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MARCH 2, 1831.]

Internal Improvement.

[SENATE.

YEAS.-Messrs. Benton, Bibb, Chambers, Chase, Clay- The question being put on the amendment, it was reton, Dudley, Frelinghuysen, Grundy, Hayne, Hendricks, jected. Johnston, Livingston, Marks, Poindexter, Robinson, Sey- The amendment reported by the Committee on Roads mour, Silsbee, Sprague, Tazewell, Tyler, Willey, Wood- and Canals, as before stated, was then considered. bury.-22. Mr. DUDLEY remarked that he was a member of the NAYS.--Messrs. Barton, Bell, Brown, Burnet, Dicker-committee which reported the amendment; but there was son, Ellis, Foot, Forsyth, Iredell, Kane, McKinley, Rob- not sufficient evidence to convince him of its correctness. bins, Ruggles, Smith, of Maryland, Troup.--15. He demanded the yeas and nays on its adoption.

The bill was then read the third time, and passed.

Mr. POINDEXTER explained the object of the amend

On motion of Mr. McKINLEY, the Senate then pro-ment. ceeded to the consideration of executive business, and sat with closed doors till near four o'clock;

After agreeing to the amendments of the House to the bill relative to punishments for contempts of court, the Senate took a recess till seven o'clock.

EVENING SESSION.

The CHAIR laid before the Senate a letter from the Secretary of the Treasury, assigning the reasons why the annual statements of the commerce and navigation of the United States cannot be laid before the Senate at the present session; which was ordered to be printed.

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT.

The Senate took up the bill for carrying on certain roads and works of internal improvement, and to provide for surveys, together with an amendment reported by the Committee on Internal Improvements, to strike certain words from the bill as it came from the House of Representatives, and to insert, instead thereof, the words $150,000 for the improvement of the navigation of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers from Pittsburg to New Orleans, and for removing snags, &c. and requiring bonds of the superintendent of the work to the amount of $300,000.

Mr. BENTON supported the amendment. Mr. TAZEWELL called for a division of the question, so that it might be first taken on striking out.

Mr. JOHNSTON preferred the amendment to the bill as it came from the House.

Messrs. JOHNSTON, DUDLEY, POINDEXTER, IREDELL, and WEBSTER severally addressed the Senate; when, the question being put on striking out the clause of the bill on the subject, as it came from the House, it was determined in the affirmative--yeas 36, nays 2.

Some conversation now took place as to the amount of security which should be required of the superintendent, when it was finally fixed at double the sum which might at any time be in his hands.

Mr. BENTON moved an amendment providing for an engineer to be associated with the superintendent in the execution of the work; which was agreed to.

The question being put on the amendment as amended, it was determined in the affirmative--yeas 29, nays 9.

Mr. KING moved to strike out $25,000, the sum proposed for further surveys, and to insert $5,000; which, after some conversation, was negatived--18 to 19. Mr. HAYNE then, in a speech of some length, opposed

the bill.

Mr. HENDRICKS submitted a further amendment, reappropriating certain unexpended moneys for works of internal improvement, which have been carried to the sur-answered Mr. HAYNE. plus fund.

He was replied to by Mr. LIVINGSTON.
Mr. HAYNE rejoined, and Mr. LIVINGSTON again
After a few words from Mr. FOOT, and an explanation

Mr. TAZEWELL said he should oppose this, and all by Mr. LIVINGSTON, other amendments that might be offered, unless satisfac- The question was put on ordering the bill to a third tory information was given of the necessity for each appro-reading, and decided in the affirmative. The bill, as amendpriation. ed, was subsequently read the third time, and passed, and the House concurred in the amendments.

Mr. HENDRICKS said, the estimates for the amendment had been handed to him by the chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means of the other House; they had been received there too late to be inserted in the bill when it was before the House of Representatives, and, as it could not be acted on there, it had been brought here.

Mr. TAZEWELL said that it also came too late here.
The amendment was rejected.

