Rensselaer Gazette, Volume 2, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 June 1858 — Political. [ARTICLE]

Political.

[From tli: Indianapolis Journal. An Econoniieal Administration. When the present administration came into power there was a surplus in the Treasury of twenty-five millions of dollars. The administration Jias beerj in power a little over a year, and it has expended the wholeofthat surplus, all that the regular revenues of the country have y ii-1 I ’d, tlMmty millions of dollars borrowed on Cobb'js treasury notes, and is now as.ljing for leave’to borrow fifteen million more. In other Words, its expenses his been so great that the Regular revenue, which hitherto has sufficed to; pay all expenses and leave a surplus, is insuifficient to meet thorn by sixtif millions of dollars, Mr. Buchanan has succeeded, in the fijrst year of his government, in using up sixty millions more than the amount ofthe revenue. At such a rate it won't take long to bankrupt the nation. Mr. Micawber’s economy which taught that a revenue of twenty pounds, with an expenditure of twenty pounds sne shilling,was ruinand a revenue of twenty, with an expenditure so'f nineteen pounds eleven shillings was competence and comfort? [was sensible, and one that Mr. Buchanan would do well to p’ractice. At the rate ho is expending our money we shall be in debt, at the end of his administration, two. hundred and forty millions of dollars. And if there should occur a hostile collision with Englund in that time, or with I’aragua, or with tl>e Central American provinces, or if the Utah war should be unquenched, as it may be, for two or three years, that debt will be doubled or trebled. Mr. Buchanan has succeeded in overrunning the revenue sixty millions in the first year, with no war expense to defray, except a comparatively trifling one in the Utah affair, and if he can plunge uls into debt so deeply as that merely in carrying on the government, in “running the| machine,” what can he not dp.when a war pomes to heap up the expense-ten fold. A- drushing national debt, like that of England, never looked so near «-, ■ or menacing as now. And these increased expenses have been incurred with a steadily diminishing revenue. Knowing how Largely the duties on imports were falling off, the Administration has gone on not only as if there was a full revenue coming in, b’ut as if it were increasing as steadily and largely rs it is diminishing. This is certainly a strange econemy, but it is the policy of our Democratic rulers. - Now the way in which this money has gone is by no means dn uninteresting question. We propose to look at’the matter id little. How enormoius prices have been paid on Utah contracts our readers know, and how large additions to the navy and armr estimates have been made is well known. But there are other modes of getting rid of money quite as effective, though less likely to be noticed. One df these wasexposed in the House, the..other day, by Mr. Colfax of this State, and it furnishes a very fair sample of the mjjtle in which Mr. Buchanan has been doing one Government business, and proposes to continue doing it. On that day Mr. J. Glartcy Jones, Chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, introduced a bill appropriating/our millions >of dollars permanently to defray the expensels of collecting the customs. The revenue| from customs is only about forty millions;, nnd likely to grow smaller, and Mr. Jonds, - o:i behalf of the Administration, asked tp be allowed to pay ten per cent., for collecting it! Mr. Colfax took hold of this enormous bill, and riddled it ■ thoroughly. He<Bhoiwed that such a sum had never been required by any former Ad-

ministration, though a revenue much larger had been collected; and he showed, further, that eight years ago, when Gov. Corwin was Secretary of the Treasury, it cost only half what is now demanded by Mr. Buchanan. This enormous gouge Mr. C. tried to reduce. He moved to strike out one of the millions, i leaving three millions to pay for collecting ! the revenue, but the! Democracy wouldn’t consent to any redaction. He compelled ; Mr. Jones to admit that three millions was I all that had been nbeded during the past I • . 1 .year,and would be-all that could be needed ! for the next year; but the Democracy woujd I not consent to a reduction. Air. Jones could i put in no plea against the damaging exposure jof Air. Colfa-x, but that the law fixed the i salaries of the customjhouse officers, and their numbers, and the salaries created by that law I would use up just four millions. He could I not be induced to consent that any of these ! expenses hould be reduced. Every officer l that had been appbinted must be retained, i and paid in full, though they were not needed, I aqd though the country was suffering heavily , with debt-. Not a proposal for retrenchment was made, except an absurd one by Air. Garnett, of Virginia, which requii’edji report from the Treasurer next winter of the best plan to dispefjee with a -part of the superfluous revenue officers. The Democracy absolutely refused to cut down a single expense, dismiss a single officer, or any investigation of the necessity of this huge outlay of four millions. Mr. Colfax's proposition to cut the sum down to three millions was voted down. Bupso enormous was the amount that but nine majority could be got •or it in a House with a clear administration majority, of double that number. Now this is “the way the money goes.” It'is by such modes that Air. Buchanan has Succeeded in one year in using up all the revenue, all the surplus left by his predecessor, and twenty millions besides of borrowed money. A reduction -of a million in every ; tour, in such cases as this, would keepi.some . money in the Treasiry. A saving of twenty-, ! five millions in every hundred would be something worth financiering for. But the ad- , ministration would pot listen to any proposal : for reducing expenses or saving money. It I scouted a propositi in to save a million by | turning off a parcel of custom house rowdies and shoulder-hitlers, who notoriously | compose the reven io corps of the country. And thus it will always be. The Democracy consent to any retrenchment that diminishes their meins of raising money for election purposes, or the number of effective election workers they can use in the 1 large cities. The custojm houses have always supplied the largest portion of the money" that has been used in political campaigns. Pennsylvania was carried by money supplied mainly by the New York custom house. Indiana was carried by the same means. The revenue offices have been the life of the party. And, though it be proved and admitted that revenue officers are too numerous and their expense t ,o heavy, the Democracy cling to them all. They will not consent to abandon one, though a million of dollars : might be saved by it, and though the country ; is laboring under a light revenue and a heavy debt. This is the consideration that made the party vote through that four million bill, after it had been shown to be extravagant, needless, and monst-rous.