JUNE 27, 1834.]

Post Office Resolutions.

[SENATE.

A little examination of the statements will explain the lect every dollar that is available, in a very short time-in whole matter, and show who is right and who is wrong. a very few weeks. Let him issue his circular, directing It is stated by the treasurer of the Department, that, on each postmaster to pay over all balances in his hands on a the 1st of April, 1834, there was due to the Depart- given day, and it will be done; if not, he can apply the ment from postmasters, prior to the 1st of Janu- corrective. He is absolute. He has it in his power, and $300,000 if they do not pay over the money in their hands, he should use this power, and dismiss those unfaithful servants, and seek out others who will do their duty. After Mr. KNIGHT concluded

ary

From January 1 to April 1, 1834, that is, of the amount of postages accruing in the first quarter of the present year

Making the sum of

500,000

The PRESIDENT of the Senate said: The question is upon the resolutions; the discussion will therefore be confined to them.

$800,000 Here lies the mistake. The sum of $500,000 was not Mr. EWING. The resolutions, Mr. President, are due to the Department from postmasters for postages in grounded upon the facts set forth in the report, and upon the first quarter of 1834, because $314,704 had been the evidence which accompanies the report. In discusscredited to the Department in the banks where the post-ing the resolutions, with a view to their adoption by the masters were directed to make their deposites. These Senate, it will be necessary, therefore, to examine the recredits were footed by Mr. McCormick and myself, and I port in many of its features, and refer to the evidence believe we did it correctly; therefore, that amount can- which sustains it. And, if any subsequent facts have not be due. been elicited, no matter in what form they may appear, The whole amount estimated to have accrued to the De- which weaken the argument or destroy the conclusions of partment, for the first quarter of 1834, was $520,000 the report, they, also, should be entitled to their full Deduct the amount paid by postmasters 314,704 weight, and must receive, in this discussion, a due share of consideration. With this explanation of what I underLeaves $205,296 stand of the limits prescribed by the Chair, I shall confine outstanding and due to the Department for the quarter myself within those limits in this discussion. ending April 1, 1834. The $314,704 should have been This report, sir, has been the subject of attacks sigcash on hand. Was it cash on hand? If so, the books nal for their violence and abuse, in this day of abuse and will show it. The books show in cash only $37,000; violence. In this I have not at all been disappointed, for therefore, it could not be on hand. The Department I knew the host, and I knew the characteristics of the had received the money and paid it away, but the chair- host, with which the committee on whom was cast the laman omitted to deduct it from the sum due to the De-bor and responsibility of this investigation had to conpartment. Notwithstanding it had received the $314,000 tend; and the deeper and darker the frauds which the intowards the $500,000, still, the whole $500,000 was stated vestigation has disclosed, the more copious and the more to be due. It was deducted from the demands against the Department, but not from the sum due to it. On the 1st of December, 1833, the Department owed, for money overdrawn at various banks, as appears by the books of the office, the sum of $370,022 85 On the 11th of April, 1834, the overdrafts amounted to 126,599 48

Being less than the overdrafts in December,
1833, by

To which add cash on hand
And interest paid to banks

bitter would be the streams of calumny and abuse which they will pour upon those who make the disclosures. Those who now hold the patronage of this Department, and who are likely to hold it, until the strong arm of the nation shall unloose their grasp, have dealt for years with its treasures as their own; something belonging to them of right; and for which they are not accountable to any power. They have continued so to deal with it, until they seem to have settled down in the opinion that it 243,423 37 really is theirs, and that when the representatives of the 37,000 00 States or the people inquire into their stewardship, they 14,570 00 deem it an irregular assumption of power, which can be induced only by party malevolence.

And it amounts to $294,993 37 Nearly the sum received of the postmasters by the Department, in the first quarter of 1834.

It is plain, to my mind, that the chairman was incorrect when he deducted the amount paid from the sums owing by the Department, and omitted to make the deduction from the sums due to it, when the Department had received the money. He still estimated $500,000 due to the Department, notwithstanding upwards of $300,000 had been paid. Had he deducted the amount received from the sums due to the Department, there would have been but little variation in the two reports, except the sums due prior to December, 1833.

