The south Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1879-1883, 1883-04-24
WASHINGTON LETTER.

\
serve fund has not yet been touched.
When that is overhauled some people
think there will be music, not that
anything is believed to be wrong in
the accounts ofex-Treasurer Gilfillan,
who is man of undoubted integrity
and has unquestionably left things as
well as he found them, but way back
to war times and in many cases since
there have been depredations upon
Treasury funds which so far as is
known have not been replaced. The
money in the Treasury is supposed to
be counted twenty-five times by so
many different persons in every pro-
cess Of paying out or taking in, there
by making fraud impossible, it is al
leged--and so it would be but for col
lusion- During the war the exigen-
cies of the public service were such
that people could dip their hands in
the Treasury and get out what they
wanted: it never recovered from the
demorilization of that period. The
Treasury books are a mass of erasions
and insertions, and are totally incom-
prehensible, except to an expert at ac-
counts. The simple fact is that the
books will not balance, and the only
thing to be done is to cover up the
shortage by the cuttle-fish tactics Of
darkening everything IN the vicin-
ity. The determination to count the
Treasury funds is the surest indica-
ton that the republicans feel the end
is near. Judge Folger is rigidly hon.
est; his position then may be imag-
ined when he found himself at the
head of the department, which is the
fountain of corruption. The Treas
ury is packed with John Shermans
followers-men whom Judge Folger
distrusts and dislikcs.
AS is well known, nothing like the
dissensions which are now prevailing
between the Treasury officials was
ever known before. Hitherto they
have had Secretary who winked at
fraud and peculation: now they have
one who not only requires that his
principle subordinates shall not steal,
but that they shall not allow their
underlings to steal. When Judge
Folger came TO know the character of
the people by whom he was surround
ed he would unquestionably have dis
missed them if he could, but his
hands were tied. The Assistant Sec
retry, Henry +. French, is an exam
pie. Not six months passes that some
Bttempt to beat the government on the
part of this man does not come to
light. Some time ago it was the pay
ing his son $40 day for doing some
sculpture for the government when it
was known the son hired an Italian
for pittance to do the work. Then
it was for establishing his relations in
the Treasury, not giving them places,
but shamelessly making places for
them according TO the revelations of
the chiefs in whose divisions they
were. Then it was for sending bill
of his expenses to the government for
attending Ralph Waldo Emerson's
funeral-a bill which Judge Folger
promptly disallowed. Now is it to
be supposed that an officer of Judge
Folgers rectitude would permit man
of that character to remain in the As
sistant Secretaryship of the Treasury
ifhe could help it2 But, unfortunate,
he cannot help it. He is surrounded
on all sides by them. There is gen.
eral complaint that Judge Folger at
tends too much to detail, and both
the capable and the incapable, the
honest and the dishonest among his
| Immediate subordinates are nettled
at it, but from very different motives.
The truth is, the Secretary has had
cause to distrust so many persons
that he can no longer trust anybody.
This counting Of the money in the
Treasury is a source Of much anxiety
to him and he will not leave WASH
ington until is is complete. If there
is deficit it will be exposed by the
stern honesty Of Judge Folger if he
has the power; but very likely the
same collusion that caused it has had
time to cover it up, for the present at
least. When the democrats come in
then will strange things be discovered
but the Treasury vampires don't
care for that. "After us the deluge,'
say they.
1t is evident that when the nation
al debt is finally paid off the United
States will be found to be large
gamer through the destruction and
loss of its paper promises to pay.
Every month the debton which inter-
est has ceased, and for which no one
claims payment, increases, until there
is now lying in the Treasury nearly
eleven millions of unclaimed princi-
pal and interest, which has accrued
at various dates from 1887 and earl
Ter down to December 20, 1882. OF
the $49,OO0,0OO of fractional paper
currency ISSUED during and since the
war $l5,3S6,5l2 are still outstanding,
and redemptions have almost ceased.
BY act of Congress passed in 1873,
| 90 o7S OQi which n wns estimated