Company might have expected him to
lay out on members of Congress, or on ex-members who are specially
mentioned, had he not himself carried on the business with such
consummate discretion! It seems to me that the members or ex-
members of Congress were shamefully robbed in this matter.
The report deals manfully with Mr. Morgan, showing that for five
months' work - which work he did not do and did not know how to do -
he received as large a sum as the President's salary for the whole
Presidential term of four years. So much better is it to be an
agent of government than simply an officer! And the committee adds,
that they "do not find in this transaction the less to censure in
the fact that this arrangement between the Secretary of the Navy and
Mr. Morgan was one between brothers-in-law." After that who will
believe that Mr. Morgan had the whole of that 20,000l. for himself?
And yet Mr. Welles still remains Secretary of the Navy, and has
justified the whole transaction in an explanation admitting
everything, and which is considered by his friends to be an able
State paper. "It behoves a man to be smart, sir." Mr. Morgan and
Secretary Welles will no doubt be considered by their own party to
have done their duty well as high-trading public functionaries. The
faults of Mr. Morgan and of Secretary Welles are nothing to us in
England; but the light in which such faults may be regarded by the
American people is much to us.
I will now go on to the case of a Mr. Cummings. Mr. Cummings, it
appears, had been for many years the editor of a newspaper in
Philadelphia, and had been an intimate political friend and ally of
Mr. Cameron. Now at the time of which I am writing, April, 1861,
Mr. Cameron was Secretary of War, and could be very useful to an old
political ally living in his own State. The upshot of the present
case will teach us to think well of Mr. Cameron's gratitude.
In April, 1861, stores were wanted for the army at Washington, and
Mr. Cameron gave an order to his old friend Cummings to expend
2,000,000 dollars, pretty much according to his fancy, in buying
stores. Governor Morgan, the Governor of New York State, and a
relative of our other friend Morgan, was joined with Mr. Cummings in
this commission, Mr. Cameron no doubt having felt himself bound to
give the friends of his colleague at the Navy a chance. Governor
Morgan at once made over his right to his relative; but better
things soon came in Mr. Morgan's way, and he relinquished his share
in this partnership at an early date. In this transaction he did
not himself handle above 25,000 dollars.
