The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-07-17

a par with the v%illianies perpetrated o
the country by this same class in 1861.
Your mention Of Don Cameron brings
to mind a black chapter which every
lover Of his country wishes could never
rave been written. At the breaking
out OF the civil war the government
was greatly in want of steamships for
the transport OF troops, and IL was in
the matter of steamships that the first
organized v~1llianies of the patriots"
who thirsted to grow suddenly rich at
the expense of a nation battling for
its life. were displayed.
The sale to the government Of two
steamers. the Catiline and the Kill
Van Kull, excited at this time particu-
lar remark. The Catiline. an unsea-
worthy boat, Ii appears, with which the
insurance officers would have nothing
to do except at a very exceptional pre-
MUM, was purchased from the owners
for SIS, 600, though not worth more man
s12, 900, and transferred to the services
of the government for $4,000 per
month, for the conveyance OF troops be-
tween New York and Annapolis. AT
the end of two months and a half after
these handsome earnings. she was ac-
~cidentally destroyed by fire. As she
was not insured against this risk. the
government that had undertaken TO
pay $50. 900 for her. in the event of her
OF lOSS ny any PGth nv
covered by her insurance, a to pro-
vid this handsome sum, and the specu-
lators-leading patriots. all of them
went on their way rejoicing, willing,
no doubt. to supply the government
with as many more steamships as IL
might desire on equally favorable
terms. This was but one specimen out
of scores. and by no mean the worst.
The board of contractors n specula-
tors did not confine themselves to this
kind of plumber. Army stores. horses,
mules. fodder and firearms, all were In
hot request, and all those articles were
supplied by greedy patriots. DESTROYS of
growing rich by a single operation.
Sc barefaced were the robberies perpe-
trated on the government that con-
gress was alarmed and a special COM
mission of seven members of the house
of representatives was appointed to in
CURE into all the facts and circum-
stances connected with contracts n
agreements by or with the government.
growing out of its efforts to suppress
the rebellion. In due time this COM
mittee presented its report. They ex-
amineds no less than 265 witnesses,
whose testimony in the report covered
1,109 closely printed pages.
Disgraceful as the facts were sup
posed to be before the inquiry was in
stituted, the report and evidence
proved that for once rumor had been
less of a liar than usual, and that she
had under, rather than overstated the
swindling, the peculation, the fraud
and the robbery perpetrated upon the
government. 1t was not merely the
sellers of ships. of stores. of guns n
all such as had anything to dispose of
at as high a price as they could get,
but the confidential agents of the gov
eminent itself who scented the plumber
with keen olfactories and grabbed 1t
without remorse.
There is" says the commission,
every reason to believe that there was
collision On the part of the employees
of the government to assist in robing
the treasury, for when a conscientious
officer refused to pass cattle, not in &C
cordance with the contract, he was SUI
perseded by one who a no conscien-
tious scruples in the matter. and cattle
that were rejected by his predecessor,
were at once accepted. With such a
state of things existing, II officers of
the government who should be imbued
with patriotism and integrity enough
to ave a care of the means OF the
treasury are ready to assist %speculat-
ing contractors to extort from and de-
fraud the government. where is this
system of peculation to end, and how
soon may not the nance of the gov
eminent be reduced to woeful bank
ruptcy?"
Though thus early in the civil war
the government was already robbed of
many millions-the most formidable
Job in the report being the fertilization
of st. ~Louis-anyone who is curious NJ
the subject may refer to the report pre-
scented in the second session of the
9th congress. 1t may be sufficient to
add, however, that nc action was taken
on the document. unless 1t were in the
case of Simon Cameron, secretary CT
war, who was not accused of any per-
sonal corruption. but was pointed out
by public opinion as being a little too
easy, too good-natured. and too anx-
ious to serve his political followers by
advantageous places at the public crib.
All these things happened 81 years
ago. Yet the race has not died out;
they are as much in evidence now as
they were then, and the new brood are
much more Unsuitable. At the very first
movement of our troops to the points
of rendezvous-have you read the pub
lished statements of jobbers in steam
boats; have you read of the food unfit
for human consumption doled out 10
our boys at Chickamauga park ana
Camp Merritt in a Francisco; have
o read of the inferior, shoddy shoes
and clothing which the patriotic Cali
fornia contractors sought to impose
upon the army there; a you read
OF the ship uying and the ship rent
ing extortion in Tampa, Key Wes..
a Francisco and Puget sound; have
you ever considered hat every pur-
chase or lei has got to be made some
times through a political pull; have you
ever imagined that men honored by
their constituents in enabling them TO
hav the prefix Hon. to their name
when either spoken or written to would
so stoop as TO place themselves where
even the slightest faint Of suspicion
should tarnish, not themselves individ-
ually, but the public trust confided 20
them-yet it is a pity that not only the
little fry, but prominent politicians
names are occasionally Connected with
such political jobbery, who otherwise
would be looked up to and respected as
pillars of the state, are after all but
caterpillars-what poor worms we are
all.
That nanatiap In nphlio p1o1ao L.