justify the accounting officers of the Treasury in allowing this sum of money. The testimony of Capt. Buckner states that he was introduced by Col. R. M. Johnson, who attended with him almost daily, until the requisition was obtained. There is some reason to believe that these daily visits of a popular Vice President had a more persuasive influence with the accounting officers in passing this claim than the strength of the testimony by which it was sustained. The whole amount thus paid to Captain Buckner was $146,293.50; of this amount the sum of $37,749 was beyond doubt improperly paid. If the committee have been correct in the view they have taken of this case, the Chickasaw fund has sustained a loss of $122,243.50, attributable to the want of prudent economy and faithfulness on the part of those connected with its disbursement and the accounting officers."-(H. R., 2d sess., 27th Cong.) Polk-Wholesale and Corruption under President mous. These are embraced in a settlement by Commissioner Medill, and covered in a report by William L. Marcy, Secretary of War, dated May 20, 1848, to Congress. Under the treaties of 1835 and 1846 the Cherokees were entitled to $5,000,000, less $1,000,000, for the purchase of lands to which they were to emigrate, and the creation of a national fund for the tribe, leaving due to the Cherokees $4,000,000, which should have been paid them. Against that sum, at the settlement, as per William L. Marcy, fraudulent charges, by the agents and others, were audited, amounting to $3,815,000, leaving for the Indians only $184,071.28 of their $4,000,000 under the treaties. Of course the Indians demurred. An appropriation was subsequently made of $1,256,500.27; and the agents were instructed to demand from the Indians receipts in full before the payment of even that sum. The Indians were compelled to submit. Thus, in the removal of the Cherokees, under the treaties of 1835 and 1846, as per William L. Marcy's settlement, the Indians were deliberately robbed of $2,743,499.27. Under the same treaties, at the same time, the Government was mulcted in a like sum. The amount paid by the Government in the transportation of the Indians was $2,915,141.58. An offer was made to transport and subsist the Indians at $40 per head. Even the Indians proposed to transport and subsist themselves at the same rate--$40 per head-which for 13,149 Indians (the number charged for) would amount to $525,960, showing a swindle, as compared with the amount actually paid by the Government, of $2,389, 181.58. The records of the Indian office show that the contractors charged for 1,633 more than were actually removed, which, at $40 per head, amounted to $65,320. The original contractors were compelled by the Government agents to transfer their contracts to second parties, and to the original contractors were awarded as damages the sum of $227,362.52. The records also show 66 PART XII. Feculent, reeking Corruption”— A long array of Defaulters in the Mexican War, its prodigious Expenditures and Plunder. in our history-a war forced upon our and the The Mexican War, one of the darkest scenes Mexican people by the high-handed usurpations of Pres't Polk in pursuit of territorial aggrandizement of the slave oligarchy-exacted an expenditure of hundreds of millions and the lives of 25,000 of our citizens. CorrupThe Eli Moores, the Purdys, the Morrises, the tion in the Government stalked unrestrained. Patrick Collinses, the Beards, the Scotts, the Kennerlies, the Denbys, and the Wetmores a host of pillagers, Indian agents, sub-Indian agents, contractors, disbursing officers of the army and navy, navy agents, pension agents, marshals, receivers of public moneys, commercial agents, surveyors, inspectors, and collectors of the customs-plundered their million. The Navy Department emulates the mal. practices and corruption of other Departments. John Y. Mason, of Virginia, styled by Democratic organs as "the accomplished and excellent Secretary of the Navy," was a brilliant and conscientious reformer-a strict constructionist of the States Rights' school. A single instance will illustrate the character of his reform: Nathaniel Denby was the agent of the Navy Department at Marseilles, France. Osborne was a Richmond merchant. They defaulted for the sum of $159,433.67. At a time when Denby had an unexpended balance on hand of nearly $60,000, with no demands for its use, Judge Mason deposited with the Richmond merchant_(Osborne) $100,000 for the use of Denby. Denby had no use for the money. He even, from his prison under Fillmore, urged in extenuation of his default that he had had no "advices" of this deposit with Osborne. But Osborne says: "These moneys ($100,000) I received as [Mr. Denby's] agent, paying interest for them, and consequently, as would be inferred from this circumstance, and also by express understanding, had the use of the funds until called for. All these funds were in the hands of various European and American houses; and in consequence of their failures my losses were so great as to involve my whole estate in ruin and leave me destitute. A Democratic Senator indignantly denounces the malpractices and corruption