And I Think Myself The More Specially Bound To Allude To
It Because I Feel That The Iniquities Which Have Prevailed Prove
With Terrible Earnestness The Demoralizing Power Of That Dishonesty
Among Men In High Places, Which Is The One Great Evil Of The
American States.
It is there that the deficiency exists, which must
be supplied before the public men of the nation can take a high rank
among other public men.
There is the gangrene, which must be cut
out before the government, as a government, can be great. To make
money is the one thing needful, and men have been anxious to meddle
with the affairs of government, because there might money be made
with the greatest ease. "Make money," the Roman satirist said;
"make it honestly if you can, but at any rate make money." That
first counsel would be considered futile and altogether vain by
those who have lately dealt with the public wants of the American
States.
This is bad in a most fatal degree, not mainly because men in high
places have been dishonest, or because the government has been badly
served by its own paid officers. That men in high places should be
dishonest, and that the people should be cheated by their rulers, is
very bad. But there is worse than this. The thing becomes so
common, and so notorious, that the American world at large is taught
to believe that dishonesty is in itself good. "It behoves a man to
be smart, sir!" Till the opposite doctrine to that be learned; till
men in America - ay, and in Europe, Asia, and Africa - can learn that
it specially behoves a man not to be smart, they will have learned
little of their duty toward God, and nothing of their duty toward
their neighbor.
In the instances of fraud against the States government to which I
am about to allude, I shall take all my facts from the report made
to the House of Representatives at Washington by a committee of that
House in December, 1861. "Mr. Washburne, from the Select Committee
to inquire into the Contracts of the Government, made the following
Report." That is the heading of the pamphlet. The committee was
known as the Van Wyck Committee, a gentleman of that name having
acted as chairman.
The committee first went to New York, and began their inquiries with
reference to the purchase of a steamboat called the "Catiline." In
this case a certain Captain Comstock had been designated from
Washington as the agent to be trusted in the charter or purchase of
the vessel. He agreed on behalf of the government to hire that
special boat for 2000l. a month for three months, having given
information to friends of his on the matter, which enabled them to
purchase it out and out for less than 4000l. These friends were not
connected with shipping matters, but were lawyers and hotel
proprietors. The committee conclude "that the vessel was chartered
to the government at an unconscionable price; and that Captain
Comstock, by whom this was effected, while enjoying THE PECULIAR
CONFIDENCE OF THE GOVERNMENT, was acting for and in concert with the
parties who chartered the vessel, and was in fact their agent." But
the report does not explain why Captain Comstock was selected for
this work by authority from Washington, nor does it recommend that
he be punished.
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