The Senate concurred with the House in agreeing to the report of the managers appointed on the disagreeing votes of the two Houses to the amendments to the general appropriation bill.

The amendments of the Senate to the bill to regulate the foreign and coasting trade on the Northern and Northwestern frontiers, and for other purposes, were read and concurred in, and the bill read the third time, and passed. [The amendments were to insert "Northeastern,” and otherwise than by sea."]

Mr. HENDRICKS then moved a further amendment, appropriating $15,000 towards making the road from Memphis to Little Rock, in the Territory of Arkansas. Mr. H. remarked that a bill providing for this road had been The bill making additional appropriations for the imreported in the House, but not reached on the calendar-provement of certain harbors, and removing obstructions at the only resource, therefore, which the Delegate from that Territory had, was to ask its insertion in the present bill. The Delegate had spoken to him on the subject, and he trusted it would be adopted.

Mr. GRUNDY said, that, from information he had received at home, he thought the appropriation should be made. As an individual he had no objection to it; but he would ask if the Senate was prepared to act on this appropriation, without the subject having been referred to a committee of this House, or without any information of the necessity for the appropriation from any of their commit

tees.

Mr. HENDRICKS said a few words in favor of the amendment. It was no more than just, as the bill of the House on the subject had not been reached in that body, and as the Delegate from the Territory of Arkansas had no alternative but to bring it here, that the Senate should adopt the amendment.

the mouths of certain rivers, was read the third time, and passed; the question on ordering it to a third reading being decided by yeas and nays--28 to 6.

Mr. HENDRICKS moved to suspend so much of the seventeenth joint rule as respects bills which have this day passed both Houses, so as to permit them to be presented to the President on the last day of the session.

Mr. FOOT, being temporarily in the chair, decided that a motion to suspend a rule must lie one day, unless the Senate unanimously agree upon the suspension.

From this decision, Mr. WOODBURY appealed, and referred to a decision by Mr. Macon in a similar case, in the year 1826—which was directly the reverse.

The question being put, "Is the decision of the Chair correct?" It was decided in the negative—16 to 18.

After a few remarks as to a point of order, in which Messrs. KING, HOLMES, HAYNE, SPRAGUE, WOODBURY, BIBB, and FRELINGHUYSEN participated,

SENATE.]

Post Office Department.

[MARCH 3, 1831.

Mr. KING moved to lay the motion for suspending the to the Senate, presented to the President of the United rule on the table; which was determined in the affirmative. States a letter, in which, among other things, he stated Mr. BENTON moved to go into the consideration of that Mr. Barry, the present Postmaster General, had executive business; the motion was negatived-15 to 17. made an extra allowance to a Mr. Harrall, a mail contracA number of bills were successively taken up, and final-tor, and to others, as this memorialist conceived, without ly acted on. warrant of law.

Mr. BENTON, for the third time, moved to go into the consideration of executive business. The motion prevailed--yeas 19. It was now half past twelve o'clock.

The doors remained closed for about thirty minutes. On motion, it was ordered that when the Senate adjourns, it will adjourn to "Thursday, the 3d of March, at eleven o'clock A. M."

Mr. CHAMBERS moved to take up the bill to alter the draw and bridge over the river Potomac.

Mr. FORSYTH opposed the motion, and moved to lay it on the table. No quorum voting.

A copy of this letter having been called for, was presented by this memorialist to the present select committee of the Senate on the Post Office Department.

During the last session of Congress, a call was made on that department, at the instance of one of the Senators from Ohio, for information relative to the extra allowances which had been made to mail contractors.

The response of the department to that call was submitted to the view of this memorialist as containing matters in which he was deeply concerned. Upon examining it to ascertain if his recollection of Harrall's case was cor

Mr. FORSYTH moved an adjournment--negatived-rect, he was unmeasurably astonished to find that the extra yeas 10, nays 20.