Again, sir: individuals whose conduct is called in question, generally adopt one of two modes of defence; for no one, however corrupt the act, or clear the exposure, will yield without a struggle. If rashly and unjustly accused, they respond with calmness and dignity, and answer accusation by argument or proof; but, if guilty, if argument and proof are against them, the common, the universal resort, is to violence and calumny against the accuser or the judge. Conscious of this, as a univeral principle of human action, the moment I saw into the depth and darkness of the abyss which we were sent forth to explore, I felt and knew what we had to meet. I knew the extent of the power and influence of this The only material variance would have been found in Department; its immense horde, its standing army of adthe sums stated to be due previous to the first day of Oc-herents united to it in interest, and doubly bound to its tober, 1833, which were not examined, and, therefore, it fortunes by participations in its crimes: and I knew the is only conjecture as to the amount. But who can believe moment this report should appear, that every thing unthat the Postmaster General had been so remiss in duty as der its control that could hiss or sting, would be let loose to permit three hundred thousand dollars to remain for upon us. But I had made up my mind to this, and do months in the hands of postmasters, for their benefit not now complain of it; but, sir, charged as we have alone; at a time, too, when the Department was pressed been with an unthankful duty, by this body, and still for money on all sides, borrowing money, paying interest, charged with the continuance of that duty, unable, conand drawing on banks for large sums beyond the depos sistently with the dignity of that body whose representaites of the Department. I cannot believe him to have been thus negligent.

Sir, it is in the power of the Postmaster General to col

tives we are, to notice or repel the calumnies with which we are assailed any where except upon this floor, this must be my apology, even at so late a period in the ses

sion, for dwelling somewhat in detail on those parts of the report which have, since its presentation here, been drawn into discussion.

The first resolution is in the following words:

[JUNE 27, 1834.

several reports of the Postmaster General contain statements which, in subsequent papers, he admits to be erro neous." This allegation is proved by the facts set forth in page 7 of the report of the committee, to which I in"1. Resolved, That it is proved and admitted that large vite the attention of the Senate. The report of the 50th sums of money have been borrowed at different banks November, 1833, as is there shown, states the annual exby the Postmaster General, in order to make up the defi- pense of transporting the mail, with all improvements, st ciency in the means of carrying on the business of the $2,033,289 42, while the Blue Book of September, 18, Post Office Department, without authority given by any gives the aggregate of all mail contracts and extra allow law of Congress; and that, as Congress alone possesses ances at $1,992,920 14. These sums should be precise. the power to borrow money on the credit of the United equal, for they profess to give precisely the same thing. States, all such contracts for loans by the Postmaster Gen-Nor has the Postmaster General been taken by surprise, eral, are illegal and void." or left without notice on this subject. A member of the

Of this, and so much of the report as sustains it, but committee, early in March last, caused the amount of little needs to be said. That the Postmaster General has transportation stated in the Blue Book to be careful borrowed money on the credit of the Department, is added up, that its aggregate might be seen, and on com an admitted fact, and the amount borrowed, although paring it with the alleged cost of transportation, the dif differently stated in the report of the committee and the ference, to the amount of $40,369 28, was discovered paper read by the minority, is yet no subject of contro- And, on the 11th day of March, a resolution was offered versy. The minority of the committee has stated the in the Senate, calling for a statement of the sums paid fer amount too low, because they have deducted from the transportation and extra allowances, if any, omitted in the sums borrowed and overdrawn, all the money that the De-Blue Book. This call has never been answered, and the partment has any where deposited in any bank, though it discrepancy remains unexplained.

Their aggregate by the Blue Book, is
Making a difference of

$351,573 30 377,947 66

$26,374 36

less than the

be not the bank of which they have borrowed. For ex- There was a report made by the Postmaster General ample, there is deposited to the credit of the Department to the Senate, on the 3d of March, 1834, in answer to a in the Bank of the Metropolis at Washington, $4,582 07, call by resolution of December last, which purports to and other small sums in other banks, and this, together give the whole amount of extra allowances made by the with all their other deposites, is deducted by the minority present Postmaster General since he came into office. from the amount borrowed of and overdrawn on the Man- The aggregate of those subsisting since the 1st of June, hattan Bank and other banks, in order to make out the 1833, is stated at aggregate of the loans. The committee did not think this the correct mode of adjusting the account, and therefore did not make the deduction. The precise amount borrowed from and due to banks, on the 10th of April, 1834, as given to us by the officers of the Department, was $488,600 44. The circumstances attending this borrowing need hardly be noticed here, for they are also no subject of controversy on this floor, and can be none. The loans commenced, as is stated, in December, 1832, during the session of Congress, and no intimation was given to that body that there was any deficiency in the funds of the Department, or that any advance, temporary $66,743 34 or permanent, was necessary to sustain it. So at the com- And in his report accompanying the President's mes mencement of the present session, when those loans had sage, of December, 1832, the Postmaster General states swelled to an enormous sum, and when public money to a surplus of available funds, after defraying all expenses a large amount was deposited, without interest, in the of the Department, down to the 1st of July, 1832, of banks of which those principal loans were made, with in- $202,811 40.

