The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1875-08-12

VI 4S1AL IEUhIl1 hEDOCI1ON Ot OEBI, &C
Yet, with these immense receipts and
expenditures, made necessary by the
suppression of the Democratic slavehold
ers' rebellion, the records show degree
of official integrity without parallel in
the history of governments. Vice Presi
dent Wilson, in 1872, in referring to this
subject, said:
During the war we paid, through the
Paymaster's Department of the Army
more than a 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 quarter of a million dollars
Never, in the history, of the human fam
lily, was there any higher evidence of in
tegrity. In the war of 1872, 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,
$55, ,000,000,000 have passed through his
office, counted by from three to tour]hun-
dred men and women. We have lost
between fifty and sixty thousand dollars
in these eleven years, while S55, 900. .000,-
600 have gone through the Office.
There has been collected under Gen
eral Grants administration, in three
years, nearly twelve hundred million
dollars-nearly four hundred millions a
year; there has been paid out nearly a
thousand million dollars-making about
twenty-one hundred million dollars We
have lost out of this immense sum, in all
the departments of the Government, a
million and quarter-less than a ff-
teenth part OF one per centum
I'VE have paid out, during these three
years, ninety million dollars, in pensions,
and we have had five defalcations, all of
them soldiers. and four of them shed
their blood for their country But the
Government has not lost dollar, for 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 character
lied the Presidents first term have dis
tinguished, in even greater degree, the
first half of his second term.
A very careful calculation of losses sus-
tanned was embodied in an official letter
from the Secretary. of the Treasury, in
1872, As equal honesty has been prac-
ticed in all the departments since the
date of this letter. it may be safely taken
as basis for present calculations. Ac-
cording to this letter, the per cent. of
losses to the Government in the collec-
ton of internal revenue since March 3,
1869, was less than one-fftieth of one
per cent. of the amount collected, or less
than two dollars in ten thousand.
In the collection of the customs for the
same time the loss was $28,000, out of
1858, ,000,0 ,000 or the one-hundredth part
of one per cont, or less than five dollars
in every one hundred thousand.
The loss to depositors, through our Ma
tional banking system, was the one-hun-
dredth and eighty-sixth part of one per
cent.-equivalent to five dollars and
three-eighths in every one hundred thou
sand.
The money entries on the books of the
United States Treasurer, covering time
from June 30, 1861, to January 9, 1872,
showed the immense sum of $50 900, ,000,-
600, and out of this vast amount the loss
was about $4,000, or less than one ten
thousandth part of one per cent, or one
dollar in one million of money transac-
tions.
With this exhibit of the financial re-
sponsibility of the Republican party, and
the official integrity which has charac-
terized its public servants, are we not jus
tilted in saying that no just comparison
can be instituted between the party now
in power and those which have preceded
it? To determine its merits, and do full
justice to its great services to the Repub'
lie, We have but to weigh its acts and its
responsibilities with the combined acts
of all the administrations, from Washing
ton down. Even then, we can obtain