The question was then again put on laying the motion on the table, but there was no quorum present: when

Mr. FORSYTH again moved an adjournment-yeas 5, nays 19--no quorum present.

Mr. CHAMBERS then submitted a motion that absent members be sent for.

Mr. HAYNE said, if the motion prevailed, he hoped it would be carried through. He understood the intention to be, that every member in the city should be sent for, and this would take till daylight.

Mr. CHAMBERS said he saw no other course to pursue; and if it took six hours to carry his motion into effect, he should nevertheless persevere.

A quorum being now present, Mr. CHAMBERS withdrew his motion; and

The question was then again put on the motion to lay on the table, and decided in the negative--yeas 6, nays 19. The bill was then taken up, and Mr. CHAMBERS explained its objects, and spoke in its support.

allowance was there charged to have been made by him, acting as Postmaster General. It was evident that the documents had been originally different, that an erasure had been made, and the name of this memorialist inserted. Induced by this to examine further, he found that fortynine cases of extra allowance were in that document charged to have been made by him. Thirty-six of these were similar to the case of Harrall; the original document had been mutilated, and the name of A. Bradley, Jr., acting as Postmaster General, carefully inserted.

This memorialist called the attention of the committee to these circumstances, as evidence of an attempt to impeach his testimony, and to load his official conduct with opprobrium, being public documentary proof from the books of the department, that he had squandered the public funds during the few days he had acted as Postmaster General, between the 10th of March, when Mr. McLean left the office, and the 5th of April, when Mr. Barry came into it, and that, in order to screen himself, he had charged these things upon the latter gentleman. The committee kindly authorized a sub-committee to accompany this memorialist to the department yesterday, the 28th instant, to ascertain whether his statements were correct. Your memorialist confidently appeals to those gentlemen, in support of the fact, that it satisfactorily Mr. TYLER observed that the President of the United appeared to them, that in this case of Harrall's, as well as States had left the capitol, and as it was immaterial whe-in every other case but one in which an erasure had been ther the bill passed to-night or after daylight, he saw no made, Mr. Barry was originally and properly charged-use in gentlemen exhausting themselves-he was of opi-and that it was there asserted that these erasures had been nion they had better go home, and, therefore, moved an adjournment. Negatived--yeas 7, nays 18.

Mr. KING moved that the Senate do now adjourn, and that "the hour of the night, five minutes of two o'clock, on the 3d of March, be entered on the journal."

The yeas and nays were taken on the motion to adjourn, and stood 7 to 21.

Several bills were now brought from the House for the signature of the President; after they were signed, at half past two o'clock, the Senate adjourned.

THURSDAY, MARCH 3.

On motion of Mr. CHAMBERS, the seventeenth joint rule was suspended for this day, so far as respects those bills which have passed both Houses, or require for their final passage an assent only to amendment.

POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT.

Mr. CLAYTON, from the select committee appointed on the 15th December last to inquire into the present state of the Post Office Department, made a report, enumerating certain papers communicated by the Postmaster General, which he was instructed by the committee to move to have printed. The printing was ordered.

Mr. CHAMBERS presented the following memorial from Abraham Bradley, late Assistant Postmaster General: To the Honorable the Senate of the United States: The memorial of Abraham Bradley, late Assistant Postmaster General, most respectfully represents-That, after his removal from office, he, as is well known

made by mistake, and his name inserted by mistake. The gentlemen had not time to pursue their inquiry, and no examination was made into those cases originally charged to your memorialist.

In whatever manner these mutilations of the original document may have occurred, and these false amendments to it made by mistake or not, the effect must be, if it goes to the world, to injure, if not to destroy, a reputation upon which your memorialist, after nearly forty years' public service, must mainly rely for support. The Senate has, as he has been informed, directed this report to be printed.

