The New York herald., 1871-02-02

mcnts Of n Fearful Revolution.
The Chorpenning fraud, or, rather, the dis
covery of this fraud-a mere trife of some four
hundred and odd thousand dollars-is the
latest sensation in Congress. The discovery is
due to the vigilance of the chairman of the
House Committee on Appropriations, Mr..
Dawes and, but for his timely investiga-
ton, the money, under the convenient provi-
sions of bill smuggled through in the noise
and confusion of the last day of the last ses-
sion would doubtless have been drawn from
the Treasury on an order from the Postmaster
General. This same Chorpenning, on the same
claim for mail services between Salt Lake City
and Sacramento, as it appears, had, as far
back as 1857, drawn some two or three hun
dred thousand dollars extra compensation;
and, finding his claim good placer, he had,
| through his irresistible lobby Instruments per-
| fected his arrangements for this larger haul,
| when the trick was detected and his game was
| blocked. 1t appears, too, that Mr.. Earl, for :
merly high officer in the Post Office Depart
ment, was an active agent of Chorpenning in
the work of securing the passage of his ''little
bill'-no doubt very good stalking horse for
the purpose. The two ugliest features thus
presented in this case are the looseness of Con-
gressional legislation on these jobs and claims,
and the lobby services Of ex-oficers of the
several departments In this disreputabe bust
ness.
But who cares? There are hazards in all
| ventures, and Chorpenning, in case where
| he had nothing to lose and three or four hun
dred thousand dollars to gain, will doubtless
take his misfortune as coolly as the profess
sional blackleg who has had night of bad
| luck at faro. And, after all, the affair is only
a nine days wonder, and the startled lobby
birds, hardly rising from the ground at the
intrusion, are quietly settling. down again to
their work But to the old political cam
paigner this Chorpenning fraud is very sug-
gestive. 1t recalls the extra mail transporta-
ton allowances Of Extra Billy Smith and
others, the great New York Swartwout defal-
cation and all those defalcations and extrava-
giant claims and widespread federal corrup-
| tions of Jacksons and Van Buren's admins
trations, and especially of the latter, which
contributed so much to the popular whirlwind
that swept Van Buren and the democratic
party ont of power in 1910. 1t recalls the no.
torious Galphin claim and the wonderfully
successful, but terribly fatal, Gardner claim of
Fillmore's administration.
Gardner-a young man Of fine presence,
talents and education-had lived many years
in Mexico. and had travelled much over that
country as a surgeon dentist. He had thus
| become thoroughly conversant with the Ian
guage, customs and manners Of the country,
and incidentally with its silver mining system
in all its details. A year or two after our
| Mexican war he left Mexico and turned up in
| Washington, with a confederate-a skilful
| Mexicanized Yankee, Of the same stamp as
| himself-named Mieres. Next we find them
each presenting claim before the Board of
Commissioners, in Washington, appointed to
settle all claims of American citizens in
Mexico suffering from the war, in pursuance
Of the treaty Of peace; and next we find that
Gardner's claim of some four hundred and
sixty odd thousand dollars for his losses in
the suspension of his silver mine in San Luis
! Potosi, and the claim Of Mieres for one
| hundred and fifty-three thousand dollars.
which he thought would be enough, for the
suspension of his quicksilver mine in Chihua-
hua, are both allowed and paid in gold.
| Europe and Mieres went back to Mexico to be
| out Of harms way. Next broad hint was
thrown out, through the Washington cor
respondence of the New YORK HERALD, that
this Gardner claim was fraud. 1t reached
Gardner in Paris He was indignant. He
wrote to the HERALD on the subject He
| would come back and demand trial So
many of our great men, as his agents, had
shared the spoils with him that he felt sure,
no doubt, they would make it all right. He
| did come back. He was brought to
trial, and, while held in custody, a COM
mission was sent to Mexico with him to
examine his silver mine; but his mine could
not be found in Mexico. 1t was in the Moon,
as was also that of Mieres. The commission
returned with this evidence and with Gardner
to Washington. He was tried for the fraud,
convicted and condemned to ten years i'm
| pTISOHmeHt vi LIS way Out from tue court
room he slipped the contents of small paper
into his mouth, and in few minutes he lay
dead in side room in the Court House. His
! powerful friends who had shared in his spoils
had failed him. and he had taken his case into
| his own hands.
This scandalous and terrible affair threw a
blight upon all concerned in or connected with
| it, including the administration, and it stands
as a chapter Of the history Of that administra-
! ton. Pierce and Buchanan were swallowed
! up in the popular revolution going on, and in
! the fermsnting Southern rebellion on slavery !;
but they, too, are identified in the government
with the jobs and frauds and spoliatiohs OF the