CHAPTER XIV. Democratic Rascality and Republican Honesty - The Official Record. "We pledge ourselves anew to the constitutional doctrines and traditions of the Democratic party, as illustrated by the teachings and examples of a long line of Democratic statesmen and patriots. Public money ・ ・ ・ for public purposes only."-Democratic National Platform, 1880. "The money now lying idle in the Federal treasury, resulting from superfluous taxation, amounts to more than one hundred and twenty-five millions, and the surplus collected is reaching the sum of more than sixty millions annually.” — Démocratic National Platform, 1888. “To the victors belong the spoils.” — Andrew Jackson. PART I. What Democracy " Means" by "Honest" Past. "To the Victors belong the Spoils." On March 4, 1829, Andrew Jackson, pledged to retrenchment, economy, and reform, was inaugurated President of the United States. Proclaiming the maxim that "to the victors belong the spoils," Jackson "Retrenchment, Economy, and Reform," let slip the "Furies of the Guillotine" in a as a slogan, were early patented by the Peck-wholesale proscription of the old and tried sniffian Democracy. In 1828, in the House officials of former administrations. John of Representatives, the partisans of Andrew Q. Adams, in the preceding four years, had Jackson, the founder of modern Democracy, made but 12 changes - all for cause. In the raised the cry of "extravagance and fraud' preceding 40 years, all his predecessors toagainst the then existing National adminis-gether had made only 132 changes - of these tration that of the younger Adams. After Jefferson had removed 62; but Jackson, in a protracted and acrimonious debate, an in- the genuine spirit of a Democratic reformer, vestigation was ordered by the House, but Mr. in one year removed, it was estimated, 1,500 Hamilton, its chairman, in his report to the officials-in one year nearly 12 times as House utterly fails to convict the younger many as by all his predecessors from the Adams or his administration of either extrav- beginning of the Government. The officials agance or corruption, or even to raise a pre- removed were experienced, capable, and sumption of either; and in history that ad- trusty. The character of those who filled ministration stands unsurpassed by any whlch their places is attested by the "reform" preceded it, or has followed, for practical which followed. statesmanship of the highest order, for incorruptible integrity, for its success in the management of the affairs of the nation, and for exalted patriotism. Nevertheless, the Democracy clamored against it. They denounced it for extravagance and fraud. They fabricated the infamous "bargain and corruption' libel against Adams and the chivalrous Henry Clay, charging that the Democracy, by Adams and Clay in the House of 1824-25, had been cheated out of the Presidency-charges which their authors subsequently confessed were not "only false" in themselves, but were "impossible to be true," but which they clamorously urged in every vile form, and literally lied Adams down. Thus it was that the Democracy originally succeeded to power Democratic confession of “great pecuniary loss 99 ments. -The Harlan Committee develop After many failures to obtain an investigation into the corruptions or malpractices of Jackson's rule, all investigations into which had been systematically defeated in both Houses of Congress by Jackson's partisan friends, and the packing of committees by Speaker James K. Polk, the House, in 1839, when Jackson had retired to the shades of the Hermitage, and when awe of the President was not so great as under pugnacious Old Hickory, took the matter into its own hands, and elected a committee for the purpose, with Hon. James Harlan, of ducted, if they could all be assembled at the city of Washington, they would be excited to kick up a revo lution 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 More Democratic "looting" under Pierce 80. and Buchanan. ments were astounding-the corruption and malpractices without a parallel in our history. Thus was developed Swartwout's defalcation at New York, as collector of the port, of $1,225,705.69, a vast sum in that day; of Price, United-States district-attorney at New York, of $72,224.06; and those of fifty of the sixty-odd receivers of public moneys from the sales of public lands in an aggreThese reformers, in 1849, were again ousted gate sum of $825,678.25. Colonel Gratiot, from power by the election of General chief engineer, United States Army, about Zachary Taylor as President, but were again this time also defaulted in the sum of restored in 1853 through the success of the $50,000. Democracy in the election of General FrankMr. Owen, in his report from the Demo-lin Pierce as Chief Magistrate. cratic minority of the Harlan committee, thus confesses the facts proved: That the country has sustained great pecuniary loss, no man can doubt; that the national character has suffered deep humiliations and disgrace, no man can hesitate to admit. But losses like these are incident to all governments; no one is free from them. The annals of our own afford numerous instances of peculation, committed at every