If this should be done, and it should, with all its falsehoods and injurious tendency, be spread before the people under the sanction of the Senate of the United States, your memorialist submits that great injustice must necessarily follow to him. He therefore prays that such order may be taken by the Senate, as will secure his right, and especially preserve the reputation which documents published by the authority of the Senate should possess. And your memorialist, as in duty bound, &c. March 1, 1831. ABRAHAM BRADLEY.

always

Mr. CHAMBERS moved that the order for the printing of the report referred to be rescinded.

Mr. GRUNDY thought the better course would be--the

MARCH 3, 1831.]

came in.

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right way to do justice--to print the report, and subjoin admit to be spurious and mutilated. If they be printed, to it the memorial of Mr. Bradley, and the testimony of even with the evidence which proves them false, still Messrs. Brown, Suter, et al. injustice may possibly result from it; for it will appear to Mr. CLAYTON, chairman of the select committee to the world, that the Senate had some confidence in these whom those documents had been referred, rose, and papers; and it may happen that those who shall hereafter observed that they were very voluminous, purporting to read the calumny will not, among such a mass of papers, be answers to the resolution of the Senate of the 14th also advert to the refutation of it. At the time these April last, which directed the Postmaster General to re-papers were sent in, Bradley was a witness against the port copies of all existing contracts made by him or department, and under examination before the committee. his predecessor in office, on which allowances have been All here know what an effort was made in public dismade for additional services; designating, in each case, cussion to impeach his veracity, and I trust all will now how much and what additional service has been perform-admit how entirely that effort failed. But I will not stop ed, and by whom it was required, and designating also to inquire into the motives of those who directed those what sum has been allowed in each case for such additional alterations to be made. With motives we have now noservice, and by whom it was allowed." The answer to thing to do. But the fact is incontrovertible, that these this call was kept back until about the 10th of last month. documents are unworthy of credit. It is therefore unDuring the debate which occurred here on the resolution worthy of the Senate to publish them, and I hope the of the gentleman from Tennessee, among other things order for their publication, made in an unguarded moment, then said, I complained of this delay as an evidence of a may be rescinded. design to baffle inquiry into the concerns of the depart- Mr. HOLMES said: Mr. President, having been selectment; and, after that, the report called for in April, 1830, ed by the committee as a sub-committee with the Senator It was first referred to the standing committee from Tennessee, [Mr. GRUNDY,] to go to the department, on the Post Office, although I prayed for its reference to examine the books, and ascertain what was the truth, we the select committee, to whom unquestionably, as we now took with us the witness under examination, and prosee, it properly belonged. The standing committee, ceeded to the General Post Office. We took also the without examination, as we must suppose, recommended abstract of allowances, now before the Senate. This it to be printed, and the Senate ordered it to be printed. abstract was obtained by a call made on the 14th of April After this, and about a week since, it was referred to the last, made by a Senator from Ohio, [Mr. BURNET,] reselect committee. They examined it, and have ascertain- quiring, among other things, information of extra allowed that in thirty-six cases of extra allowance to contractors ances made to contractors, and for what additional serscattered through these documents, embracing some of vices, that the Senate might compare the value of the the grossest violations of the law in granting away the service with the compensation. The answer to this call public money to mail contractors, the allowances have did not