Thus the Blue Book gives an aggregate annual report of November 30, 1833, by And the report of March 3d, 1834, less than the Blue Book,

So that the error between the report of November 30, 1833, and the 3d of March, 1834, is

$40,369 28

26,374 36

terest, we still had no intimation of the fact, either in the While in his report of November 30th, 1833, he says, President's message or of the report of the Postmaster that, instead of having on hand that amount of available General, that one dollar in money had been borrowed or funds, the Department was really indebted beyond all its overdrawn. It is then admitted that this large sum of available means, including its credits, $2,844 40. money was borrowed without legal warrant, and that the He avers this to be a general error, which has ru act was concealed until the investigation of the committee through all his accounts, from the commencement of his drew forth its disclosure; and we think the further exam-stewardship down to the date of his last annual report; ination has shown something of the uses to which this and he says that it was recently discovered and "prompl money has been applied. But I intend, if time will allow, ly corrected." It is a matter of small importance, whe to ask that the question be taken separately on each of ther the excuse is true in point of fact, or not. Whether these resolutions, that we may see whether the minds of the misrepresentation was by mistake or design is uninte gentlemen are drawn to the same conclusion from the portant, so far as respects this resolution; for the state array of facts applicable to each, to which the minds of a ments which he has made us are not accurate and true, majority of the committee have been irresistibly drawn.

The second resolution declares

and he admits they are not; and, not being so, we can2. Resolved, That several reports of the Postmaster of not place reliance on their truth and accuracy. There General contain statements which, in subsequent papers, moral turpitude in the one case and in the other. But he admits to be erroneous; that others, especially those as to the credit which is to be placed in his papers, it is of the 18th of April, 1832, and the 3d of March, 1834, are not material whether their errors arise from wilful misrep inconsistent with each other; and that reliance cannot be resentation or ignorance of the true condition of the placed on the truth and accuracy of the communications Department. As respects the Postmaster General him self, I suppose the latter hypothesis is the one which

made by the Department."

This resolution contains two allegations of fact, and justly applies to him; that he was really, as he says, ig draws from them conjointly a conclusion against the ac-norant of the actual condition of the Department over curacy and verity of the reports which issue from the which he presides. It is straining credulity pretty General Post Office. The first allegation of fact is, "that in his favor to admit it; but I am well disposed to give

far

JUNE 27, 1834.]

Post Office Resolutions.

[SENATE.

him the full benefit of his defence. Still it results in and hardly worthy of note in the group to which it bethis: the Department was not in the situation which he longs. Another contract, of these same individuals, but represented it, and the public was deceived by confiding which they, in a publication which recently appeared in in his representations. the Globe, aver is a part of the same contract, is stated,

I need say little of the discrepancy between the re- in the report of the 18th of April, 1832, at $30,000, when port of the 18th of April, 1832, and that of the 3d of in truth, it was executed for $50,410. I have no doubt March, 1834; it were, perhaps, sufficient to refer to that those gentlemen state truly, that it was all one conthe report of the committee, pages 8 and 9, where that tract; and see what a character this gives the transaction. subject is touched upon, accompanied with references to There are thrown together some thirty or forty mail the original documents, which, when examined and com- routes, and struck off at a single bid to these individuals pared, must put all doubt at rest. I care not how strong at $37,000 a year. But instead of carrying the mail in the personal feelings of any gentleman may be, or how good faith for that sum, they receive, by way of improved inveterate his party prejudices, he cannot read that part bids and extra allowances, an amount which brings it up of the report, and compare the documents to which it to the yearly sum of $107,468! And lo! the power and refers, without strong conviction forcing itself upon his might of precedent! Some seven cases, during the time judgment. Sir, it is made by law the duty of the Post- Mr. McLean presided over this Department, in which master General to make out an annual statement of all there was an aggregate allowance for improvements, the contracts which he shall have made for the transport-ordered before signing the contract, of a little more than ation of the mail within the preceding year; and this $4,000, is made to justify this case, and a host of such report of the 18th of April, 1832, purports to have been cases as this.