period of its short existence under all and every administration, and all and every fiscal system which has been adopted and carried into practice; no matter who has been the fiscal agent, the Government has sustained loss; it must be so until man becomes honest. Reports of Committees, 25th Cong. 3d sess., Vol. 2, 1838-1839, page 284. And so on throughout all all the departments in the War and Navy as in the Treasury, while the Post Office Department was bankrupt through systematic plunder. More plunder for the Democrats. In 1840 these Democratic reformers were swept from office by the election of General William H. Harrison as President. In 1845 they were restored to power and plunder through the election of Polk. The Mexican war- a war forced upon our and the Mexican people by the high-handed usurpations of President Polk in pursuit of the extension of slave territory-exacted an expenditure of hundreds of millions and the lives of 25,000 of our citizens. Corruption in the Government stalked unrestrained. The Eli Moores, the Purdys, the Morrises, the 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 millions from the people. Democratic Denunciation of Democratic Corruption. 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, rivalled 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. Buchanan's administration in its vile malpractices and plunder, and its tyranny in support of slavery, was but a continuation of Pierce's. Even Hon. Roger A. Pryor, a stalVirginia in the House, was forced in very wart pro-slavery Democratic member from shame to cry out: "From the by-ways and highways of the Govern ment the rottenness of corruption sends forth an insufferable stench. Why are the people so patient? Why slumbers the indignation of the Democracy?" And Mr. Winslow, who makes the report of the Democratic minority of the Covode Committee in 1860, while in effect admitting the corruptions and crimes of Buchanan's administration, pleadingly urges in extenuation. "No government has ever yet existed in which the executive branch has been able to secure everywhere faithful and trustworthy agents. In a country as extensive as is ours, it is hardly to be expected that we could be more successful than other people. We must expect occasional breaches of duty, occasional betrayal of trusts, so long as our present imperfect nature ex In the Senate of the United States, February 11, 1847, Mr. Westcott, a Demo-ists." cratic Senator from Florida, indignantly declared: I warn the Democracy of this country, the people of this country, that they do not know one twentieth part of the corruption, the feculent, reeking corrup tion, 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. I solemnly believe, if the people of the United States Comparison between John Q. Adams's administration and the plundering Democraticadministration succeeding it. 66 Under the administration of John Q. Adams, denounced by the Democracy for extravagance and fraud," the heaviest net annual expenditure was $13,296,041.45. Under Jackson, under the solemn Demo form," the net annual expenditures suddenly | estimated revenues of the current year. He called doubled, even trebled those of Jackson's attention to the fact that, comparing the four years of President Arthur's administration with the four years last year (1836), being $37,243,214.24! Under of President Cleveland's, the excess of expenditures in Polk they increased to $53,801,569.37; under the last four years was $95.303,053. Pierce to $65,032,339.76; and under Buchanan, in 1861, to $72,291,119.70! The aggregate net ordinary expenditures of the younger Adams' administration were Of Jackson's last four years Of Van Buren's four years Of Polk's four years Of Pierce's four years Of Buchanan's four years $51,671,943 99 66 PART II. Democratic Pretensions to "Reform," As to the "honesty" of this Democratic Administration in the collection and expenditure of the revenues- - about which there have been such loud protestations- that is yet an open question; a question open to very grave doubts when it is remembered how many outrageously disreputable characters have been placed in positions of responsibility and trust by President Cleveland. It is a question that probably will hereafter be thoroughly investigated by a Republican Congress and a Republican Administration; and it will surprise few should that investigation result in exposing systematic corruption and plundering of the public moneys by President Cleveland's appointees quite equal to such as was indulged in past Democratic Administrations. What has become of the Great Surplus? — December, 1883, the last Republican Admin- Platform of 1888, upon which President Cleveland now stands, declared that "the money now lying idle in the Federal Treasury, resulting from superfluous taxation, amounts to more than $125,000,000, and the surplus collected is reaching the sum of more The present Democratic Administration than $60,000,000 annually." This shows a came into power with the battle-cries of decrease of $25,000,000 per annum of sur"Reform " in the civil service, "Economy' plus revenue collected and accounted for. of appropriations, and "Honesty" in