come to the Senate until the 10th of February of been falsely set down as having been made by Abraham this session, near nine months. It was referred to the Bradley, as acting or assistant Postmaster General, when, Committee on the Post Office, &c., and by them returned in these very cases, the allowances were actually made by to the Senate on the 22d, and ordered to be printed; and the present Postmaster General; and for the truth of this was then referred to the committee of inquiry. It was I refer to the deposition of Mr. Bradley, those of the voluminous, and exceedingly confused; but some memclerks in the department, and the report itself of the bers of the committee discovered at once that it must be Postmaster General in answer to the call, all now on the erroneous, to say the least. The fact is, that Mr. McLean table before you, as well as to the statements of the Sena- left the department about the 10th of March, 1829-that tors from Maine and Tennessee, [Messrs. HOLMES and Mr. A. Bradley, the senior assistant, was then the acting GRUNDY,] who went to the department as a sub-com- Postmaster General, as locum tenens, from that time until mittee, by our direction, to ascertain the facts. These the 7th of April, less than four weeks. Still, within that documents, in each of these cases, exhibit to your eye time, additional allowances appeared by this "abstract" palpable erasures, where the name of "William T. Barry, to have been made, of about 42,000 dollars. Upon exPostmaster General," has been rubbed out, and that of amining this "abstract," it appeared, moreover, that there "Abraham Bradley, acting Postmaster General," insert- had been thirty-six erasures, and A. Bradley's name ed. The result of the examination was, that Mr. Barry's inserted. The allowance to Harrall appeared the most name was originally written down on the documents as extraordinary. This was a case of erasure. the person who made the allowances, according to the that Bradley had, on the 17th of October, 1829, in a truth-that the name of Mr. Bradley was afterwards in- letter to the President, among other things, charged Mr. serted, and now stands in each of these thirty-six cases, Barry with prodigality, and had instanced this allowance which, call them falsehoods, errors, or what you please, to Harrall. Harrall's contract was for carrying the mail certainly misrepresent the fact. Then it is also necessa- from Georgetown to Charleston, South Carolina, for 6,000 ry to state that the letter of Abraham Bradley to the dollars, and the extra allowance was 1,992 dollars, about President, which was read in the debate here on the thirty-three per cent.; and the cause alleged was two hours' resolution of the Senator from Tennessee, charging Mr. expedition; the law allowing only a pro rata addition, which Barry with gross violation of the law in some of these would have been about eight per cent. if the two hours' cases, (particularly in the case of the South Carolina con expedition had been required. But here was another tract,) was written more than a year ago, and shortly after error in the abstract, the expedition required being only his removal from office; that this letter had been sworn one and a half hours. to by Mr. Bradley in the committee; and that the tendency This extravagance, which Bradley, in his letter to the of this falsification of the documents, if undetected, was President, had charged upon Barry, and had before the to convict Mr. Bradley of swearing falsely, who, in saying, committee verified it by his oath, Barry had, in an official on his oath, that the Postmaster General made the allow-communication, charged back upon Bradley. The repuances, stated the exact truth. Sir, I have bestowed much tation of these two gentlemen seemed, therefore, to be attention on these papers, and I do not undertake to say so deeply involved, that it became the duty of the comthat these are all the misrepresentations contained in them. mittee to ascertain how the fact was, and the sub-comThey are enough, however, to induce the Senate, both in mittee was accordingly appointed. justice to its own character, and the reputation of an excellent citizen and an innocent man, to refuse to give any publicity to documents which all can see, and all now

