The New York herald., 1869-01-05

The oorruptions which have grown up in
the national government from the general
demoralizations of our late civil war are fear
full to contemplate. One hundred millions q
year lost to the Treasury from the spoliations
Of the whiskey rings ''beats out of sight"
anything In the line of whiskey frauds under
any other government on the face Of the
globe; but on corresponding scale with
their field of operations the Indian rings, the
Post Office and Interior Department rings, the
tobacco rings, the frontier smuggling rings
and various other rings, insiders and out
siders, jobbers, contractors, government off,
cials and private spectators, are pretty well
up to the percentage of the enormous steal
ings of the whiskey rings. The latest develop
ments, however, show that in the grandeur
and number of their schemes Of spoils and
plumber the Congressional rings of railroad
jobbers throw into the shade all the other
rings Of the lengthy catalogue Of confederate
Treasury robbers.
A Washington correspondent who has been
looking into the business reports that one
hundred and fifty-nine railroad bills and reso-
lutions have been introduced in the Fortieth
Congress 0he term of which expires on the
4th March next, with that Of President John
sony, and that tyice as many more are in
preparation in the lobby that one thousand
millions Of acres Of the public lands and two
hundred millions in United States bonds would
not supply the demands Of these cormorants.
In other words, their stupendous budget Of
railway jobs would require sops and subsidies
in lands and bonds which, reduced to money
valuation, swell up to the magnificent figure
of half the national debt
Among the jobs Of this schedule is the
Atchison and Pixies Peak Railroad Company,
or Union Pacific Central Branch, which, after
having received government sops to the extent
of six millions, puts in for seven millions more.
Next comes the Denver Pacific Railway and
Telegraph Company, which, having feathered
its nest to the figure of thirty two millions,
reported to be a mere gang of spectators,
without any known legal organization what
ever'-a lot of mythical John Does and Rich
ard Roes, who cannot be found when called
for. Next we have the Leavenworth, Pawnee
and Western Railroad Company, now known
as the Union Pacific, Eastern Division,
chartered by the Kansas Territorial Legislature
in 1856, subsidized with Delaware Indian re-
serve lands in 1861, and then in 1862, by
rider on the Pacific Railroad law, granted six
teen thousand dollars per mile in United States
bonds and every alternate section OF land,
within certain limits, on each side of the road,
and The privilege of a second mortgage. This
ia cutting it pretty fat. But it further appears
that clique of seceders from the old company
illegally formed new company, and. having
by force of arms taken possession of the road,
are pocketing the spoils which legally belong
to the old company. All this, too, with the
consent of the President, the Secretary of the
Treasury and Congress- Are they ali birds Of
u feather, that they thus flock together?
From another source we learn that some
half dozen other Pacific branch or main stem
railroads, Northern and Southern, are on the
anvil, involving lands and bonds by tens and
twenties and hundreds Of millions; that Of all
these schemes fully three-fourths come from
the republicans in both houses; that Senator
Pomeroy, of Kansas, has seven of these jobs
on the docket Senator Ramsey, of Min
nesota, four; Senator CONFESS, Of California,
five, and Senator Harlan, of Iowa, four.
Senator Pomeroy, however, distances all COM
petitors in the number and extent Of his jobs
for, as it appears, they include line from
Kansas to Mexico, three bills for roads from
Fort Scott to Santa Fe, in Texas, South
section, two or three lines from the Mississippi
river through to Texas, and "a little private
Atchison Pacific, one Of the incest and fattest
speculations ever worked through"
Is not this magnificent budget, and is not
the audacity Of these railroad jobs and jobbers
positively sublime? Some Of these schemes
are in successful operation, but many of them
are still in the caterpillar, or chrysais, state,
and there is prospect that very few Of this
class win come ont As the full blown butterfly.
The parties concerned have only two months
remaining Of this Congress for their work, and
these two months must necessarily be largely
taken up with the appropriation bills, negro
suffrage, reconstruction, &c. Then we depend
upon Mr.. e. B. Washburne, Of the House, the
right hand man of General Grant, to head Of
these bands of highway robbers until Grant
himself grapples them. We have very little
confidence In the capacity or the disposition Of
President johnson to retrench or reform exist
ing abuses for, with allhis professions, he has
done precious little, and has not tried to do
much, in retrenchment or reform. In fact, he
has been so much absorbed with his policy
his chop logic on the constitution, that he has
permitted the Treasury to run TO waste like
barrel Of whiskey turned over on its side and
running out from bunghole and spiecss
We are thus compelled to rely upon the vigi-
liant washburne to hold these Treasury sharks