Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1875-07-23
A Leaf from the Kecord.

the burden OF Responsibilities which Il has
borne through series Of years, we are
forced to give the highest credit to the Re
! publican party. Perfection is not to be
expected in anything devised by human
wisdom. Faults Will be found in the best.
arranged system. Faithless men will
creep into power despite the greatest care
TO exclude them. This has been the expe
rience of the world since the beginning OF
time and will no doubt continue TO be
! The human, and not the divine, must be
the standard of all governmental action
| when we come to pass judgment upon II
! Judged by this standard the party now
| holding power has had an equal record
| for honesty and official integrity.
No just comparison can be instituted
| between the transactions of the Rcpubli-
can party and the parties which have hith-
erto administered the Government. It's
responsibilities have been of such magni-
tude, its field of labor so extensive, its
history so crowded with great events, that
| its fourteen years Of power far outweigh In
| importance the seventy.one years which
preceded them. 1t seems like idle boast
ing to say that the Republican party
through its administration of public af-
fairs has borne responsibilities greater
than all the Administrations from 1889 to
1861.
Yet such is the fact, as the official
records clearly indicate. Let us examine
these records and, by the comparison of
figures, obtain few valuable facts.
How stands the record on the question
of revenue?
We shall see.
The net ordinary revenue of the Gov
ernment from March 4, 1889, to June 80,
1860, was, according to the official reports
of the Treasury Department, 81 ,S06, ,354,-
G50.5
This is large amount, but it covers a
period of seventy one years.
From 1860 to June 30, 1874, the period,
lacking about nine months, for which the
Republican party stands responsible, the
net ordinary revenue of the Government
was 81 ,437, 1877 ,1G5 ~, or more than double
the net revenue of the preceding seventy
one years. Yet the extraordinary expenses
necessary to put down the Shareholders
rebellion crowded this vast amount of rev.
cnue into the short space of fourteen years.
Let us examine the list of expenditures
and see how that account stands:
The net ordinary expenditures of the
Government. March 4, 1889, to June 30,
1860, were s1,731, ,734 ,613.72. From June
30, 1860, to June 30, 1874, aperiod of four
teen years, the net ordinary expenditures
were So, 465, ,807 ,922Si, or more than three
times the expenditures of the preceding
seventy-one years.
The gross receipts and expenditures
of the Government, which include the loan
transactions, show still greater contrast.
The gross receipts from March 4, 17S9
to June 30, 1860, were So, 1876, ,2S8, ,910.55.
From June 30, 1860, TO June 30, 1874, they
were $12, III ,045, ,092.94 or more than five
times the total receipts of the previous
seventy-one years,
The total gross expenditures from
March 4, 1889, to June 30, 1860 were
50, 100 044, ,415.1S. From June 30, 1860, to
June so, 1874, they were $f1 ,065, ,794, ,442.-
"a, or more than five times the total gross
expenditures of the previous seyenty-one
years.
Yet, with these immense receipts and
expenditures, made necessary by the sup
preston of the Democratic Shareholders
rebellion, the records show degree of
official integrity without a parallel in the
history of Governments. Vice President
Wilson, in 1872 in referring to this sub
ject, said
During the war we paid through the
Paymaster's department of the army more
than thousand million dollars. That
money was paid sometimes when troops
were on their march, sometimes when
they were under fire, and we lost less than
a quarter of II million dollars. Never in
the history of the human family was there
any higher evidence of integrity. In the
war of 1912, in paying out the little money
we paid during that war, we lost about
two million dollars. Since Gen. Spinner
entered upon his Office of Treasurer of the
United States, 500 900 900 900 have passed
through his Office, counted by from three
TO four hundred men and women. We
have lost between fifty and sixty thousand
dollars in these eleven years, while $j5,-
900, 600, 900 have gone through the office.
"1here has been collected under Gen
Grants Administration, in three years,
nearly 81, 200, ,000, ,000-nearly $500, 200, 900
"a year; there has been paid out nearly
81 900 ,000, ,000-making about So, 100, ,O00,-
600. We have lost out of this immense
sum, in all the departments of the Govern.
ment, $780, 0,000-less than fifteenth
part of per centum!
"We have paid out during these three
years $40 ,000, 900 in pensions, and we
have had five delalcatons, all of them sol
diers and four of them shed their blood
for the country. But the Government has
not lost dollar, tor the agents made
good their accounts, or their bOndsmen
did it for them"
These remarks are as applicable to-day
as when they were uttered. The same
honesty and economy Which characterized
the Presidents first term have distin-
guished in even'a greater degree the first
half of his second term.
A very careful calculation of losses sus-
taincd was embodied in an official letter
from the Secretary of the Treasury in 1879.
rs equal honesty has been practiced in all
the departments. since the date of this let
ter il may be safely taken as basis for
present calculation. According to this
letter the per cent of losses to the Govern
ment in the collection of internal revenue
since March 3, 1862 was less than one-tif-
tieth of per cent. of the amount collected,
or less thar So in $4,000.
In the collection OF the customs for the
same time the loss was S2S,000, out of
$553, 900 900, or the onc-hundredth part of
| per cent, or less than So in every $780,
900 600
The loss TO depositors through our ma
tional banking system was the one-hun-
dred and eighty-sixth part of per cent
equivalent to S5.371@ in every 100000.
- ReDUblic U101zjuS