the Whether this or any other decrease is occacollection and expenditures of the revenues. sioned by inefficient or dishonest Democratic In the chapter on "Civil Service," the ex- collections- or arises from other causes, traordinary character of President Cleve- such as the operation of the existing tariff — land's ideas of" reform" has been thoroughly is a question hereafter to be determined. ventilated, and shown to be a mere sham." But since that Democratic platform was proThe sort of "economy" which his adminis-mulgated, a still more singular circumstance tration and the Democratic House believe in, has come to light, and the people learn with was abundantly exposed as another sham by astonishment that the surplus has almost Senator Allison, in his speech in the Senate, entirely disappeared! The following teleAug. 28, 1888 [see Table of Annual Estimates gram in "The New-York Tribune," Aug. 29, and Appropriations, in Statistical chapter], 1888, covers the matter: in which he said: 66 He had a table prepared, and he would have it printed with his speech, showing the appropriations for the last eight years. The total of the appropriations for the current fiscal year, not including what are called the "permanent appropriations," was $306,000,000. The total last year was $248,000,000, or some $58,000,000 less than this year. He had explained a good many of the items of increase. The River and Harbor Bill and the Appropriation bills were accountable for a little more than $30,000,000 of this $58,000,000. Adding to the $306,000,000 what were known as the permanent appropriations" (appropriations that are not drawn into annual appropriation bills, and that amounted to $115,000,000) there was a total appropriation for the current fiscal year of $421,000,000 as against an estimated revenue of $440,000,000. These two sums included both the expenditures and revenues of the Post Office Department. So that the appropriations WASHINGTON, Aug. 20.-The mysterious disappearance of the alleged surplus is the one topic of engrossing interest at the Capitol. After all the ponderous logic which has been expended on this subject and the didactic essays which have been transmitted to Congress by the Executive to the exclusion of other topics of pressing public importance, the ridiculous outcome is irresistibly comical. Friends and foes alike are sniggering over it. The facts as stated in "The Tribune" dispatches are corroborated to-day by official figures given out on the joint authority of the Committees of Appropriation of both House and Senate. Instead of a demoralizing, hideous, and dangerous surplus of a hundred and fifty millions or so there are hardly twelve and a quarter millions in sight, and even this amount is liable to be whittled down still further by demands from sources not included in Congressional appropriation bills, as pointed out in these dispatches yesterday. been accounted for and turned into the treasury. It is, further, my pleasant duty to report that, during the past six fiscal years, the sum of $748,831,071,01 has been collected from internal revenue taxation, and paid into the Treasury without any loss by defalcation. round numbers the appropriations passed, or pending | past fiscal year, amounting to $146,520,273.71, have in conference and on the way to certain adoption, are as follows: Army, Navy, Indian, Diplomatic and Consular, Pension, Legislative and Judicial, Post Office, Mliitary Academy, River and Harbor, Fortifications, and sundry civil bills-$288,764,000. Deficiency bills resulting from the failure of the last Democratic House to appropriate the absolutely necessary amounts for the known requirements of the public service-$18,227,000. Public Buildings and miscellaneous relief bills-$5,636,000; permanent appropriations-$115,640,000; all of which (with the smaller details, herein omitted, added thereto) make a total prospective expenditure of $428,269,520 (being an increase of $64,084,730 over the appropriations of last year, against a prospective revenue of $440,563,734,- thus leaving a possible surplus of $12,294,213, which, if the Mills bill should pass, would be converted into a deficiency of more than $60,000,000. The clerks of the House and Senate committees in giving out these figures state in fairness that there is a reduction in the Fortification bill as passed by the House of two and a half millions and a duplication of a similar item in another bill of three millions. But against this there are pending numerous public building bills in transit to the Executive, which will probably receive approval, unless the member urging them is of the Allentown" persuasion; and in the estimates as given, no account is taken of the numerous private pension bills. These sources together, will more than offset the allowances made on the Fortification account, and the figures can therefore stand. Net surplus in sight $12,294,263. For this sum the industries of the country have been called upon to stand still, and the wheels of legislation have been blocked. This exposure, of course, leaves the newly enlisted Administration organs in a plight which it is charitable to call humiliating. They denied