Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1877-06-30
BUREAUCRACY.
The New York Custom House.

propose to give our readers some IN
sight into the history of two public
offices which have been the head
quarters for years not only of official |
peculation and corruption, but OF
executive intervention in State poll
tics such as to violate, in both letter |
and spirit, every principle of our
constitution. These are the Custom
houses of New York and New Or
leans, the former in the present pa
per. The facts we shall present
were compiled some months ago for
a different purpose; the object then
was to show that official position had
been prostituted to the purposes of
dishonest personal ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
we propose now to demonstrate
the converse of that proposition and
to prove that the peculatOrs who
profited by this corrupt disposal of
public funds recriprocated the obi
CATION, and acted potentially as a
political body, certifying the adj
ministratiOn which had placed them
in office against the popular control
to which it is of right subjected and
formed a compact ring for the pur-
pose of substituting executive dicta-
ton for the will of the people.
Shortly after his own accession to
power it pleased Gen. Grant to
make the fortunes of young man
named Leet, whom he had known
and liked in the army. The New
York Custom House seemed to him
the best field for an effort of this
sort; nearly the largest commerce
in the world passed through its
hands and, if anywhere in the
United States, political jobbery was
well understood there. Mr.. NJ. H.
Grinnell was at this time Collector
of the port of New York, and Col.
Leet appeared before him with a
note cOuched in terms of winning
pOliteness from the President. We
may as well give it.
"DeGr Sir:-This will introduce to you
Col. G. X. Leet, who served under me from
early in the war to the present day, from the
fall of Nicksburg forward, as a staff officer.
he Is business man OF unquestioned integ-
rity. His experience before the war fits him
for business of any kind. He Cow proposes
to resign from the army to engage in private
NE ana 4 cheerIu4ly commend MIN as pos
sessing all the qualities necessary to inspire
''n''''"'' ~ s. GRANT"
We will not criticise the compost
ton of this letter nor we imagine
did Mr.. Grinnel; young man who
desired "tO resign from the army
to engage in private life" with such
a letter from such a source was not
likely to ask in vain if he asked
anything in reason, especially as he
was the intimate friend of Generals
Porter and Babcock, then in high
repute as the private secretaries and
intimate friends of the President.
OF course he got a placein the Gus
tom House, with what salary we
know not, but, whatever it might
have been, he soon let people I'M
derstand that that was not what he
had "resigned from the army" for,
and that his idea of engaging in
private life was by no means limited
by the dimensions of a salary as a
clerk in the Custom House.
An arrangement had been made
in reference to landing cargOes con-
ducive to making some very fat
offices, if to nothing else. CargOes
could not always be examined for
the assessment of duties for some
days after their arrival in port. The
great steamboat prOprietOrs had
their own warehouses, therefore,
in which their cargOes were depOs-
tied under bond with government |
officers in charge till assessment |
could take place, and smaller inn
pOrters were privileged to have |
cargOes taken to these warehouses
on condition of paying a small boz
nus to the prOprietOrs of them.
These were on the Jersey side of |
the river; there were Others ON the
New York side, and the competition
between these kept the charges for
storage within bounds. When Mr..
Grinnell was made collector he was
instructed to put an end to this sys-
TEN and establish government store
houses on the New York side as ger
eral order stores, breaking up the
establishments on the Jersey side.
The first effect of this was, by abOl-
ishing competition, to raise enOr-
mously the costs to importers and
burden the commerce of the country
to give high profits to some favored
individuals. The testimony before
the retrenchment committee of the
House in 1S70-71 proved that the
charges under this new sytem be-
came never less than 30 per cent.
above what they We're before, and,
in some cases, an expense of $l.75
per case was incurred, where 20 cents
had covered all before; and all this
was outside of the duty collected
which went to governmental fat
thing for somebody. SO thought
Col. Leet, and he mOdestly applied
to Mr.. Grinnell to have all these
stores placed under the charge of
himself and a Mr.. Stocking, with
whom he had established a business
partnership. Mr.. Grinnell natural
ly demurred to this transaction
which would render still more re-
monopoly which already
an OnerOus burden on trade. Sus-
tanned us it was by the executive au-
thOrity, he declined to do SO, and
was himself removed from Office in
Mr.. Thomas Murphy
was now appointed collector and the
OF the general ORDER
houses was given to MeSsrs. Leet
and Stocking. Things went on
swimmingly now and the profit of