made in pursuance of this legal provision. The object But is it not obvious that when bids of this kind are of the law, in requiring this report, is to inform the pub-made and accepted; when bids for forty or fifty routes, lic, not to deceive them; to convey to them information great and small, are thrown in together, and so received, of the fact as it does exist, not to induce a false impres- and when the bid upon the advertised route does not sion upon the public mind. And it was intended, that, present the true or intended contract, is it not obvious when the publication was made, it should state all and that none but a great contractor-a man who does busievery matter, which it professed to state, truly. Now, it ness on a large and extended scale, and more especially is not pretended by the Postmaster General, or in his be- who has favor with the chief officers of the Department, half, that he has done so. On the contrary, the wide and can have any the slightest hope of obtaining a contract? gross departure from the true state of things is admitted; A common, plain man, who knows nothing better than to and an attempt is made to excuse the abuse, by an alle- make a bargain in a straight-forward way, and having ged practice of the Department under its former heads. made, to perform it, need not trouble himself to bid on Mr. President, I do not believe that any such practice any route under such circumstances; for he cannot, in has heretofore existed. I want to see the cases, and truth, come into actual competition with one of these unitrace them in the reports, and find them in the books of versal bidders: and where so many routes are included in the Department; and then, if they appear to coincide one offer or acceptance, it would require the labor of many with these, and appear in sufficient numbers, and regu-days to ascertain whether a class of rejected bids was or larly, to justify the belief that misrepresentation has been was not better than that which was accepted. But those the standing order of the day-that it has been the which are represented as two contracts in the reports of custom to publish, not the truth, but falsehood, to the the Department, and which are so represented as to seem public-then I will consent to allow the Postmaster Gen-to be given on different bids, are, in fact, one and the eral the full advantage of his apology, such as it is; but same--a single bid, a single contract. Then, I ask, in then it would avail him little, for it is one of those abuses the name of truth, why is it not so represented in the rewhich precedent cannot support, nor usage sanctify. ports of the Postmaster General? Why is it that a conBut the cases referred to by the minority of the commit- tract, which is in fact one, is severed and divided, so as to ee, and which they speak of as cases resting on the make it appear as two? Was it not in every respect as same, or on similar principles, will not do to show usage easy to represent the thing at once exactly as it was, as to or serve as a precedent. Just seven cases, varying from sever and change it, and make it present a false appear$150 to $1,618 each, and giving in the aggregate $4,903 ance? I do not pretend to say which is correct, the reof error in the report of a former Postmaster General, ports of the Department or the statement of the contractors: are adduced as proof of the practice of the Department, but I am inclined to give credit to the latter, although cer. on which that mass of misrepresentation, (the report of the 18th of April, 1832,) is to be justified and sustained. Fouching that report, I must say, that I have examined not less than one hundred of the cases there stated, and of those that I examined, and compared with subsequent reports, not one was stated truly. The difference in some cases is astonishing-the actual contract is generally arger by one-third or one-half, than the contract as there reported, and in some cases it is as ten or fifteen to one. It is worth while to refer to a few cases, for the purpose of calling the attention of the Senate and of the public to he subject.

tainly made in no spirit of kindness towards me-made, in truth, with a belief that they were discrediting a part of the report of the committee, without being aware that the report, in that very particular, was founded upon documents issuing from the Department.

It is said by these same individuals, Stockton and Neil, in the publication above referred to, that I signed a paper requesting the Postmaster General to give increased expedition between Baltimore and Cincinnati, and they add that the committee now say, in their report, that this increased expedition was unnecessary. Now the latter branch of the proposition is incorrect. The committee A contract of Stockton and Neil, which is noticed in do not say that any increased expedition is unnecessary age & of the report of the committee, is stated in the re- or improper. I, for one, am not now, and have not been, ort of the Postmaster General of the 18th of April, 1832, of that opinion; on the contrary, I think the transportation it $7,000, but the contract really allows them $15,950, of the mail is no where more rapid than the public convebesides extras, making a difference of more than one-half. nience requires, and the funds of the Department, if judiNow all the cases which the diligence of the honorable ciously administered, would justify. But what I do object hairman, with the aid of the officers of the Department, to, is the enormous waste of funds in despatching two and as enabled him to collect, of like errors in former years, sometimes three mails a day, in four-horse post-coaches, mount to but a trifle more than one-half of the amount on the same line, and each at an enormous cost. It is this, n this single case. But this is really of small importance, and not the expedition, which is condemned as useless and

SENATE.]

