The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1876-09-29

treasury for q truthful statement of the
public debt as it appeared on the books |
in his office. This the Senate poted dos0n,
thus placing itself on the record as being
unwilling to let the country know the
truth In histspeech on the subject, in
the Senate, August 5th, Senator DAVIS
directly asserted that in 1871 the register
was instructed and forced to make ms
statements of the debt conform to the re-
modelled statement prepared by Mr..
BoUTwE ELL, and he added:
"And | now further state that the
! data and warrants in the registers office
will rot sustain the statement of the pub
| lie debt he was compelled arbitrarily to
make to Congress; and in order to make
his statement of the public debt as made
up from data in his Office agree with the
one sent him from the secretary's office,
he was forced to make changes in the
former statements of the public debt, ana
increase it in the aggregate more thah
! $240,0O0000
al leave it to the Senate whether or
not this was forcing balances; and as 10
who did it, that question is answered.
"The Senator in effect acknowledged
he made the changes that produced the
con fusion and discrepancies in the public
accounts that have given rise to this and
other discussions. This may be the
reason that influenced him to vote against
n special committee of investigation and
for one of which he is a member and his
party friends in the majority. But l
submit it would have been more man y
for him had he made the confession earlier
and not waited until an ex-Secretary OF
the Treasury, the Finance Committee
and others had fastened on him the fact
that he was the cause of the changes, con-
tradIctions and discrepancies that EXIST In
the finance reports"
But Mr.. BoUTwELLs remodelled
statement extended beyond the public
debt; it took in the receipts and expendi'
lures for thirty-six years back also. de
changed the official statements of his pre-.
decessors and gave the result to the
country as true statement of the receipts
and expenditures under prior admins
Enthusiastically declaring that the OF,
fetal reports of former secretaries OF the
treasury were false. For example, he a..
tered the report of the war department
expenditures for 1860, from $l4,475,SOi
to Sl6,472,202; he altered the report O.
pension expenditures for 1869 from $16l
100 to 81, 222, 222; and he made similar al
tcrations in great many other items a.
stated In former official reports.
Now, the questions come up: Why
were these charges made? Why was
the debt statement "remodelled and the
debt increased many millionsT Why
were these transactions kept secret fol
six years and admitted only when they
were exposed? And why did the Repub
lican Senate refuse to allow the matter
to be investigated, and refuse to allow thu
Register OF the Treasury to give true
statement of the public debt as it appears
on his books? Senator DAVIS boldly de-
clared in the Senate 81 further state
that the warrants and books in the Reg
ister's office will not sustain and agree
with the annual official reports made tc
Congress" neither Mr.. Boutwell,
nor Mr.. SHERMAN, nor any other Re
publican Senator dared to accept the
challenge and appeal to the books. L:
it not evident that there is something
wrong in the Treasury Department.
st. LouiS Republican.