with robust rhetoric the statements of The Tribune and other well-informed journals, just as they would deny, with adequate inducement, the revolutions of the earth, and assert with brother Jasper that the "sun do move." Official statements from the Democratic Appropriations Committee now disprove their denials. On both sides of the Capitol the denouement is regarded with much amusement. Republican Senators admit that the joke is on them as well as on the House, and that in accepting and attempting to treat seriously the cry of a dangerous surplus they" leaped before they looked." They propose to look now, and look very thoroughly into this whole question, including the method of keeping the Treasury balances. Should President Cleveland and a Democratic House be again returned to power, the country may depend upon it that the day is not distant when the "condition that confronts us" will be how to meet deficiencies by direct taxation, rather than how to get rid of a surplus. PART III. What the Republican Party "Did" in the Matter of Honest Civil Service Administration-A Wonderful Comparative Record-Official Table of Losses. Let us now look at the Republican record for honesty and economy in administration, and answer, where, in the history of civil government on the face of the earth, so pure a record be found? In his official report to the Secretary of the Treasury, July 16, 1882, Commissioner of Internal Revenue, Green B. Raum, said: SIR: I have the honor to report that the annual examination of the offices of the 126 collectors of internal revenue throughout the United States has been completed, and that it has been found that the The expenses of collection for the last fiscal year (including the expenses of this office) will be found, on final adjustment, not to exceed $5,108,300, or less than 34 per cent on the amount collected. The expenses of collection for the six years have been about $27,087,300, or 3 6-10 per cent on the amount collected. This sum has been disbursed without loss to the Government. And from the date of that report to the conclusion of the Republican Administration, there was no loss at all! Analysis of receipts and disbursements and losses under Democratic and Republican rule. During the seventy-two years of our Government, prior to 1861, a period mainly controlled 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 Democracy in rebellion, reached the prodigious sum of $25,576,202,805.52, or over five times greater under the Republicans than under the Democracy. The aggregate losses under the Democracy in the period prior to 1861 were $24,441,829.32, or $5.17 in every $1,000; under Republicans the aggregate losses were only $14,666,776.07, or only 46 cents in every $1,000. In other words, although the aggregate collections and disbursements under the Republicans were over 11 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. 66 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 (in consequence of the war expenses incurred through the Democratic rebellion) they reached the immense sum of $10,842,922,583, nearly 22 times greater under Grant than under Jackson. Under Jackson the aggregate losses were $3,761,111.87, or $7.52 in every $1,000. Under Grant, only $2,846,192.12, or 24 cents in every $1,000. In other words, although the aggregate collections and disbursements under Grant were nearly 22 times greater than under Jackson, yet the aggregated 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 nearly 49 times greater than under Grant, and in like. ratio under all the administrations of Democratic reform. Under the latest, prior to the war, that of Buchanan, the ratio of losses in than under Grant. What they have been under Cleveland, the people will learn when he is displaced by a Republican President who will not close the avenues of accurate information. Tabulation of Losses in receiving and dis bursing the Public Moneys. The following tabulation condensed from tables furnished by the Treasury Department, August 13, 1884, exhibits the total receipts and total disbursements of the Government from its organization to June 30, 1883, with the amount of losses, and the ratio of such losses per $1000 to the aggregate received and disbursed, arranged in periods of administration from that of President Washington to that of President Arthur inclusive and in the two periods, prior to the Rebellion and subsequent to it, the dividing date between such two periods being June 30, 1861. The original tables gave the details both of receipts and disbursements the receipts comprising those from "Customs," "Post-office," and "all other sources," and the disbursements comprising "War, Navy, Pensions, and Indians," and "Miscellaneous." From this tabulation it will be found that while prior to the war the losses on each $1000 collected and disbursed averaged $5.21, those since the war, under Republican Administrations, have averaged only 39 cents; and that while the last Democratic Administration prior to the war, that of Buchanan, lost $3.81 on every $1000 received and disbursed, the last Republican Administration has lost less than 2 mills (1) on every $1000 received and disbursed. |