The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1876-02-19
WHOLESALE STEALING.

patches from Washington. Their whole bur
den is stealing, stealing, stealing. No maj
ter what department or bureau any commit
tee of congress may enter to obtain informa
ton, the first thing they encounter is indubi'
able evidence of financial irregularty, frau'
and theft. In the state department the evl
dcpcc confronted them in thousand shape
that our whole foreign service, from first claS
missions down to the most insignificant con
sulships, was rotton with corruption. EXpen
ses double what the law allowed were in
Cured, illegal fees exacted from merchant
and ship owners, and fees required TO be &C
counted for 10 the government stolen ant
pocketed. In the navy department the cas-
was still worse. Out Of fifteen or twenty mil
lions year appropriated to that department
not half the amount has been honesty ap
Piled, and with appropriations sufficient t.
keep the navy in frstclass order,i it is actual,
rotting away and disappearing. Instead o
letting work to responsible bidders, the uni
versal practice prevails Of doing out obs tt
favorites, and instead OF having detailed
vouchers for every expenditure, bills amount
ing to millions are paid aud vouchers taker
| in the Jump
But il is in the pest office department tina
the qualifications OF fraud and theft are ap
parently the most widely extended and or
the largest scale, Here is singh specimen
of hundreds revealed by the Investigation
thus far We copy:
The entire postal service in Louisiana and
Texas for years has been prostiIuted 10 thu
financial purposes of the republican party
The details will serve to show how complete
ly corruption has been imposed upon the ser
vice which comes nearest to the people. !.
the spring of 1871, DR.. Peterson, whose CLAIM
on the department is based on the fact that h'
was friend or Gen. Giles A. Smith, SECOND
assistant postmaster general, obtained the
contract to carry the mails up Rel River. ii,
was paid $4,000 per year for thi, service, al
though the owners of various boats running
on the river offered 10 do it for much less
He paid the owners Of the bd's $50 pei
week for transporting the malls,Or less thar
s., 900 per year. Nearly all the contracts iol
carving the mails on the lower Mississippi
and its tributaries were also aw.rded TO DIR
]
al rates very much above thosepf any com
peung bidders. In all cases he.ia-med on,
the carrying of the mails to those who had
been his competing bidders.
Again, from the correspondence of the Chi
cago Times:
Some interesting points, lot particularly
agreeable 10 the questioner, were elected by
Mr.. Cannon, of the post Office Investigating
committee, in his cross.examinaIon OF MIR
Holbrook, an ex.agent Of that department
Cannon wanted to know what influence there
could possibly be to keep Peterson, the straw
bid man, as contractor, If his frauds were
as iagran, as Holbrook alleged. The latter
promptly replied that Belknap, tie secretary
of war, and Senator West, weretespons:blt
for Peterson's retention. Mr.. Canon did moi
care to pursue that branch of thebubje"t fur
Their; but demanded why Holbp ok, know
ing the rascalities that existed, hsl failed &c
report them TO the chiefs of the department.
In answer to this Holbrook filel Sffidavits
setting forth that dismissal fromth service
was the inevitable reward of prisons whC
busted themselves in exposing corruption. liz
one case, it was shown, postmasfr IN Wash
lngton territory kept record ofletters pas
sing over certain mail route IN hat region
found that these letters cost the government
, no less than $1,000 each, reported this fact tt
the department, and was instantly removed
the place being given 10 clerk II the ser
vice of the contractor. llolbrook though
himself justified in retaining his information
rather than risk official decapitatiOnior max
ing It known.
These are specimens of which dpzens o
columns could be copied. The gist d all is
that for the past ten years the people hav
been paying from eight to ten millions yea
to meet DEFICIENCIES in the earnings Of the pos
Office department, while the evidence beior
the committee shows that these amounts,
not more, have been annually stolen by tnieV
ish agents and contractors whom the rcput
lican party, for partisan purposes, have place
and retained In office, in many cases with
full knowledge of their rascality.