Even in the Commissariat, which, in all
ages and in all armies, has been the presumed headquarters of the
Autolyci, no one has yet emulated the evil renown of the Butlers at New
Orleans (it was openly stated in Congress, and scarcely contradicted,
that the profits and plunder carried off by that noble pair of brothers,
exceeded seven millions of dollars); but many of the contractors appear
to have used their opportunities much as if they were scrambling for
eagles, or robbing "against time." The corruption that has long
prevailed in Congress, whenever a "private bill" is in question, has
long been notorious; but this, at least, was shrouded with a thin vail
of decorum which the peculators in military and civil high places
disdained to encumber themselves with in these latter days.
Instances of all this might be multiplied to weariness, but you have
only to look at a week's files of any northern journal to be convinced
of the existing state of things, which even the Black Republicans not
unfrequently bewail.
There is another sort of extra-horse that the Government, or its organs,
are fond of riding for a short "spell," when the others have been hacked
rather too hardly. They have christened it--"Perfidious Albion." To
speak the truth, however, the Anglophobia is not confined to the
Abolitionists or Republicans when anything occurs to make any particular
journal cross or querulous, you are almost sure to meet, that same week,
a sanguinary leader, with the threadbare motto--"_delenda est
Britannia_.
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