that taxation is more OncIOus, and that the
Republican party having two-thrd majority
in both Houses, is responsible therefor. In an
swcr to certain inquiries of the Hon. VIM. B.
Allison of Iowa, Special Commissioners Wells
has written n letter, elsewhere printed, con-
tanning the following specifications:
]. That the National receipts of revenue from
all sources, for the fiscal year ending June 30,
1868, were substantially S1OG.3OOOOO, and the
aggregate expenses S3,l jJ0,225, of which
$t41 ,G35, ,5jl 13 was on account OF interest on
the Public Debt (neaIly SlG,OCO,OOO OF THIS
being due mainly TO payments on account OF
accumulated interest on the Compound Interest
Notes, and which will not appear in future
interest disbursemcnts), thus tearing an eSh-
mated Surplus Of receipts Orcr expenditures, for
the near ending June 30, Of s3f f,740,777.
III. Since the war the amount Of Taxes abated
or repealed is siG7, ,269, 900, and coincident with
this reduction the aggregate of the National
Indebtedness has been reduced S25O,OOO,O 900.
On this abatement the reduction of the interest,
l
millions per annum.
III. The aggregate expenses OF the war De-
partmcnt from April /, 1865, TO June 80, 1868,
were S0l71l7,Oi3 49, $647,6ssOOO (or 20 per cent
of the whole being used during the last nine
months Of 1865, in paying off our troops ana
other necessary war expenses. The balance,
5000, ,42S, ,9S7 10, covers period of thirty months,
and represents disbursements further contingent
upon the termination of the war; regular eX-
pcnscs, the money used in the Indian War the
payment of bountics ($49,3S2 S59), payment Tor
property destroyed in the military service
($11 100000, reimbursement OF State claIms
(S1O33O,OOO), river and harbor improvements
Notifications Indians, FrccdmenS Bureau, eX-
pcnses of Reconstruction, etc.
". From April I, 1865 to June 80, 1863, the ex-
penditures of the Navy Department were Sll3-
110 ,29G 81, and 45 per cent of this, or $j0,S47-
$50 So, were disburscd in the nine months sue
ceeding the termination of the war. The bal
ance covers the regular expenses of the Navy
for thirty months ending July 3O 1868, as well
as the disbursements of prize money and for
the settlement of contracts made before the
war ended.
V. No department of the Government has
been so much abused by Gov. Seymour and
Democratic orators generally as the Freed
mems Bureau. They have never failed to mag
Nifty threefold the cost of that institution. Mr.
Wells shows that since its organization in 1866
down to June 30, 1868, its expenses were only
$5,Gl7OOO This disposos of one-half of the
false statements of these men. If it were pos
sible to find out how much of this money was
expended to alleviate the suilerings of whites,
the Democrats might be shamed into stopping
the other half of their abuse.
Finally, the expenses contingent upon the
acts of Congress regulating Reconstruction have
been s2,344,7OO, which is also far below the
amount given by the Democratic candidate for
President and his followers.