Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1876-07-27
Tne Record of the Civil service.
From the Chicago Inter-Ocean.J

From the Chicago 1nter-Ocean.]
Ex-Confederate Investigations still continue
| to recol upon their inventors 1t is not
strange that participants in the late rebellion
should hastily assume the guilt OF men in
| Office The crime Of treason generally IN
wolves all lesser crimes the majority OF the
| Democrats in the National House OF Repre-
sentatives were lately traitors or active SYM
pathizers with treason; they judge other men
| by themselves, and, rejecting upon the tact
OF their own treason, conclude that all men
! in office are thieves. Another fact leads to
the same conclusion. The ex-Confederates
| are all Democrats; the Democratic parry
from the reign of jackson to that OF Bu-
chanan suffered corruption to tester IN all
departments of the government without cf-
fort at detection or punishment; the assump-
ton that Republicans are as corrupt and us
neglectful of their public duties as Demo
| Gratis is perfectly natural to the Democratic
heart Some time ago Senator Davis, OF
! West Virginia, offered Il resolution IN the
Senate calling on the Secretary of the Treas
| ury for list of defaulters to the govern
ment, with the amount Of their detalcatlons,
! from 1860 to 1876, the period of Republican
ascendency 1t was plainly II trick 10 ex-
pose Republican misfeasance and malfeas-
ance in office and shield the offences of
Democratic administration. The resolution
was amended so as to cover the period from
1886 to 1876. Wbenthe information reached
the Senate the ex-Confederates lost all anX-
iety to print it, Instead Of showing "a bal
ance of defalcation 0gainst the Republican
party, it showed large balance against the
Democratic party. Our special dispatches
from Washington this morning give the fig
| ures, namely; Disbursements IN forty years,
$l3, 936, $40, ,O72 O5; aggregate Of detalcations
appearing on the books, $222, 266. OOO. But
about half of this sum represents only an ap-
parent, not real loss by defalcation, which
is explained in the dispatches: SO it appears
that there has been stolen from the govern
| ment by dishonest employees, in forty years,
say. $11 ZOO, 900, or about $264, ,OCO per an
mum. Putting Jackson's and Van Buren S
administrations together, as controlled sub
stantially by the same men and lnt1ue noes, we
find the list of administrations presents a
gradually falling scale of losses by defalca-
tions, reaching merely nominal sum during
Grants second term. The losses on each
one thousand dollars of disbursements are as
| follows;
The administrations of jackson and Van
Buren,, $12 s.: Harrison (succeeded by Tyler)
$1O37, Polk, 1884; Taylor and Fillmore,
$7.64; Pierce, 1886: Buchanan, $6,6o; Lin
coin, $1.41 johnson, 48 cents; Grant (first
term), 40 cents; second term, 26 cents.
This is exclusive of the Postottice Depart
ment which administers its own revenue.
In this department the improvement has been
as decided in the other departments, the
losses having fallen from$11.l8 on the $1,
600 in Jackson's administration, and $26. 19
in Van Buren's, to $1.01 during the second
term of Grant:
These exhibits, called for by Democratic
investigators with the hope of covering Presi-
dent Grants administration with shame, prove
that, so far as defalcations constitute test,
the present is the purest administration the
country has had for fifty years. The figures
are plain, and figures will not lie. They
show that the Democratic administrations
most lauded by Democrats were the most cor
rupt administrations known to our history as
nation. They show that in purging the civil
service of Democrats, Lincoln purged it of
incompetents and defaulters; for his admins
traton shows decline of losses on disburse-
ments as compared with that of his immedi-
ate predecessor, Buchanan. of nearly .fve hun-
dred per cent And they show that the char
actcr for honesty and efficiency of Re-
publican officials in the civil service has been
fully maintained by President Grant, since
the losses by defalcation under his second
administration have been reduced to mere
ly nominal sum. More than all, these figures
show that Democratic assaults upon the in.
tegrity of Republican administration have
failed utterly to establish the Democratic
| charges of corruption and in efficiency SO
loudly and SO persistantly made Chicago
Inter Ocean.
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