VOL. VII.-22

It seems

In pursuance of this appointment, we proceeded to the department; Mr. Barry was not there; we inquired of Mr. Gardner, the assistant, and others, for the persons who

SENATE.]

Post Office Department.

[MARCH 3, 1831.

whether such errors in such a department, which combine to destroy the fair fame of a worthy and highly distinguished citizen, are to be ascribed to gross ignorance or base design.

made out the "abstracts,” and Mr. Taylor and Mr. Dundas wish, in all charity, that we had better grounds to presume were introduced, and, after a preliminary examination, it. This "abstract" is neither an original record, nor a were sworn and testified. We recurred to the erasures, and copy from any record. It states briefly in each case the asked what was erased to make the blanks which were amount of the contract, the name of the contractor, the filled by Mr. Bradley's name? They answered, Mr. Barry's amount of the extra allowance, and for what time. It is and Mr. McLean's, but chiefly Mr. Barry's. Why were neither an extract nor abstract from any record or docuMessrs. McLean and Barry's names first inserted? Be- ment. It is rather a compilation of these facts from the cause they supposed it was right; but Mr. Brown, by order letters, the cash book, and the leger. It seems singuof the Postmaster General, as he said, had determined lar that there is no direct record of the time when these otherwise, and directed this rule: to take the leger, and allowances were granted. But, nevertheless, it happened look at the account of the contractor which was adjusted in this case that the subordinate officers found no difficulty for each quarter, and, if the credit of the allowance at the in ascertaining which Postmaster General did make the end of the quarter is carried into Bradley's time, charge allowances; and nothing but the rule promulgated by Mr. the allowance to him. It appeared that the account with O. B. Brown changed the right into a wrong. Now, it Harrall was adjusted and balanced to the end of the quar- would seem that a rule so utterly fallacious as this, would ter, to wit, the 1st of April; and, as Bradley was then operate sometimes for, and sometimes against, Mr. Bradacting Postmaster General, this allowance was consequently ley; but this "(strange to tell) operated in every case against charged to him. I inquired if this quarter's account was him, and fixed upon him the most numerous and extravaadjusted and balanced at the time it bears date? The an gant extra allowances that were ever made in twice that swer was, no; and not, probably, until June. Whether, if distance of time. Considering, therefore, that Mr. Barry the allowance had been made between the 1st of April had been, long before this, presented to the President for (the end of the quarter) and June, the time of actual ad- extravagance in these allowances; that his answer to a call justment, it would have been carried to Harrall's credit in from the Senate had been altered, by erasures, so as to rethat quarter? The answer was, that it would. Do not you, move this charge from him, and fix it on Bradley; that the then, we asked, see the fallacy of your rule in proving falsity of the official document had been detected, and acwho was the Postmaster General who made the allowance? knowledged by the officers who have the chief manageYour quarter closed on the 1st of April, and Bradley's ment of the department; it is for the public to decide functions ceased on the 7th, and your adjustment of the quarter was made on the 1st of June. If this allowance had been made any time between the 7th of April and 1st of June, and you had carried it back to the 1st of April, do not you see that you fix on Bradley an allowance made From all the evidence which we obtained from the deby Barry? Bring your original entry, where, concerning partment, it would seem that, in less than four weeks, Mr. this allowance, you first put pen to paper, no matter what Bradley is made to have given extra allowances in fortyis the name of the book or the document. They brought seven cases; in thirty-six of which Mr. McLean and Barry "the cash book;" there the allowance was stated, and were rightly charged, but their names were erased, and the time for which it was made, but not when the decision Bradley's wrongfully inserted. It appears further, that was made. But I perceived, in a small note in red ink, though the call as to these extra allowances, which was "see letter of 13th April." I demanded the letter, and it made nine months before it was answered, extended also was brought; and, behold, it was a letter of Phineas Brad- to the reasons or consideration for them, yet in very few ley to Harrall, six days after Abraham's functions had instances has the reason or consideration been given; and ceased, stating that the Postmaster General (Barry) had in some it is found that it has been erroneously given. examined his claim for extra compensation, and had di- In this very case of Harrall, all that is pretended to have rected him to pass the sum of $1,992 50 per annum to his been gained for this $1,992 per annum, is expediting two credit, as extra allowance. Here the thing was settled. hours in twenty-four, which, upon inquiry, turns out to The charge of Bradley to the President, of Barry's extra be but an hour and a half. In the short time that this allowance, was true; the attempt in Barry's official re- mass of matter has been before us, we have discovered port to shoulder it off on Bradley was entirely defeated. enough to convince me that this mutilated, mangled, perThe Assistant Postmaster General, Gardner, and Chief verted document never ought to go to the public with Clerk, Brown, were forced to admit the error, and that the sanction of the Senate. The Senator from Tennessee the rule which had fixed about $40,000 of allowances upon suggests that the petition and this document may both be Bradley, took these allowances from McLean, but chiefly published. But the committee know that the petition from Barry, where they in fact belonged, and charged is true, and the document is not. Shall we, then, give curthem upon Bradley, where they did not belong. It was rency to official slander against a citizen who has served strange, indeed, that this abstract should have been, at you near forty years with distinguished ability and stern first, made out correctly, and that McLean and Barry's integrity? If his faithful services could not save him from names should have been improperly erased and Brad- a relentless proscription, but he must be cast upon the ley's improperly inserted. Now, it is not to be pre-world in the evening of his days, pennyless, and without sumed that charges so grave as those presented by Brad- employ, surely we will not give currency to that which, ley to the President of the United States, in his letter if true, would consign him to infamy, but which we know of the 17th of October, were never communicated to the is a gross fabrication. If you will consent to adopt a rePostmaster General. Mr. Bradley had been an Assistant solution, directing the printer to enclose the erasures in Postmaster General full thirty years, and, in all that time, brackets, and insert this resolution in a note at the bottom had maintained an irreproachable character. He had been of each page which shall contain an erasure, the antidote removed without being permitted to know the cause. would then go with the poison, and no harm would be One of the charges (to wit, prodigality) which he prefers done. But, as it is, I protest against such injustice. against the Postmaster General, (Barry,) is attempted to be shouldered off on him. This the witness declares on oath was the act of Barry himself, and proves it in the way I have stated.