of Polk's administration. In the Senate of the United States, February 11, 1847, Mr. Westcott, a Democratic Senator from Florida, indignantly declared: "I warn the Democracy of this country, the people of this country, that they do not know one-twentieth I part of the corruption, the feculent, reeking corruption; in this respect, in the Government for years past. I tell the people of this country that the Government and institutions of this country have been and will be used as a machine to plunder them for office beggars, and to perpetuate the possession of political power. solemnly believe, if the people of the United States knew the manner in which their Government was conducted, if they could all be assembled at the city of Washington, they would be excited to kick up a revolution in twenty-four hours, which would tumble the President, heads of departments, both houses of Congress, Democrats and Whigs, head over head into the Potomac; and I believe they would act right in doing PART XIII. were Under Buchanan, as under all his Democratic predecessors, the revenues and the offices of the National Government were again the "spoils" of "THE PARTY." Loyalty to the Administration, allegiance to slavery, were the conditions of a division. The profits of the Congressional printing were great. The bills of the Printer immense. But the profits of the Executive printing and binding and the printing of the postal blanks were enormous. Out of these profits-the newspaper corruption fund, disbursed by the notorious Cornelius Wendell-presses like the Pennsylvanian, the Philadelphia Argus. the Washington Union, et al., received a subsidy as a condition of slavishly supporting the Administration. Papers like the Cleveland National Democrat were established under the patronage of the Government by office-holders for like purposes-the defense of border ruffianism, Lecompton, and sectional strife. The navy-yards, custom-houses, and post offices degraded into corrupt party machines. Editors of servile sheets, rendering to Government no service, were borne upon their rolls, drawing pay-like Baker, of the Pennsylvanian, and the noted Theophilus Fisk, of the Argus, at Philadelphia; William M. Browne, of the Journal of Commerce, at New York; Harry Scovel, of the Free Press, at Detroit, and the Henry J. Alvords in at Philadelphia, pocketing pay in the name other sections; as also men like Cummings, of subordinates for which no services were rendered; like Clements, at the Philadelphia navy-yard, unable to write, but useful as a politician, appointed and drawing pay as clerks while working as bricklayers; like the infamous Michael C. Murphy, a foreman in the New York yard, and the principal in a $35.000 jewelry robbery, retained as party strikers. Fealty to party covered all crimes. oak contracts to Swift, were awarded to party Swindling contracts, like the notorious livesands of dollars were regularly assessed for favorites in payment of party services. party purposes, even three times in the same year, upon the Departments at Washington, upon the navy-yards, custom-houses, and post offices throughout the country; even assessments, in the form of contributions, for the support of the organ, the Constitution. Woe to The Fearful Corruptions under the unfortunate wight who rebelled; his indePresident Buchanan-Plunder, tation. pendence was instantly rewarded by decapi Office-holders were organized into Pillage, Sack-The Immense mercenary corps for the control of National Public Printing “Loot ”—All the and State politics; and by wholesale frauds at Mammoth Frauds of Washington “Rings” under President Pierce Pierce's "outlaws of the Treasury" The actual and proposed plunder under Pierce estimated at $300,000,000 ! Under Pierce, Washington "rings" rejoiced in mammoth fraud in the building of the Capitol wings and in the extension of the Treasury building, and were encouraged in their pillage by Pierce's "outlaws of the Treasury." The actual and proposed plunder was immense. The aggregate amount of spoils proposed in the first Congress under Pierce was estimated at $300,000,000!-$120,000,000 in obedience to the decree of the Ostend conference for the purchase of Cuba; $20,000,000 for the Gadsden purchase, and so on in like acts-all for the aggrandizement of slavery. The maladministration of the Post Office Department under Campbell, Pierce's Postmaster General, rivaled that under Barry and Kendall. Even "the sale of letters and papers was made an item of revenue." Bank-bills, checks, and insurance policies were sold in piles," and a Connecticut mill, buying two thousand of these, exposed the crime. PART XIV. Thou 119.70! of the younger Adams' administration was.. Of Jackson's last four years.. Of Polk's four years................................................. $51,671,943 99 104,051,745 81 110,683,428 21 116,381,026 34 232,820,632 35 261,155,809 62 elections-by frauds upon the registry-by | $37,243,214.24! Under Polk they increased to the issue and distribution of fraudulent natu- $53,801,569.37; under Pierce to $65,032,339.76, ralization papers-by ballot-box stuffing and and under Buchanan, in 1861, to $72,291,frauds