Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1872-04-11
BUTLER AND BECK.

General Butler has not often been heard
from this session. But the other day lie
spoke to the purpose in reply to Beck of
Kentucky. The army appropriation bill was
under discussion. The following sketch of
the debate is interesting
Mr.. Beck (Dem.) of Kentucky, made sew
eral speeches, charging that enormous sums
had been used as corruption fund, and al
legged that the War department ard the Navy
department had several of the figures, and
avoided giving intelligent accounts of what
had become of the money.
Mr.. Dawes defended the departments, and
reminded the House that the accounts of the
War department which Mr.. Beck wanted fur
nished amounted to pile one mile long and
ten feet deep. (Laughter).
Mr.. Butler remarked that there were ten
or twelve committees of investigation in ses-
sion, and no one had yet been able to show
that a single dollar had been spent against the
provisions of law.
Mr.. Slocum. Did not A. T. Stewart testi-
| fly before the Senate committee on the New
York custom-house that Gen. Leet, President
| Grants staff officer, charged double rates for
storing goods in New York;
Mr.. Butler. Did that come out of the
Treasury? l am talking about the Treas
ury.
Mr.. Slocum. No one alleges that they
steal directly, but they steal indirectly.
Mr. Morgan. What became of the $780,
600 stolen by Hodge and gambled away in
Wall street!
Mr.. Butler. Oh. yes, when ask for any
thing spent in violation of law, they tell me
about defaulter; defaulter who comes
down to us from a former Administration,
and who carried on his career of crime until
republican administration caught him.
(Exultant laughter on the republican side.)
Mr.. L. Myers (rep.) of Pennsylvania. And
a republican Administration punished him.
MIR. Beck repeated his charges against the
War and Navy departments, alleging that
sl3s, OOO, 900 had been spent by the War de-
partment within the past five years. without
appropriation, without the order of Congress,
without the action of the courts, spent largely
for the purposes of corruption and to keep
men loyal. He did not know what it had
taken to keep the gentleman from Massa-
| chusetts (Mr. Butler) loyal He knew that
in 1861, when he and Mr.. Butler were demo.
Gratis together, it took more trouble to keep
the gentleman from Massachusetts loyal than
it did himself, and if it was ascertained what
the gentleman was worth now and what he
had been WORTH then the question, perhaps,
might be answered. All that he knew was
that all this money had gone in WAYS that
Congress knew not Of.
Mr.. Butler called the House to witness
that he had endeavored to keep within the
| prOprieties of debate, and to deal with gen.
eral principles. He asked Mr.. Beck whether
1t was becoming man who occupied the place
Henry Clay had once occupied to fling a
vile Islander at an opponent for want of bet
ter argument. He told the anccdote of the
countryman listening to an argument carried
on by learned doctors in Latin, who said that
he knew which side was getting the worst of
the argument when he saw'who got mad first
He had served with Mr.. Beck on the commit
tee OF Appropriations, and he called upon
him to say whether in all his official action
he had not always endeavorcd to protect the
Treasury. He would tell the gentleman what
it cost to make him (Butler) loyal. The first
gun fired on the American Flag at Fort Sump-
ter, then, without counting the cost he had
come into the field. He wished he had met
the gentleman from Kentucky there side by
side with him, and he would have been equally
well pleased if he had met him on the other
side. daughter and applause on the repub-
| lican side.)