Since
the officers of the Treasury and Post-Office Departments were charged
with the custody of most of the public moneys received by them there
have been collected $66,000,000, and, excluding the case of the late
collector at New York, the aggregate amount of losses sustained in the
collection can not, it is believed, exceed $60,000. The defalcation
of the late collector at that city, of the extent and circumstances
of which Congress have been fully informed, ran through all the modes
of keeping the public money that have been hitherto in use, and was
distinguished by an aggravated disregard of duty that broke through
the restraints of every system, and can not, therefore, be usefully
referred to as a test of the comparative safety of either. Additional
information will also be furnished by the report of the Secretary of
the Treasury, in reply to a call made upon that officer by the House
of Representatives at the last session requiring detailed information
on the subject of defaults by public officers or agents under each
Administration from 1789 to 1837.
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