and your predecessor. How much of the $63,000 was paid out under yourself and how much under your predecessor your letter does not show. But, sir, upon the question that I was discussing, does it make any difference who was Secretary when the false vouchers were paid ? Judged that in cases like this when frauds are concocted in the vaults or in the books of the Department, the only remedy of the people is a change of the control so that the books and vouchers shall come under the examination of new and disinterested men. Do you think I am answered when you say I was mistaken in supposing that in this case the frauds were all under your administration, when, in fact, a part of them extended back into that of your predecessor? Why, sir, that makes your case worse. For the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery the defalcation is large, but the more serious fact is that it could and did extend through two administrations of the department, a period of nearly four years without detection. You testified that some inquiry was made, and the conclusion was that, while there were some suspicious circumstances, they did not warrant a conclusion of guilt. After a notice, verbal and in writing, you left ne men in office. You did not bring the frauds to light nor the guilty parties to punishment. It was Government Detective Wood who discovered the frauds, and the Associated Press report says that Wood declared he would have no further dealings with your department, but would press an investigation before Congress. But it becomes more serious as far as you are individually concerned when the fact is considered that you had notice and took no sufficient action. The information upon which I spoke was from Washington the 26th of last month by the Associated Press, the same that brings me your letter. The Associated Press obtained its information either in your department or from the investigating committee. If you were not correctly reported that was the time for complaint and correction. You testified that the total of the suspicious vouchers discovered so far was about $63,000, and that the money fraudulently obtained was in some instances divided between a watchman in the department, Carrigan, chief clerk, and Kirkwood in charge of the accounts. Now, what notice had you? According to the Associated Press report of your testimony you received a letter last year charging Carrigan, one of the parties, with drunkenness, and after that a man came to you and told you that Kirkwood and Carrigan were engaged in frauds. Did not that put you upon notice and investigation? What is your next excuse? Worse, if possible, than all before. You say a large number of Congressmen, including some gentlemen of great influence and position, recommended that the head of the Bureau, Dr. Wales, should be reappointed. Members of Congress knew nothing of the frauds, they had no opportunity to know. It was within your reach and power. They were probably his personal friends; you were his official superior. But, in fact, did you reappoint him? I understand not. Perhaps the detective discovered the frauds too soon. But Dr. Wales was not one of the three guilty parties. He neither forged the vouchers nor embezzled the money. His responsibility in the case is just the same as your own. He was the official superior of the three rogues as you were of himself, as well as of them. Neither he nor yourself exposed the frauds or punished the parties. I have not thought of or considered this as a case of politics. Addressing my neighbors I said that this and like cases admonish them to demand civil service reform in the removal of all from office who will not seek to promote it within the sphere of their official duty and authority. Respectfully, T. A. HENDRICKS. Civil Service Reform. Republican Tendencies. The evil tendencies of the Republican party were never more forcibly illustrated than by one of its own distinguished members, Senator Hoar, of Massachusetts. In a speech in the Belknap trial he said: Senator Hoar's Arraignment. "My own public life has been a very brief and insignificant one, extending little beyond the duration of a single term of senatorial office; but in that brief period, I have seen five judges of a high court of the United States driven from office by threats of impeachment for corruption or maladministration. I have heard the taunt, from friendliest lips, that when the United States presented herself in the East to take part with the civilized world in generous competition in the arts of life, the only product of her institutions in which she surpassed all others beyond question was her corruption. I have seen in the State of the Union foremost in power and wealth four judges of her courts impeached for corruption, and the political administration of her chief city become a disgrace and a by-word throughout the world. I have seen the chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs in the House, now a distinguished member of this court, rise in his place and demand the expulsion of four of his associates for making sale of their official privilege of selecting the youths to be educated at our great military school. When the greatest railroad of the world, binding together the continent and uniting the two great seas which wash our shores, was finished, I have seen our national triumph and exultation turned to bitterness and shame by the unanimous reports of three committees of Congress-two of the House and one here-that every step of that mighty enterprise had been taken in fraud. I have heard in the highest places the shameless doctrine avowed by men grown old in public office that the true way by which power should be gained in the Republic is to bribe the people with the offices created for their service, and the true end for which it should be used, when gained, is the promotion of selfish ambition and the gratification of personal revenge. I have heard that suspicion haunts the footsteps of trusted companions of the President." Robber Barons. In an able article on political assessments, in the North American Review for September, 1882, the writer points out its evils in the following way: "The enforcement of this nefarious theory by the Robber Barons' of politics was never so universal, so shameless, so barbarous, or so indiscreet as at this moment. The Federal pay-rolls call for more than fifty million dollars a year. On that sum the avowal is a levy of only two per cent., but the actual demand upon employees and small officials is tar greater. If the committee expect to extort only a fourth of the one million dollars and more they demand, it but shows the effrontery of their pretense of a willingness to pay, and that they have no compunctions in excusing the landlord class and wringing the whole corruption fund from the most timid and humble of the tenant class. Very likely they expect little more from members of Congress and great officials than the pittance they got in 1878. It is not sharks and whales they have the courage to fish for, but herrings and dace. Boys are bullied for a dollar! "Could the curtain of secresy be lifted, we should see a vast drag-net of extortion thrown out by the committee from Washington over the whole land from Maine to California, with every humble official and laborer-from those under the sea at Hell Gate to the weather observers on Pike's Peak-entangled in its meshes; and, busy among them, for their prey, a series of tax extortioners ranging down from Hubbell the great Quæstor to little Hubbells by the hundred, each paid a commission* on his collections in true Turkish fashion (to which the large amounts extorted beyond regular plunder rate are added.) These minions, book in hand, are haunting the official corridors and tracking the public laborers. They mouse around the bureaus for names and salaries which all high-toned officials contemptuously withhold. Neither sex, age, nor condition is spared by these spoils system harpies. They waylay the clerks going to their meals. They hunt the Springfield arsenal and the Mississippi breakwater laborers to their humble homes. They obtrude their impertinent faces upon the teachers of Indians and negroes at Hampden School and Carlisle Barracks. They dog navy-yard workmen to their narrow lodgings. The weary scrub-women are persecuted to their garrets; the poor office boys are bullied at their evening schools; the money needed for rent is taken from the aged father and only son; men enfeebled on the battle-fields are harried in the very shadow of the Capitol; life-boat crews, listening on stormy shores for the cry of the shipwrecked, and even chaplains and nurses at the bedside of the dying are not exempted from this merciless, mercenary, indecent conscription, which reproduces the infamy of oriental tax-farming. "We know of the head of a family who hesitates between defying Hubbell and taking a meaner tenement; of a boy at evening school blackmailed of three dollars while wearing a suit given in charity, and of a son pillaged of seventeen dollars when furniture of the mother he supports was in pawn; and many have consulted us as to the safety of keeping their earnings which they need. In every case there is fear of removal or other retaliation. Pages could be filled with such cases from the reports of citizens. A newspaper before us gives that of a laborer, with a family, earning seven hundred and fifty dollars a year, pursued by a harpy for fifteen dollars; and also that of a boy of thirteen, earning one dollar a day, with another harpy after him for three dollars and sixty cents. To women and girls no mercy is shown." The tendency of the Republican party toward corruption and decay was never better exemplified than during the campaign of 1882. Notwithstanding the reckless spoils system culminated a year previous