National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1874-03-11
"a EJSUTNG RITZ

Ten thousand dollars are asked from Con
gress to defray the expenses of the present
investigation into the affairs of the District
If the members of both Houses will only
read the document in another column signed
by one of the counsel of the memorialists
they will at once see that the sum is entirely
too small that should be increased tC
at least one hundred thousand dollars.
To be sure this is large amount to take on,
of the Treasury during the present season
Of financial distress and embarrassment but
what of it? The memorialists should bt
allowed the fullest opportunity to make ou
their imaginary case and to put their hands
in the Treasury to crafty their persona
spite and luminosity against some of theil
llow-citizens to manufacture political
campaign material for the political party
with which they are associated and in sym.
pathy.
Ten thousand dollars will not be suffi-
cient to pay for the carriage" alone of the
documents which the committee are asked
to dump down" in the Senate committee.
room. First of all Ex-Governor Cooke is
to be summoned, with directions to bring
with him pricdte bank books, written docu-
ments. letters and papers of every descrip-
ton relating to the District of Columbia,
&C., &c. Hallet Kilbourne and James NJ.
Latta as individuals and as partners are to
be summoned, with orders to bring all their
private papers with them. Frank CASA
hripp tho nd
of the deceased VIM. S. Huntington, and
his widow is to be put upon the stand to lay
before rhe memorialists and their counsel
to help them to make case the secrets of
the grave itself The package clerk of the
Continental Hotel of philadelphia must come
along with the register of that establish
ment; files of THE NATIONAL REPUBLICAN
and the Eoening Star are to be Produced
Moses Kelly is to be called with all the &C.
counts, drafts, checks, bills of exchange
which passed through tine National Metro
politan Bank; and John McKelden with all
the documents and private accounts of the
Second National Bank, and Edwin NJ Stan
ton with the papers of the First National
Bank; James A. Magruder with all the
papers of the Board of Public Works, TO-
gether with score of other gentlemen and
their papers.
Ten thousand dollars. Why, as we said,
ten thousand dollars will not begin to pay
for the 'tdrayage, to say nothing about the
fees of witnesses, &c, &c. Then again, an
appropriation should be made Immediately
for the erection of a building in which to
place all these papers and documents That
room can be found for them in the Senate
wing of the Capitol is utterly out of the
question. They would fill at least four or
five of the committee rooms and two or
three corridors. But when all these docu-
ments are produced what will they do with
thems The work mapped out by Mr. Mer-
rick. and the gentlemen who are paying
him, would take at least a couple Of years in
which to eompleteit. Be it remembered that
this is only the beginning; that the ball has
not been fairly opened yet, and that if
the memorialists shall be allowed to have
their own way it will take at least gene
ration to wind up the entire affair. Now,
we want the entire thing to 60 ahead, but
ten thousand dollars is mere trifle to carry
out so stupendous scheme, to perfect so
magnificent a plan. Let us have at least
one hundred thousand dollars to start with.
less will only tend to embarrass
the Investigators, the noble band of patriots
who are so zealously watching over the
Treasury. Let us have hundred thousand
dollars. Ten is a mere bagatelle in this
matter No wonder Mr.. Thurman charac-
terized it as Fishing Bill"