Post Office Resolutions.

[JUNE 27, 1834.

improper. I know that it is pretended that the expedi- ject of circulating and obtaining signatures to this paper! tion cannot be kept up without a line of stages to carry Why, simply and singly to obtain the sanction of members the way-mails. A singular pretence truly. For admitting of Congress to past acts before they could, by any possi that the way-mail must be carried by a different convey- bility, know what those acts were; to commit us personance from the rapid stage, what economist would have ally beforehand, and thus prevent or destroy the eff thought of employing four-horse post-coaches, at an enor- ciency of our legislative action, or to compel us to legs mous expense, for that purpose? The rapid stage always late conformably to the paper containing our private sgstops at the large towns to exchange, and the small way-natures. This is the whole of the matter, and I am ghi mails could be carried as well in sulkeys and in two-horse these things are developed. It will have a salutary infe post-coaches as in any other manner. Let there be pro-ence hereafter.

posals for carrying the way-mails with reasonable expedi- The fourth resolution is in these words:

tion, without designating the manner, and I venture to say "4. Resolved, That it appears that an individual, who that it will be carried as safely and as well as it is now car-made a contract for the transportation of the mail, was reried, at one-twentieth part of the sum for which that addi- quired to give it up for no other reason than that it migh tional stage line is made the pretext. be given to another desirous of having it; and that the act As to the letter, paper, or solicitation, which it is said of the Department in requiring such surrender, and in I signed, I would like to see it. I will not say that I did effecting the transfer, was illegal and unjust." or did not sign it. I can only say that it is not my custom And it is supported by two cases referred to in page to give my name lightly for any purpose; nevertheless, 19 and 10 of the report, in which George House, of Ohm, may have done so, and when the paper appears, it may is the favored individual. John Black was the contracter prove to be one which asks only for a just extension of to carry the mail from Colesmouth to Gallipolis, and, fæ facilities, and one which, under the circumstances, was aught that appears, he performed his contract to the sitaltogether proper and right. For, let it be remembered, isfaction of the public and of the Department; but he wa that the Department was, for years past, reported to be ordered to discontinue on the 1st of April, 1831, just one in a very flourishing condition-facilities said to be con-quarter after he commenced it, and his route was given stantly increased and increasing, and money saved. I, to House. This was under the pretence that a steamboat perhaps, together with the other Western members, may line was to be established; but it was pretence merelyhave been gulled by tales of this kind, and so have given for there is no trace of any contract with House to carry my name, to be laid by with theirs in the Department, for in a steamboat, or indeed in any other manner; and in Au use when occasion should require it. I recollect well gust next following, House professes to be building the that I was applied to last winter by the same gentlemen, boat which is to perform the duty. If it had been bona for the same purpose, and I refused my signature, al- fide the purpose of the parties, that the mail should be though, at the time, I suspected no sinister purpose on carried in a steamboat, the officers of the Department their part in asking it, and I had, personally, every wish would have seen that a contract should have been entered to oblige them. But I can say, by way of apology for the into, and security given for its performance, before a fair array of gentlemen whose names appear on that paper, and legal contract was taken out of the hands of Black (sixty-nine, I think it was said,) that they did not know, and transferred to another. The mail is still carried on and could not know, from the published reports and doc- that line on horseback, and, after the route was transfer. uments, what sum those individuals actually received for red to House, it was so badly carried that the country was their services. The only reports from the Department filled with complaints and dissatisfaction. An official let then extant, stated their compensation at $37,000, when ter from Lyle Millan, postmaster at Walnut Grove, on the its true amount was more than $107,000. This, in truth, route, states no less than twelve failures in the short month makes it a very different case from what they had a right of February. It seems to me that this single case fully to suppose it. And, Mr. President, I appeal to you, if sustains the resolution. But there is another branch of this constantly soliciting the names of members of Con- this same concern which I ought not to pass by without gress; this filing away, and now appealing to those names some notice. In the October after the establishment of to support extravagance which no one who signed those this steamboat line, Ross & Co. bid off the route from papers could ever have suspected or anticipated, does not Chillicothe to Gallipolis, and their bid was accepted look a little like throwing an anchor ahead to prepare The acceptance was a few days afterwards "suspended against a coming gale? Why was it that, at the com- in consequence of the necessity of connecting this route mencement of this session especially, that every Western with the steamboat route from Gallipolis to Charleston, member was solicited to sign the paper of Stockton and Virginia." I read from a letter from O. B. Brown to Neil, asking for a continuance of their extra allowance, Ross, dated the 7th of October—and he adds, “Be pleased when no one knew what that allowance was? And why, to state whether it is desirable to you to have the route at especially, was I, a member of the Committee on the Post your bid"-an intimation which Ross perfectly underOffice, beset for my signature to the same paper; appeal. stood, for he had several other contracts, and he well ed to on the ground of local attachment and personal knew that it must not be desirable to him to have any good will, to sign a paper which, had I signed it, would thing which O. B. Brown did not desire him to have. have been used, and was intended to be used, to my an- His answer shows that he understood all about it, and that noyance and confusion. I found, indeed, that more note it was the interest of House, and not the public service, was taken of the matter than I at the time supposed. A which required his surrender of a contract to which he day or two after I was thus solicited, I was told by the was entitled. After noticing the receipt of Mr. Brown's honorable chairman that he heard at the Department of letter, and naming the route, he says, "I considered it a my refusal to sign the petition. One other thing should very safe route, though, as the acceptance of my bid be considered touching this very matter. No one can for might seriously injure or interfere with the steamboat proa moment suppose that it was the purpose of the Post-prietors, I now agree to let Colonel House have it." So master General, broken and ruined as were the affairs of Colonel House got it, and received for it $1,106 a year his Department, to keep up the allowance of Stockton and more than it was bid off by Ross. Sir, this kind of double Neil, as it had stood, seventy thousand dollars above the sum dealing, this species of management, this entertaining of at which it was struck off under the advertisement. This one purpose and professing another, would disgrace the would have been madness, and those contractors, from meanest jockey in the land. How must all honorable their intimacy in the General Post Office, must have men feel, when they see the high and responsible offices known that it was not intended. What, then, was the ob- of our country, and the patronage of the Government, in