in the assassination of their President, the Republicans continued their demoralizing practices and ridiculed the idea of reform. One of their insults to society and the cause of good government was the assessment of federal office-holders. Hubbell's Letters of Assessment. The following was the first letter sent out by the Republican Congressional Committee in 1882 : [Jay A. Hubbell, Chairman; D. B. Henderson, Secretary; Executive Committee, Hon. W. B. Allison, Hon. Eugene Hale, Hon. Nelson W. Aldrich, Hon. Frank Hiscock, Hon. George M. Robeson, Hon. Wm. McKinley, Jr., Hon. George R. Davis, Hon. Horatio G. Fisher, Hon. Horace F. Page, Hon. W. H. Calkins, Hon. Thomas Ryan, Hon. William D. Washburn, Hon. L. C. Houck, Hon. R. T. Van Horn, Hon. Orlando Hubbs.] HEADQUARTERS OF THE REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE, 1882, SIR--This committee is organized for the protection of the interests of the Republican party in each of the Congressional districts of the Union. In order that it may prepare, print and circulate suitable documents illustrating the issues which distinguish the Republican party from any other and may meet all proper expenses incident to the campaign, the committee feels authorized to apply to all citizens whose principles or interests are involved in the struggle. Under the circumstances in which the country finds itself placed, the committee believes that you will esteem it both a privilege and a pleasure to make to its funds a contribution, which it is hoped may not be less than $The committee is authorized to state that such voluntary contributions from persons employed in the service of the United States will not be objected to in any official quarter. *NOTE.-Not Hubbell, perhaps, for he disinterestedly took a round five thousand dollars -one-tenth of the whole-for his own dear Michigan in 1878, and doubtless expects ten thousand dollars this year. Surely he will go back to Washington; and what gratitude from the "shysters and camp-followers" of his. The labors of the committee will affect the result of the Presidential election in 1884 as well as the Congressional struggle; and it may therefore reasonably hope to have the sympathy and assistance of all who look with dread upon the possibility of the restoration of the Democratic party to the control of the Government. Please make prompt and favorable response to this letter by bank-check or draft or postal money order, payable to the order of JAY A. HUBBELL, acting treasurer, P.O. lock box 589, Washington, D. C. By order of the committee. D. B. HENDERSON, Secretary. The second letter had the true highwayman ring, and was more in harmony with the characteristics of the stalwart leaders. It was as follows: WASHINGTON, D. C., August 15, 1882. SIR-Your failure to respond to the circular of May 15, 1882, sent to you by this committee, is noted with surprise. It is hoped that the only reason for such failure is that the matter escaped your attention owing to press of other cares. Great political battles cannot be won in this way. This committee cannot hope to succeed in the pending struggle if those most directly benefited by success are unwilling or neglect to aid in a substantial manner. We are on the skirmish line of 1884, with a conflict before us, this fall, of great moment to the Republic, and you must know that a repulse now is full of danger to the next Presidential campaign. Unless you think that our grand old party ought not to succeed, help it now in its struggle to build up a new South, in which there shall be, as in the North, a free ballot and a fair count, and to maintain such hold in the North as shall insure good government to the country. It is hoped that by return mail you will send a voluntary contribution equal to two per cent. of your annual compensation, as a substantial proof of your earnest desire for the success of the Republican party this fall, transmitting by draft or postal money order, payable to the order of JAY A. HUBBELL, acting Treasurer, post-office lock box 589, Washington, D. C. Letters of the Present Campaign. The tendencies of the party during the present campaign are in the same direction, but artfully concealed to avoid a clash with the new Civil Service law of which a distinguished Democrat, Senator Pendleton, of Ohio, was the author. The party still has a covetous affection for the money of the department clerks, as may be seen from the following circular : 1421 NEW YORK AVENUE, WASHINGTON, D. C., The undersigned have been requested by the Republican National Committee to act as a Finance Committee for the District of Columbia in the collection of funds to be used by said National Committee in the present political campaign. We have agreed to act, and have organized by the selection of A. M. Clapp as Chairman, W. H. Lowdermilk as Secretary, and Green B. Raum as Treasurer. On and after this date we will be prepared to