Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1876-08-04
A Democratic Statistician.

In debate in the Senate, the other day, on
the River and Harbor Appropriation Bill
Mr.. Merrimon, of North Carolina, made
long speech, accusing the Republican party
of corruption and peculstiOn, -and got pref
ty roughly handled. He read table show
ing the number Of gallons of whiskey man
ufactured in twelve years past, and under
took to prove loss to the Government from
the tax thereon Of nearly 81 400 ,OO0, oVU
A question or two from Mr.. Sherman
showed that be had reckoned the tex at
$500 a gallon for the ichOle time whereas
that was the rate for but four years. Mr.
Merrimon showed the expenses of the Gov
eminent from l7S9 to 1851 to be 81 ISL
7O5, 1854. THAT covered the expenses
for nearly seventy years,-now. see what
was expended under Republican rule - tn
umphantly exclaimed Mr.. MerFimon
From June 80, 1861 to June 30, lo75 the
net ordinary expenses amounted to S5,2222V'-
~, OS.OO
Mr.. Logan dryly remarked here by an
examination Of the expenditures from ISL
TO 1865. the Senator will see that they were
all pad By the Northern States and he
might find reason for that, if he would
look at it a little further" But Mr.. MerTi-
mon preferred to drop the point.
Mr.. Merrimon again proposed to read
from report made by Secretary Boutwell, IN
$50. the names of some of the internal
Revenue officers whom he (Mr. Merrimon)
called "deiaulting officers" and the aggre-
gate amount due from such, as stated in the
report. he said. wa 81, 1888. lie va;
instantly interrupted by several Senators
and Mr.. Logan showed that the report he
was reading from was not Of 'detaleatiohs
but of unsolicited taxes - and that the re
po.ts showed these very taxes were after
wards collected Mr. Sherman showed tina
the actual loss '.of all the taxes that ha7
been levied in the form Of internal taxation
since the organization Of the system to tn
present year, Is one thrie1h ot one thou
sandM of one per cent? or S2,376,00O.
Mr.. Merrimon' : reasoning is fair sampi
of the way the charges Of corruption and ex
trayagance against the Republican party ar
made up. 1t made hearty laugh in tn
Senate when he na.reIg said to Mr.. Windon
that the debate was not profitable to elthe
side, "because neither Of Us are dealing Il
facts"
Probably the figures given by Senate
Merrimon, in hi, speech On the ez
tra7agarce Of the Republican admins
trations. Will be quoted with comment
OF horror by the Democratic papers Of tn
country to the end Of the campaign, Will
they will entirely ignore the exposition g
their lalsity made by other Senators at tn
time. Senator, Dawe- and Cragin took
fresh pull al Merrimon's feathers, the othe
day, and left him nearly plucked. The
showed that one Of the tables Of figures h
paraded with 50 much JUNCTION, had beei
three times already printed in former speech
es, and its inacearaey shown each time-al
inaccuracys so stupGndous as to give ~, 10
civil employees in the Navy Department Il
1875, whereas there were only li5 an'
5,726 employees in the Postofh;e Depart
ment-made up by adding in all the mai
contractors and special mail agents som'
$4,000 in number, and every contractor VII.
had dozen contracts repeated dozeI
times To compare such list with that O.
the clerks in the Department and post
masters. in lo59, i, as Senator Dawes re
marked, like comParing.a cord Of wood witt
dozen Of chickens Al Mr. Merrimor
could say was thst he found the table II
another mans speech, and diin I suppose
there was any error in it he hadn't him
self looked up the figures at all.