Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 November 1878 — The Public Money in Polities. [ARTICLE]

The Public Money in Polities.

In whatever branch of the public service investigation is made, the most | flagrant abuses are discovered, showing | that the treasury has been habitually plundered under Republican rule to subserve partisan interests, and that the expenditures were contracted or expanded as they would operate on national or local polities, lu other words, the whole machinery of Government and the revenues were constantly used to preserve a partisan ascendency in the administration and in Congress. The reports to Congress are made up in a way to mislead the country, by concealiug information to which the people are entitled. The whole truth can never be known until a change of administration takes place and the books and papers pass into honest hands. But, with all the artifices employed to hide the truth, a careful analysis of even the official and perverted figures brings to light the practices that [ were pursued to return possession of power. Take as' an illustration the great variety of expenditures for the civil list, all lumped together in the report of the Secretary of the Treasury, under the head of miscellaneous, the elements of which can only be known to the initiated, and even to well-informed public men but imperfectly, under the system which prevails at Washington of making up the public accounts and substituting general statements for specific details, by means of which every charge might be followed. Following the miscellaneous expenditures from 1863-’64 down to 1875-’76, it will bo found that in the years of three Presidential elections, and in nearly all the years of Congress elections, the outlay was entirely disproportioned to wliat may lie called, for discrimination the non-political years. Here is a table made up from the last treasury report, which shows at a glance the marked difference between the two classes of years: Amount. Inn'eaxe. Decrease. 1803- 127.578,210 1804- 42,08(1,383 $15.417.107 1805- 40,013,11! $2,370,209 1800-07* 51.U0.323 10,497,209 1807- 53,009.867 1,899.544 1808- 50.471.001 3.401,191 1809- 53.237.401 ...... 3.237,000 1870- 00,481,910 7.244.455 1871- 00.984,757 502.811 1872- 73.328,110 12.343.353 1873- 09.041.593 3.080,517 1874 75* 71.070.702 1.429,209 1875 70 73.599.001 2,528,958 The year marked with all were theme in which Presidential and ConproßSional elections were held—three of the former In 1864, 1808, and 1872. and six of the latter. Of these thirteen years, the miscellaneous expenditures were increased for flu* three Presidential elections $31,224,714 over the preceding years, and $10,000,060 more, including the Congress elect ions, in the interveaning years. In the years succeeding the Presidential elections, tin miscellaneous expenses fell off more than $9,250,000. The regularity of this increase and diminution tells the whole story with ns much precision as if it were written in the plainest terms, and not in mixed figures intended to deceive the unwary and to put opponents off their guard. Although the appropriations made by Congress ought to be the limitation of expenditures, the executive departments, under various pretexts, have assumed to disregard them, and thus created deficiencies at their own discretion. It is the duty of Congress at the first opportunity "to abolish this practice summarily, by making it a penal offense for any public officer to expend more money or to contract more debt than is legally and explicitly authorized.— -New York: Sun.