The Andrew County Republican. [volume] (Savannah, Mo.) 1871-1876, 1873-08-08

Interior, under Buchanan, there was q
defalcation to the extent of 1921 900.
Thompson was held responsible for it
precisely as Gen. Howard is held re-
sponsible for the alleged frauds in the
Freedman's Bureau and the Howard
University funds. Thompson rt1shes
into print to say that personally he
knew nothing of the matter until near
the close of his official career, and that
a committee, composed of political OPP
ponents, SO reported twelve years ago.
Assuming the correctness of that re-
port, it by no means follows that the
course of Thompson was justifiable
When the deficit was ascertained, in.
stead of bringing the guilty clerk to
justice, he simply dismissed him from
the service. That was the only pun
ishment ever inflicted upon anybody for
that affair The Government lost near
ly one million dollars, yet the loss of a
clerkship was the only penalty inflicted!
There could hardly be an exposure more
disgraceful to the Democracy than the
story told by Thompson The state
ment we give in his own language:
1uC VI bllC AAtCllOA 80
made the custo ian of bonds held In
trust for the various Indian tribes. The
interest on these bonds is regularly col
lected and paid over to these tribes. A
clerk in the department is charged with
their custody, and, if the coupons are
regularly brought forward for collec-
tion, the head of the department pre-
sumes, as a matter of course, that the
bonds are in hand. In this case, during
my administration of the department, q
Mr.. Bailey, a clerk of high standing
and unquestioned talent, was charged
with this duty. Early in the year 1851,
after all the January coupons had been
brought forward and regularly collected,
and he had been called on to make
out full statement of his accounts
for the Auditor, which in itself was
full and satisfactory, it became known
that would in few days resign my
place in the Cabinet, owing to the con-
templated withdrawal of Mississippi
from the Union. Then it was that Mr..
Bailey sent me his confession that he
had, without my knowledge or consent
in any wav, delivered over to Messrs.
Russell & Co., large Government con-
tractors, bonds to the amount of $751;
600, and taken in their stead the accept
ances of the Secretary of War for the
same amount. He stated that he had
taken the responsibility of doing this to
save the credit of the War Department,
and had not advised me of what he had
done because he knew that / would con-
denim and would not allow him to touch
single bond. As soon as the confess
sion was received the keys of his safe
we're taken from him and the contents
carefully counted, and the state of
things showed his confession to be true
i'll every particular. Tho clerk Was dis
missed for his infdetity to his trust. !"
1t will be observed that two depart
ments, Interior and War, were mixed
up in the affair. Whether the Secretary
of War was involved or not does not
appear. Mississippi adopted the ordin.
ance of secession January 8, 1861, and
Thompson says that thereupon he re-
signed. The Democracy was in power
q month or two after the robbery QOr
such it clearly was) had become known,
yet no effort was made to bring the
guilty to justice, and herein the DemOc-
racy was true to its general policy of
winking at the crimes of its officials.
No wonder tho people are unalterab'y
determined to keep such cabal of
thieves out of power. What Tammany
was under Tweed in New York city, the
party had become at Washington during
the. last eight years of its national mis-
rule ChicugO Journal