Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1876-10-04

months, during which little by ut
tie the Executive and the heads o.
departments yielded up their claims
for large appropriations, the Dem
ocrats obtained a reduction o.
nearly $4,000, 900, a saving to this
district of over 100000. If th,
wise purposes of the Democratic
majority of the House had not beer
thwarted, especially of the trans
fer of the Indian Bureau TO the
War Department (which in thu
opinion of many United States
officers, like Gems. Sherman, Sheri.
dan and Hancock, would have
saved from sS,0O0,0O0 TO 100000,
600 annually the annual expendi
lures might have been reduced
nearly if not quite s5O,OOo,OOO.
There has been really no saving
to the United States Treasury since
the termination of the war. Il
one leak is stopped, hundreds Of
new ones have opened. The mum
Der of Federal civil officers has
been increased under Grants adj
ministration at least $4,000. The
net ordinary expenses of the gov
eminent have grown from little
over s69,000,0O0 in 1860 to the
enormous sums of from Sl60, 000,-
00G to sl70,00GO00 annually
Your internal revenue tax or
whisky, which ought to have yield
ed Won 81, O0,OOO,OO0 since the tax
was inaugurated, has produced but
about si00,OO0,O0O. Eight hun
dred millions have been lost to the
United States Treasury from this
single source-an amount equal ia
one-half of our bonded national
debt. Divided between election
funds, dishonest distillers and fraud
ulent government officials. And
the only attempt seriously to pun
ish men for this stupendous steal
ing has ended in the inglorious
dismissal of the head of Treasury
Department, who pursued too Wig
orously the Babcocks, the Nc
Donalds, the McKees and other
confreers of the "Washington ring"
l can tonight hardly allude to
the investigations into the corrup-
tons of the departments at Wash
ington. The whole power of the
administration was used against
those investigations, which, if con-
scious of honesty, it would have
encouraged. Voluntary witnesses
were threatened with prosecutions.
Public books were refused to be
to committees. Local
courts of limited jurisdiction took
recusant witnesses from control of
the House and discharged them,
and yet you know the Secretary of
War fed from his place by resig-
nation and escaped punishment by
! legal subterfuge of Senator'S
The Secretary Of the Navy was
'ound, without authority of law,
% have RENTED to the foreign
house of Jay Cooke & Co. million
Ind half of dollars to save them
rom bankruptcy, and had paid by
way of brokerage for obtaining
costly contracts, hundreds of thou
'ands of dollars to his intimate
riends and partners, the Cattels,
If New Jersey. That the high Of
icials of the General Land Office
we're indicted for. immense frauds
n the Issue of Indian script. In
short, that every department of
he government presented a loose
ness of administration and an
amount Of direct or indirect pc
,ulation beyond the Imagination of
hose most suspicious of official
corruption. But these investiga-
ions have only pierced the surface.
The depth of Official turpitude will
De known only when q change of
administration gives full scope to
Investigation.
To all these charges of extrava-
,ance and official corruption the
answer is ga Confederate House,
Well, this Confederate House did !
much for the Union soldiers. 1t
passed bill equalizing the bounty
o our soldiers, which Republic
an Senate refused to consider. 1t
the law (which expired
ONE year or more back) extend
ng the time for fling claims for
or additional bounty. 1t passed o
ill granting communication for ar