Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1868-08-07


the different appropriations. 2,56O,OO0 90
Making a total Of. ~. .sI06, ,8is,4I7 10
differ in some items from the recent
| statement of the honorable Chairman
of Ways and Means, for think he in
! eluded in the expenses of this year a
deficiency of s13 0e0, ,0o0 resulting from
the Indian war of 1867; which amount
! was appropriated and spent last year,
and has no proper connection whatever
with the expenditures of the current
1 fiscal year. And he also includes, in
correctly, L think, some TWEEN ty-four
million appropriations overlapping
rom the year which has closed to the
| present. say Incorrectly, because
/ this amount will be Offset by SINH ar
amount which oyerIaps from this year
to the next, about the same amount go-
ing over each year ,end this frem neCes-
sitY owing to the mode of disbursement.
I have also made the amount for boun-
ties ten millions less than the Chairman
estimates, because large proportion
which he includes in this year will me-
cessarily be paid in the ensuing year
when it is hoped the whole matter will
be CLOSED, the last soldier h0norably.
paid Off and the Treasury relieved from
further obligation. in that direction
Adding together these ordinary ex-
penditures, as I have above, the sum
total is found to be $l06, SIS, Az. If Con-
grsss can be accused of 6xtravagance
the accusation must be made good on
these figures, Oh. else abandoned, for the
other expenditures as I have already
repeated, lie without the pale of Con-
gressional discretion or control. A
clear estimate of the character of these
expenditures may be gathered by COM
pairing them with The Outlays incurred
under the last Democratic Administra-
ton. For example, in 1S57-5S the same
class of expenses in Buchanan's Adj
ministration were over $40, 600. 600 in
gold, whereas the $IO6,S1S,447 above
named are in paper. Tt must be OBJ
served moreover, that in 1857-56 the
population of this country was under
30, 900, 600, whereas to-day it is well nigh
40, 100000. Adding 40 per cent premium
on gold, to bring the expenditures of
the two eras to the same standard, and
we ind the outlays Of Buchanan were
at the rate of over SOS, 100000 in paper
to-day. To this add One-third for in
crease of population, and we find the
Buchanan expenditures, adjusted to
the scale Of to-day, would amount to |
S130, 100000 ior the same items that we
are paying less than Sl07, ,00O, 900 for
And inthis calculation havesaid moth !
ing about the increased military and |
naval force of the present day, which |
adds immensely to the account in favor |
present economy. This calculation
stated in these general terms, is far |
more, striking and suggestive when YOU |
II
for instance, cost, during the four years /
of Buehanan's administration, by the |
official statement of the Treasury De-
partment which hold in my hand the /
large aggregate of $50, ,307, ,575 50, making 4
an average of well nigh twenty-five /
millions each year in gold. At that
time the army consisted in all of 10 reg /
iments; so that each regiment cost con-
bly, over q million each wear in
gold. The army at present contains 60
and yet the whole appropri-
alton asked for by Gen. Grant, amounts
to little more than thirty-thr mil |
lions, a, tribe more than half a million
per regiment each year in paper. In 4.
other words, the army under the peace
Of Democratic admin
lstration Immediately preceding the
war cost per regiment largely more in
gold than the army now costs per. .regi-
ment in paper under the peace estab-
Lishment as administered by General
Grant. The same scale of expenditure
in under the administration
Of Buchanan would make our present
army cost over seventy millions in gold
u hundred millions in paper; and un-
III the latter figure is exceeded the [
Democratic partisans of Buchanan can I
aaYe no ground TO charge that army 4
are extravagant, When we {
ook az the actual amount spent for leg {
Innate army expenses, we see good I
ground for the high compliment be-
Itowed by President johnson, When, a J
ew months since, he publicly pro- 1
claimed ttGeneral Grants fudicious / 1
as the direct cause of saving 7
many millions to the Treasury With I
General Grants election to the Presi- q
iency, and the final paci6cation of the '
States, our army will at once g
1e reduSed, and the expenditures of the &
Var Department will be brought to a | c
'oint so considerable as no longer to be b
cit as burden to the taxpayer. The C
in regard to naval expendi- a
ures at the two periods have named. v
re equally suggestive and striking +
Tor the four years of Buchanan's ad- j.
the navy, by the official j
eeords, cost $50, ,645, 1893 S9-shoWing an 81
Yerage of more than Sl3, ,OOO, 900 per an b
um in gold coin. With much larger v
avy, and with the disadvantage of pas
er money and high prices, our appro-
this year are trifie under -
L., 100000. Taking the difference in ?,
ne size of the navy at the two periods, ~
nd the disparity between gold and pas y y
ef, and we should be authorized, if we y
1lloWed the Buchanan standard of exS y,
enditure, in appropriating well nigh :,
70, 100000 for the years service. These =,
lcts are certainly suggestive and inS a
.ructive. in our Post Office expendiN ~
1res, as compared with those of the n
regime, the difference is, if -
aything, more striking than in the
slative expenses Of the Army and NaS
y. Beside using mp all the postal re- 81
'ipts, the Post Office Department for o.