in counting votes, enabled corrupt minorities to dominate for years the intelli- The aggregate net ordinary expenditures gent majorities of the great States of Pennsylvania and New York. (H. R. 638, first session Thirty-sixth Congress.) Defaults like Isaac V. Fowler's, the postmaster at New York, for $75,000, were but bagatelles compared with Thompson and Floyd's grander system of pillage. The abstraction by Floyd's nephew, Godard Bailey, in 1860, from the Interior Department, under Jacob Thompson, of $870,000 of Indian trust bonds, and their transfer to Russell, Majors & Waddell, upon Secretary Floyd's fraudulent acceptances, under a contract of that firm with the War Department, and similar fraudulent acceptances by Floyd, as shown by the records of the War Department, to the amount of $5,339,335, aggregated a fraud of $6,137,395, to be borne either by the Government or the holder. More Mammoth Indian bond robberies Under the numerous Indian treaties, up to 1861, with the Cherokees, Chickasaws, Choctaws, Creeks, and others, funds in large amounts (held under the solemn pledges of the nation in trust for those tribes) had accumulated in the hands of the Secretaries of War, Treasury, and Interior. These were invested by Secretaries Woodbury and Thompson in nearly valueless Southern stocks and State bonds. Even the Smithsonian trust fund ($538,000) was sunk with the rest. By Woodbury $1,744,166.66 were thus invested, upon which the Government had paid as interest, up to 1876, $1,571,708. Of this fund, under Buchanan, Secretary Thompson invested in like stocks and State bonds $1,970,800, upon which the Government had paid as interest, up to 1876, $1,575,435, all in violation of law, and causing a total loss to the nation, up to 1876, of $6,862, 109.66. PART XV. Immensely increased Democratic Expenditures-Increased Taxation of the People to support this system of wholesale Corruption, Plunder and Fraud. Of Buchanan's four years........................ $12,917,985 99 Under Jackson (Democratic economy)... 26,012,936 45 A constantly increasing scale, doubling under the wholesale plunder and corruption of Jackson and Van Buren, and closing under those of Pierce and Buchanan at five times the figures which, under the younger Adams, they denounced as evidences of extravagance and fraud. Analysis of the aggregates and ratios of losses under Democratic and Republican administrations. ment, prior to 1861, a period mainly conDuring the seventy-two years of our Governtrolled by the Democracy, the aggregate collections and disbursements were $4,719,481,157.63. During the period from 1861 to 1875, under Republican rule, the aggregate collections and disbursements, in consequence of the war expenses incurred through the Demosum of $25,576.202,805.52, or over five times cracy in rebellion, reached the prodigious greater under the Republicans than under the Democracy in the period prior to 1861 were Democracy. The aggregate losses under the $24,441,829.32, or $5.17 in every $1,000; under the Republicans the aggregate losses were only $14,666,776.07, or only 57 cents in every $1,000. In other words, although the aggregate collections and disbursements under the Republicans were over five times greater than under Democratic rule, yet the aggregate losses under Democratic reform were nearly $10,000,000 greater than under the Republicans, and in the ratio of losses to every $1,000 were nearly 10 times greater. Under the administration of Andrew Jackson, that model of Democratic reform, the aggregate collections and disbursements were only $500,081,747.75; but under that of General Grant, up to 1875 (in consequence of the war expenses incurred through the Democratic rebellion), reached the immense sum of $8,174,596,676.77-over 16 times greater under Under the administration of John Q. Adams, Grant than under Jackson. Under Jackson denounced by the Democracy for "extrava- the aggregate losses were $3,761,111.87, or 'gance and fraud," the heaviest net annual ex- $7.52 in every $1,000. Under Grant only penditure was $13,296,041.45. Under Jackson, $2,846, 192.12-or 34 cents in every $1,000. under the solemn Democratic pledges of "re- In other words, although the aggregate collectrenchment and reform," the net annual ex- tions and disbursements under Grant were penditures suddenly doubled, even trebled over 16 times greater than under Jackson, yet those of Jackson's last year (1836), being the aggregate losses under Jackson were nearly $1,000,000 greater than under Grant, and in the ratio of losses in $1,000 were over 22 times greater than under Grant. Under Van Buren the ratio of losses in every $1,000 was over 34 times greater than under Grant, and in like ratio under all the administrations of Democratic reform. Under the latest, that of Buchanan, the ratio of losses in every $1,000 was $3.81-over 11 times greater than under Grant. [See Table of Receipts, Expendi tures, and Defalcations in Statistical Chapter of this Text-Book.] WITH SUCH AN ADMINISTRATIVE RECORD, DARE THE NATION AGAIN TRUST THE CANTING DEMOC RACY? 99 CHAPTER VIII. The "Solid Southern" Claims. PART I. $300,000,000 of “Solid Southern Public and