the hands of men who are capable of such tortuous conduct, and are actuated by the motives apparent on the face of these transactions?

The next resolution has reference to but a single transaction, and though the sum given, under pretence of the contract, to a favorite, was small, yet it is one of the most monstrous in its character, and contains perhaps as great a variety of fiction, fraud, and falsehood, in its composition, as any among the numerous cases which have passed under our notice. The resolution is as follows:

[SENATE.

"William H. Dundas says, in explanation of the paper marked Proposal, Asahel Savery,' that he wrote the paper at the instance of John T. Temple, who said he had been authorized to make any proposals for him, Savery, he might think proper, and, as he had been long desirous to go to the West, he would like to have the contract or be concerned in it"--and he adds, "the paper written in red ink, with the Postmaster General's allowance for $1,000 endorsed on it, is in the handwriting of John T. Temple." This, then, explains that part of the matter. 5. Resolved, That it appears that proposals for carry- The route was not advertised, and a feigned excuse is ing the mail on the route from Chicago to Green Bay, were given by Obadiah B. Brown for not advertising. The bid withheld from advertisement; that the contract therefor was made by a clerk, and he was allowed the contract. was given in another's name, but really to one of the clerks He represented in red ink" that the contract was too in the Department; that the compensation proposed in the low, and he was allowed by the Postmaster General bid was raised without any increase of service, and that the transaction is a direct breach of law."

$1,000 additional-and the whole sum of $4,500 was for carrying the mail 250 miles once a week on horseback.

