Year: 1862

Anu Weu luc dDlt anu l6dTleSS DelQ-
Der of the committee from Massachusetts, Mr..
Dawes, in view of these revelations also assert,
as he did before the House and the country, that
Startling facts have come to the notice of the
committee and to the notice of the whole country.
touchingthe mode and manner of the expenditure
of the public money!" that Sin the first year of
q Republican Administration, which came into
power upon professions of reform and retrench-
ment there is indubitable evidence abroad in the
land that somebody has plundered the public
Treasury well nigh in that single year as much
as the entire current yearly expenses of the Gov
eminent during the Administration which the
people hurled from power because of its corrup-
ton" And further, that those heavy measures
of taxation which have been brought forward by
the Committee of Ways and Means would fall
like dead pail upon the public, unless before
them goes this assurance, that these vast and ex-
treme measures instituted to rcsuscitate and re-
vive and replenish the Treasury, not merely
for means to fill other and longer, as well as the
already gorged pockets of public plunderers"


But, sir, passing on from the evidence of fraud
and corruption in the management of our public
affairs asi sifurnished by the proceedings of this
House, proceed to other fields. The result of
the labOrs of this committee are before the coun-
try, and l can do no more in my brief hour than
to extract few conclusive sentences. But in
vestigation of this kind has not been confined
alone to this body. The other branch of Con-
gress has had the subject of official delinquency
also forced upon their attention. l hold in my
hand a report of the Senate Committee on Ma
val Affairs, relating to one single transaction in
which the Government suffered a loss of SO, 900.
l read from its concluding portions


1t is said to be necessary not only that justice should
be done but that the public should be satisfied that it
done and in this view your committee regret that in the
city Of New York could not be found to transact
this business for the Navy Department. out of the family
connection Of the Secretary fol however pure and honest
his purpose may have been in the selection, it cannot fail
give suspicious that other motives than single
purpose subserve the public interests may possibly have
Influenced the choice that was made The time, too at
which this arrangement made by which such vast
and dispropOrtionate amount of the public money
paid for nconsderable service, peculiarly unfor
tunae. The country was engaged i'm a i'm which its
very stake The nation had been aroused
and contributing and money without stint to de-


epd the national life vindcae the national honor, and
the rghfu supremacy Of the Constitution and
the laws The energies and the industry OF the country
to be taxed they had been before and the
pressing sSties of the Government had compelled it
and untried of revenue The hut
of poverty and the splendid mansions of wealth were
alike called upon aid in bearing the burden which
beOn and civil war had thrown upon the nation. All
this borne, and would have been borne cheerfuy if
the Taxpayers had seen been convinced that their
money be faithfully and economically applied to
the purposes for which it raised But when they
immense Sums lavished upon personal or political favor


ties for small and nconsiderable services confidence in
the Government is impaired public credit is parayZed,
and the very existence of the nation is imperiled.


And in commenting on this alarming state of
corruption in the Navy Department, very dis
tinguished Senator Mr.. Hale used the following
strong language:


When the country taxing itself it had be-
FORE when il was bleeding at every pore, when and
untried of resorted to, when
were taxing the necessaes of the humbes nhabtant of
your land and when the land was strainng itself and all
its citizens and they sending their young the


field and giving their money to the Treasuryat that time
and in that hour when ii seemed if the existence
of the nation stood in the scale doubtful which way it
to turn, George d. Morgan, merchant of New York,
brother-n-law of the Secretary Of the Navy
ceivng from the hard earnings of this hadtaXed people


compensation equal to about twelve thousand dollars
month.


He further says:


regret see what has been stated in several of the
papers, that they believed this honest
action that fair -ne rot that was that
deserved to receive the appreciation and the sanction of
the Government but the is that is not half
bad what has been done i'm other cases; and have
doubt that that is true. have doubt that of
the investigating committees go they will find that
there have been transaction compared with which S7O
coo was small sum- and that it will be considered ungra
cous to call one Of these petty offenders that has only
taken $4,000 and deal with him when there others
going off staggering under the load of hundreds of thou
sands.


You are about to call upon this people for large taxes
you about to call them for large loan and large
tax to pay the interest that Oan to maintain the pub
10 enable your prosecute TINS war
successfully ask you, Senator's with what face You
go home to your constituents when they this thing
which they all know and understand; when they that
$4,000 have been paid for the services of for
less than months time of such distress this and
appeal TO your people and ask them forward
and put their hands in their pockets and their shoulders
TO the wheel and forward this carr Sir, do not know
what other men may do: cannot; dare not should
expect the finger of from the hut of poverty to
point out reckless and faithess for being here
member OF the Senate in this hour OF our CO nry peril,
if had failed to rebuke prohigacy in the expenditure Of
the public money, let it be when and where it may.


Again this Senator exclaims, from his exten-
sive knowledge of the management of our af-
fairs:


do not know but may over-estmate, entirely
estimate the character of this transaction; but tell you
sir believe, and declare tupon my responsibility as
Senator Of the United States, that the liberties of this
country in greater danger to-day from the corupons
and from the profgacy pracced in the various Depart
ments Of this Government than it is from the open enemy
in the field.


Sir, 1 might here pause and dwell upon this
terrible accusation, coming from quarter so high
and so fully entitled to credit. A hostile army
has been for year in sight this capitol. Trea-
son has usurped by far the largest portion of the
territory of the United States; our rivers have
been turned to blood; our mountains have be-
come Golgothas; our valleys are the burial
places of our first-born, slain in battle; the wall
of mothers, wives, and daughters goes up from
one ocean to the other as the voice of Rachel
weeping for her children, and refusing TO be COM
forted because they are not; the very sun above
our heads seems vailed in mourning over the fu-
neral sorrows of this once happy people; and
yet in the midst of these thickening signs of na-
tional calamity, it is announced by Senator
who helped to place this Administration in pow
er, and emphasized by an appeal to his senate
rial honor, that more deadly evil than them all
combined is now assaulting the existence of the
Government-'that the liberties of this country
are in greater danger to-day from the corruptions
and from the profigacy practiced in the various
| Departments of this Government than it is from
the open enemy in the field" call upon the peo-
pie of all ranks and conditions in life of every par


y, of every creed, and of every faith, to give ear
to this warning and to defend themselves at the
great tribunal of the ballot-boX against wrongs so
wicked oppression so inhuman, crimes so revolt
ing. / abhOr treason; my soul has never SYM
pathised with the designs of traitor to the Con.
stitution of my country l would stand here and
consume all my time in denunciation of the IA
i tai doctrine of secession and all its deplorable
consequences, if any result would thus be ac-
complished; but when / find proven offenses in
our own midst of sufficient enormity to PROSTATE
any nation that ever had place ON the pages OF
history, if not speedily checked, l see not why ]
should pass them by in order to discuss sub
ject on which there is no diversity of opinion.
have not, however, completed my proof OF
the charge which / make of general and wide
spread fraud in the management of the financial
concerns of the Government. There is one dark
chapter more to which Iwish to call the attention
of the House and the country. l allude to the
melancholy history of the military department
of the West, as written by the committee on
war claims, at the city of st. Louis. Would to
God that this Republic could have been spared
this additional and most bitter cup of shame
The report of this committee is so extraordinary
so utterly amazing in its monstrous reyelaticns