Private Claims for Cotton, War Material, Captured and Abandoned Property, etc. The New York Tribune of April, 13, 1878, says: "The Tribune has already published a complete list of all bills introduced in Congress from the beginning of the session down to March 18 for the purpose of securing public improvements in the South. These public claims reach the enormous aggregate of $192,000,000. The Tribune has since caused to be prepared a complete list of all bills introduced in the Senate and House of Representatives from the beginning of the session down to March 26, presenting private claims. Of these there are nine hundred and eight, of which four hundred and seventy-seven ask for sums less than $10,000. These four hundred and seventy seven bills, there is not space to print in full, but their total is $1,010,000. Of the remaining four hundred and thirty-one private bills, three hundred and twenty-more than one-third of the whole number introduced-are altogether vague, neither stating nor hinting at the amount to which claim is made. This very vagueness is suspicious, and suggests the magnitude of the sum expected. It is certainly fair, however, to suppose that the average amount of these indefinite claims is at least as large as those asking for a definite sum. Upon this basis the aggregate of these three hundred and twenty blind asking claims is $3,500,000. There are one hundred and eleven bills asking for $10,000 or more each, making an aggregate of $5,747,793. The least amount, therefore, asked for by private Southern claims introduced in Congress from the beginning of the session to March 26, is $10,247,793. The bills introduced down to March 18 for public improvements in the South call for $192,000,000. The South, therefore, thus far, in a single session, has made demands upon the National Treasury for at least $202,000,000." Judge Bartley's figures compared with those of the Tribune. "That this estimate is far below the actual amount for which the South has asked, the counsel for a large number of claimants has already taken pains to prove. Judge T. W. Bartley has published in a Washington paper a long letter in regard to three large classes of claims now before Congress. He divides these claims into three principal classes and makes the following estimates: Amount of cotton tax... Balance of captured and abandoned property... Army supply claims.. Grand total... the quiet and modest estimates which the Tribune has made, the aggregate (1) of the claims for railroads and other public improvements, and (2) of private claims for cotton, war material, captured and abandoned property, &c., will be more than $300,000,000, instead of $202,000,000. "The list of private claims presented in each House, exclusive of those in which the sum specified is less than $10,000, is presented herewith." Here follows the long list, giving the number of each bill, its introducer, its title, and the amount asked for by claimant; for which in full, see speech in the House May 1, 1878, made by Hon. Philip C. Hayes, of Wisconsin. It ends with the following $83,000,000 * 14,000,000 * ** "Here are demands made upon us for over $300,000,000. Doubtless many of these claims are just and should be allowed, but the great majority 20,000,000 of them are not entitled to even a hearing. * * ** Having shown the magnitude of these claims, I wish to say that the general sentiment throughout the South is that these claims ought to be paid. Indeed, $117,000,000 "If Judge Bartley's figures are taken in the place of sir, the Southern people seem determined that they shall be paid. * *** As a matter of policy the leaders in the South will tell you that they do not expect payment, but when they talk as they feel you will find that nine out of every ten of them hold to the idea that the Government, if it had any respect for justice, would have paid these claims long ago. Why, sir, the idea that the Government owes and ought to pay all damages occasioned by the war throughout the South is so firmly imbedded in the Southern mind that it will take several generations to root it out. No man, I care not how great his ability, can be a leader among the Southern people unless he openly indorses this idea. There is not a Southern gentleman on this floor who would not be overwhelmingly defeated at the coming election if he should dare to stand up here and declare that these claims ought not to be paid. * * * No man can be elected to any office in that section who dares to proclaim himself opposed to paying these Southern claims. Men who expect to succeed politically must be in harmony with their people in this respect. * * * They hold to the idea that the Government is under obligation to pay them. They go so far as to declare that the claims for captured and abandoned property, and for private property taken by the Union army in the way of supplies, constitute a part of the war debt of the nation.' * Judge Bartley's "little pamphlet” again Rebel forage claims. &c., "as just and valid a lien upon the Treasury as the bonded debt itself!"