This was a contract given to a Doctor Temple, clerk Now did the Postmaster General know of all this abomiin the Department, contrary to the express provisions of nation, and knowing, did he sanction it? The above law. It is true it was under cover of another name, but matters must, in some shape cr other, have passed before it was with the knowledge of the Postmaster General him- him. He saw, at least, the paper in red ink, in the handself, as I shall by-and-by show you, and the very artifice writing of Temple, which he signed, granting the extra and concealment show that he knew, and all knew, that $1,000. This contract was assigned by Savery to Temthe act was wrong. But mark the circumstances which ple, and the assignment approved by the Postmaster attended it. General on the 28th of February: and it appears by the

By the act of the 15th day of June, 1832, the route report of the minority, and it is a fact, I presume, taken from Chicago to Green Bay was established. The new from the books, that Temple resigned his situation as routes generally established by the same law were adver- clerk about the first of March, to take effect the last of tised on the 26th day of July following, but this route that month. He resigned after the assignment-and that was omitted and never advertised by order of the Depart- very act, the assignment, must have let Mr. Barry into a ment. On an inquiry being made as to the cause of the full knowledge of all the legerdemain which had been for omission, O. B. Brown, who made out the advertisement, a long time practising, even if he did not know it before. 'stated on oath thus-(I read from page 59 of the report:) | Temple resigned about the first, to take effect the last, of "When I made out the advertisements for the contracts March. On the third of April he writes a letter, dated on the new route in the summer of 1832, I could not ob- at Chicago; so he went out under pay as a clerk in the tain the law as it finally passed, the law not having been Department, and was fairly set down and installed in his published in time for making out the advertisements. I office of contractor, as soon as he ceased to be a clerk. ad a copy of the printed bill, as reported in the two! I trust the Senate will bear with me while I present yet Houses, but it had undergone many alterations before it another of the phases of this transaction. In the sumbecame a law. got the best information I could of those mer and fall of 1832, about the time that this route was alterations, but still my information proved to be very in-not advertised, and O. B. Brown was seeking in vain at correct. My impression, as well as my memory serves Washington for the true contents of a recent act of Conme, is, that this want of information caused me to make gress, he was also negotiating with John T. Temple for the advertisement from Detroit to Green Bay, instead of the purchase of a valuable house and lot in the city; and from Chicago to Green Bay." the negotiation was going on while Temple was present

Now, sir, one word of comment on this very plausible ing and modifying his bids in the name of Savery. This statement. How is it possible this officer could fail to get is proved by the testimony of Samuel R. Slaymaker. I correct information as to the provisions of this law one read from his deposition, in page 301 of the exhibits acmonth or more after its passage, if he desired to get it-a companying the report. He says: "I was in the house law respecting the Post Office Department, and a copy of Mr. Brown one morning, when Doctor Temple called of which properly belonged to that office, published or and offered his property for sale, and said he was going not? How is it possible that he should get very incorrect to move from the city. Mr. Brown inquired the price. I information as to the contents of this law, enrolled and think the Doctor asked $3,000. Mr. Brown asked me, if preserved as it was in the archives of the country? It is he made the purchase, if I could loan him that amount at not true, sir. No man who has any knowledge of things, the usual rate of interest? I told him I believed I could. and common reason and intelligence, can credit this story Some time after, he informed me that he would want the upon its very face. But I have taken pains to examine money," &c. He goes on to state that he had not the the bills as reported in the two Houses of Congress, copies money, but that he and Reeside raised it, as he says, about of which he says he had, and copies of which now lie on three months after, on bills of exchange, in order to lend the table before me, open to the inspection of any gentle-it to Mr. Brown at the usual rate of interest." man who will take the trouble to inspect them, from bills, it appears by the testimony of Dyson, bear date the which it will be seen that the route from Chicago to Green 10th of January, 1833. It seems, by the testimony of Bay is designated in those bills precisely as it is in the law Reeside, page 299, that the property was offered by Temwhich finally passed the two Houses-and, in the whole ple to Brown at a very reduced price. So much for Docprogress of the bills-there it was, in plain characters-tor Temple. If, indeed, he did sell his house and lot at a never, in any stage of the proceeding, stricken out or omitted.

Next in its order is the proposal of Asahel Savery, of Michigan. And how did Mr. Savery, in Michigan, know that this route, which was not advertised, was open to his bid? The deposition of Wm. H. Dundas, a clerk exam ined by the committee, explains it. I read a part of his deposition.

These

reduced price, he got a very good contract, and without the trouble and annoyance of competition, except just so much as he and his friends chose to get up for him. And Reeside and Slaymaker did not suffer by their kindness. In May, 1833, they received an extra allowance of $10,000 a year, on their route from Philadelphia to Pittsburg, Washington, Pa., and Wheeling, of which their partners on that line were not informed, and of which they re