receive and receipt for such sums as persons may wish to contribute to the campaign fund of the Republican party. The rooms of the Committee, 1421 N. Y. Ave., will be open daily from 8.30 A. M. to 9 P. M. A. M. CLAPP, Chairman. W. H. LOWDERMILK, Sec'y. R. T. GREENER. GREEN B. RAUM, Treas. The following letters sent to the clerks in the Departments at Washington, the first one accompanying the above letter, are further evidence of their attempt to circumvent the law: B. F. JONES, Pennsylvania, Chairman. SAMUEL FESSENDEN, Connecticut, Secretary. No. 242 FIFTh Avenue, HEADQUARTERS REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE, NEW YORK CITY, August 8, 1884. [DICTATED LETTER.] DEAR SIR: The pending Presidential campaign is of unusual importance to the country. Every Republican is deeply interested in its result. The National Committee, on behalf of the Republican party, desires to make it justly vigorous and effective, and success certain in November. Funds are required, however, to meet the lawful and. proper expenses of the campaign; and, to provide the same, the Committee finds itself dependent upon the liberality of Republicans to make such voluntary contributions as their means will permit, and as they feel inclined to give. You are therefore respectfully invited to send, as soon as you conveniently may, by draft on New York or postal money order to the order of B. F. Jones, Chairman Republican National Committee, No.. 242 Fifth avenue, New York City, such sum as you may desire to contribute for the objects before mentioned. A receipt for the same will be sent by return mail. The Committee cheerfully calls the attention of every person holding any office, place, or employment under the United States or any of the Departments of the Government, to the provisions of the act of Congress entitled: “An act to regulate and improve the civil service of the United States," approved January, 16, 1883, and states that its influence will be exerted in conformity therewith. Respectfully, B. F. JONES, Chairman. HEADQUARTERS REPUBLICAN STATE COMMITTEE, Chairman-Thomas V. Cooper. Secretaries George Pearson, Chief; Joseph M. Gazzam, E. F. Acheson, Joseph Ad. Thomson, John H. Landis, John S. Blair, W. H. Ritter, Wm. B. Huston, George O. Cornelius, John A. Seiders, Charles F. Evans, Ezra Lukens, J. D. Laciar, A. W. McCoy. [Dictated.] PHILADELPHIA, 1884. DEAR SIR: The Republican State Committee of Pennsylvania is compelled to call upon all friends of the cause, whose interests or inclination it is to give, for the funds necessary to sustain its efforts in the pending Presidential campaign-a campaign never exceeded in public concern or importance in the history of the country. It involves both our industrial and political welfare. I have the honor to solicit from you such contribution to the State Committee's. treasury as your devotion to the party may prompt you to make, and to suggest that early contributions not only enable us to do better work, but to promptly extend aid where it is most needed, without waste or confusion. You are aware that the present laws of the United States and Pennsylvania—which law shall be faithfully observed by this Committee-prohibit the assessment of officeholders for political purposes. The right, however, of all, whether office-holders or not, to send to their Committee amounts commensurate with their interest in the contest, is not questioned, either by the law or public sentiment. The appeal of your State Committee is therefore directed to all whom it has reason to believe are willing and able to give. Send by postal order or check to THOS. V. COOPER, Chairman. This letter was sent to a clerk in one of the departments at Washington, receiving an annual salary of $1,400. He holds a receipt from Chairman Cooper for $40; and similar letters have been sent postmasters throughout Pennsylvania. Democratic Principles and Protests. On the 26th of June, 1882, Senator Pendleton offered in the Senate a resolution instructing the Committee on Civil Service and Retrenchment to inquire whether any attempt had been made to levy and collect assessments for political partisan purposes from any employees of the Government. In speaking upon this resolution he made some very pointed remarks upon the Hubbell assessment letter, which we have published above. He said : "Mr. President, when I offered this resolution two or three weeks ago I was anxious for information. I did not know the state of facts as they existed at that time. I had seen mentioned in the newspapers that the Republican Congressional Committee was about to take means to replenish its funds, and vague intimations were given that a circular under the form of a request for voluntary contributions, but in fact a demand for specific sums of money, was being distributed among the employees of the Departments and the employees of the two Houses of Congress. I had also heard that this |