-Only more so. "Indeed, Judge Bartley, whose little pamphlet was distributed so freely among members of this body a few days ago, argues that the property taken for the subsistence of the Union Army saved the Government from raising money on the sale of its bonds in the sums represented by the value of the property seized and used, and that the claims for the payment for this property are as ust and as valid a lien upon the Treasury as the bonded debt itself. In fact, he thinks they should take precedence of the bonded debt in equity, because that debt draws interest, while the claims do The Judge presents his case in the strongest light possible, and closes his pamphlet of twenty pages with the following significant paragraph: not. "The foregoing views are expressed on mature consideration from a sense of duty to several hundred citizens of Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas, represented by the undersigned as their counsel. The positions assumed can and will be maintained, and cannot be successfully controverted in or out of Congress. If the plain language used is expressive of some feeling, it arises simply from a deep sense of the wrong and injustice done to injured parties, and is not intended to be discourteous, but in all due deference and respectful regard for the public authorities." " Dr. J. F. Foard's Pamphlet-The wounds of the War-The easiest and best way to heal them is to compensate those who lost so much in the conflict! Only a few days ago I received a pamphlet written by Dr. J. F. Foard, of North Carolina, in which the writer discusses this subject at some length, declaring that the Government should pay these claims as a matter of justice and right. After devoting several pages to setting forth the losses sustained by the Southern people, he uses these words: The easiest and best way to heal them '-the wounds made by the waris to compensate those who lost so much in the conflict.' In a subsequent chapter he says: "Let us go at this work promptly, earnestly, and honestly, that it may be as a monument of truth and justice, erected in the hearts of our children to remind them of the importance of national honor, peace and good will."" Southern Memorial to pay all Rebel losses in 3 per cent. 100 year bonds !-Lost time, lost limbs, lost lives, all to be paid for to make up for the "Lost Cause." The last page of his (Foard's) book contains the following, which will be read with great interest, especially by the Union men of the North: That co-operative action be had in this matter, a form of a memorial to Congress is appended to these bled: We, the citizens of the United States, most respectfully petition your honorable bodies to enact a law by which all citizens of every section of the United States by the governments and armies of both sides during the may be paid for all their property destroyed for them late war between the States, in bonds bearing 3 per cent. interest per annum, maturing within the next hundred years. And we also petition that all soldiers, or their legal representatives, of both armies and every section, be and lives, while engaged in the late unfortunate civil paid in bonds or public lands for their lost time, limbs, conflict. And we will ever pray. 66 To show how some of these Southern claims are made up, the following specimen brick is given from the New York Tribune, of July 4, 1878: WASHINGTON, July 3.-The following claim is given of the section of country which was lately in rebellion : as a specimen product of one of the great industries In 1873 Mrs. Eliza Heber appeared before the Southern Claims Commission, in this city, with a bill of losses and damages alleged to have occurred on her plantation at or near Indian Village, Plaquemine Parish, La., while occupied by the troops of General Payne. She alleged that that officer took from her for the use of his men and allowed to be destroyed property as enumerated in the following list: 8,000 bbls. corn, $150 per bbl.. 100 chickens, at $1 each.. 200 turkeys, at $2 each.. 30 hogs, at $10 each... 8 oxen, at $50 each.. 5 horses, at $160 each.. 4 mules, at $125 each.. $12,000 100 400 300 400 800 500 5,000 3,000 .$22,500 Unknown quantity of lumber, consisting of hogshead-staves, pickets and posts.. 500 cords of wood, at $6 per cord. Making a total of........ After filing the claims Mrs. Heber presented the affidavits of several colored persons, who, not being able to write, made their marks as signatures to the statements which they contained The commissioners having doubts about the validity and honesty of the claim, sent an agent to Plaquemine parish to investigate the matter. He reported that the claim was fictitious and fraudulent, and the claimant took no further steps in regard to prosecuting the claim before the commission. Later, when the Democrats obtained control of the House of Representatives, Mrs. Heber appeared with her claim before that body, but in the meantime it had grown to $47,975, with items enumerated as follows: 8,000 bbls. corn, at $2.50 per barrel.. 1 lot of lumber, staves, pickets, &c.. 30 hogs at $30 each 5 choice milch cows.. 20 head of cattle. 1 lot of poultry. Fencing and plantation destroyed. Total.. $20,000 7,000 10,000 1,000 900 1,200 900 375 500 100 6,000 . $47,975 |