Mr. GRUNDY remarked, that he should not oppose the adoption of the resolution. He never could see any public utility in either obtaining or printing the abstracts; and if any member supposed that injustice would be The depositions of Brown, Dundas, Taylor, Suter, and inflicted on any one, he should be still less inclined to have Gardner, admit the misrepresentation in this “abstract;” |them printed. He was one of the members of the combut "it is an innocent mistake." It may be so, and we [mittee who examined this subject at the General Post

MARCH 3, 1831.]

Post Office Department.

[SENATE.

Office, and believed no improper conclusion could be Mr. CLAYTON said, he wished the gentleman from drawn. If the abstracts, the memorial of Mr. Bradley, Tennessee, when he expressed his opinion that others and the depositions of Mr. Brown, Mr. Suter, Mr. Tay- believed no fraud was intended by the erasures, had conlor, and Mr. Dundas, were printed together, the whole fined himself to what he knew, or had better reason to truth of the case would then be presented, and no impu- believe, than he had condescended to name. The other tation would be thrown on any one, Mr. Bradley alleged members of the committee would think for themselves, that certain extra allowances purported by the abstracts and had not made that gentleman their organ to express to have been made by him, which were not made by him; any opinion on this subject. He said, he understood but it should be noticed, that there was no evidence that the gentleman to say, by way of excuse for these mutithese allowances were not properly made. It was only lated documents, that, in some of the cases, Mr. McLean material to investigate the matter, because Mr. Bradley had made the allowances. Sir, an inspection of the had stated in his letter to the President that Major Barry evidence will show that, in nearly all, if not in every had made one or more of them. It was a matter touching case, the reverse is the fact. The select committee this Mr. Bradley's veracity, which it was deemed proper should morning reported on the affairs of the department; and be put upon the true ground. Mr. G. was desirous that the depositions and papers to show this, which have all full justice should be done to Mr. Bradley, but protested been ordered to be printed, are referred to in, and form against the effort which seemed to have for its object a part of, the report. Among these is a communication the inculpation of the Post Office Department in the from Mr. McLean, in which he informs the committee transaction alluded to; and a reference to the depositions that Mr. Bradley never made an allowance while he was of the witnesses before named would entirely free the de- in the office of Postmaster General. But, sir, there is partment from all censure. yet another reason why these documents should not be

