The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1872-08-08

treasury Department IS dlVIQed into
bureaus. The bureau of Internal
Revenue is one. The bureau of the
Register of the Treasury is another.
Each keeps an account of the Internal
Revenue collected, and the chief OF
each makes his annual report to the
Secretary of the Treasury. In their
reports for 1871 the Register makes
the amount of internal revenue coll
lected during the past eight years more
than one hundred millions greater
than the amount stated by the Com
missioner of Internal Revenue. More
than one hundred millions has drop
ped out between the two bureaus
Where is the money? The tax-pay-
ers would like to have an answer.
! For the sake of the country would
that there was no further mystery to
be solved in the Treasury Department
use the mild term mystery; but it
covers the disappearance of hundreds
of millions. In his official report of
1860, the Secretary of the Treasury
makes the amount of the public debt
$l67, 100000 greater than the amount
stated by the Register of the. Treasury
who is its book keeper. From 1861
until 1869 the books of the Secretary
and the books ofthe Register balanced
to a dollar, when the startling fact ap-
pears that, by some process unknown
to the book-keeper of the Treasury,
$167, 100000 is added to the public
debt by the Secretary of the Treasury.
What constitutes that additional debt
of $l67, 100000 which the people, are
called upon to pay? By whose au-
thority, by what law was this 9suspi7
cious debt created D. aoit5q!g el1 - {
Nor does the mystery stop here. In
his report for 1870, Secretary Bout
well again makes the debt greater
than the Register, this time by $94,- :
000000. Nor is this all. t In his re-
port for 1870 Secretary Boutwell,
makes the debt at the close of the year
1859, $6S,000,O00 less than, he had sta-
ted it to be in his report for that year..
70 make the mystery more embar-
RAISING, Secretary Boutwell, is contra
dicted in his statements as to the
amount of the debt by Secretaries
Chase, Fessenden aud McCulloch, to
the extent of $306,000,000; and the
discrepancies between the Secretary
and the Register from 1861 to June 3d..
1871, exceeds $350O00O00. a-s. ~ 4
The statements of the amount of
t1IS +dOUI Ol LNCSlolCI. k1tllcOtl lOIIt GtlG
years from 1861 until 1869 are corrob5
GRATED by the statements of Registers
sChittenden, Colby and Jeffries !; but in
1871 Register Allison has been obliged
to falsify his own account of the debt
to the extent of more than $3.50, ,000,-
600; and his debt statement made in
1871 for the years since 1861 contra
diets his statement OF the total debt
n4 the oil n af -
the amount of several hundred mill
lions. 80 -..f.,f-s5f .fl,,7 ~, forit
This falsification of the accounts of
the Treasury was brought to the at
tention of the House on the 18th day
of February 1872, and to this honr no
explanation has been given. 1t, is
only equalled in its alarming charac-
ter by the removal from the war office
and the transportation to foreign
land of the official reports which con-
stitute the only reliable history of the
late civil war. sG Ge.-f1atg gvl
That grave necessity for reform
exists is beginning to be understood
by the whole country. That that re-
form can ouly be effected byia change
of administration is now certain. and |
the remedy can only be brought about |
by the combined actionof the friends
of good government and free institu- 1
tions. l have only touched upon the
margin of the chaos IN which the Fed I
eral Government is involved /; and /
upou this occasion / will proceed no
further. That our institutions are by |
degrees being destroyed is certain,
and for one / am prepared to organize !
as friends, and to act with, as allies all
honest men who are willing TO aid in /
rescuing our institutions from the
peril which threatens them, ..