It was required by the resolution that the department printed. They are entirely evasive of the resolution should state not only all extra allowances made, but the of the Senate. In a majority of all the cases of extra officers by whom made. The clerks, Mr. Taylor and compensation set forth in them, they do not state the Mr. Dundas, were directed by Mr. Brown, the Chief "additional service" to be performed, and which was Clerk, to proceed with the work. Mr. Brown was de- the consideration for the allowance. They are now tained from the office by sickness. In the execution of spread on the Secretary's table, and you may see that the business, it was discovered that the books of the office, they do not constitute, without the contracts, even an from its commencement, contained nothing showing by apology for an answer to the requisition made by the whom extra allowances had been made, but the dates of Senate. Generally, they do not give the length of the the entries; and Mr. Dundas had gone on to state the extra routes, or of the time in which they were to be performallowances as made by Mr. McLean up to the day of his ed--but leave you to refer to the contracts themselves, resignation, and from that period as made wholly by Major which it is not proposed to print. And in one case, Barry. After he had proceeded in this way for some time, a where the excuse for the extra allowance is set down to question arose as to its correctness, and it was agreed by Mr. be an increase of expedition, by carrying the mail through Taylor and Mr. Dundas to take the opinion of Mr. Brown two hours sooner, the proof, as you will see by the depoupon the subject, on which they differed in opinion. They sitions, is, that it was to be carried through only one hour stated to him the principle of difference, without reference and a half sooner than before the extra compensation was to any particular case, (as sworn to by Mr. Taylor.) Mr. allowed. The law explicitly directs that the extra allowBrown was of opinion that the criterion would be, to ance shall be regulated by the original contract, and take from the books the dates of the first entries for the apportioned according to the increase of duty to be perpayments of extra allowances, and charge the making of formed. To determine the propriety of the allowance, these to the Postmaster General then in office; and to state the additional service must be distinctly stated; and as all allowances as made by Postmaster General McLean up this has not been done in most of the cases, the docuto the day of his resignation, and all allowances as made ments, without reference to the contracts, showing noby Mr. Bradley, who was by law acting Postmaster Gene-thing, are not worth the cost of printing. But it is enough ral, up to the day Mr. Barry was sworn into office; and to now to say that the Senate will not deliberately give pubMr. Barry all allowances made from that day subsequently. licity to what they know to be untrue. This was the rule adopted; and, in conformity with it, the Mr. GRUNDY hoped he had not mistaken the object name of Mr. Barry was erased in several instances, and of the motion now before the Senate. Mr. Bradley's inserted, before the report was completed. it was with a view to do justice to Mr. Bradley; so far he This was the whole of the matter; the original books and was willing to go; but let it be understood that he did documents all stand fair and unaltered, and he could see not acquiesce in any denunciation of the officers of the no ground of imputation against any one. That some of Post Office Department. It was true Mr. Barry's name these alterations in the abstract which those clerks were had been crased, and Mr. Bradley's substituted in its making were erroneously made, no one doubted. Mr. place; but the clerks tell us it was a mistake--that it was Brown stated it in his deposition, and, taking all the de-innocently done. He did not understand that the answer positions mentioned, it is explained in the most satisfac- of the Postmaster General to the resolution of the Senate tory manner. It arose from the rule or principle on which was evasive; he had not been able to give so full an anthe books have at all times been kept; and the abstracts swer as was desirable, perhaps, but at the next session it were taken from the books as kept, and from the entries might be obtained. He knew that Mr. Bradley was actually made under Mr. Bradley, and from no intention charged with paying money, which he should not have to do injustice to any one. Mr. G. was himself convinced been; but he also knew that it resulted from an innocent that perfect accuracy could not be arrived at, as to the mistake of young clerks. persons making the extra allowances, from an inspection. Mr. CHAMBERS said he had yielded the floor to afford of the books of the department. It might be done possi- other Senators an opportunity to explain their views. bly by an examination of the correspondence in each case; It was now proper to explain the objects of the memobut that would be an almost endless labor; and five months rial. It was no part of his duty to go into the proofs upon would not have been sufficient to examine the necessary the subject, to show that the present Postmaster Geneletters and documents. He would unite with gentlemen ral has wilfully and corruptly made an allegation injuriin voting to suspend the printing, but protested against any ous to the reputation of the memorialist; or that erasures inference being drawn even to the prejudice of the depart- of Mr. Barry's name, and interlineations of Mr. Bradley's, ment from the transactions which were called in question. now admitted to have been made at the department,

He had thought

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