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Story
December 5, 1848
Indiana State Sentinel
Indianapolis, Marion County, Indiana
What is this article about?
The New York Herald compliments Treasury Secretary Walker's exceptional energy and management during wartime pressures, highlighting his sleepless exertions, while calling for departmental reorganization to handle extraneous duties like Indian affairs and patents.
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OCR Quality
95%
Excellent
Full Text
SECRETARY WALKER.--The New York Herald, in an article urging the reorganization of the Departments at Washington, and particularly of the Treasury, pays the following compliment to the industry and talents of Mr. Secretary Walker:
"The report of the Secretary of the Treasury, of last December, as well as his various other fiscal papers, and his management of his department, have elevated that department to an eminence to which it never before attained. He has produced these results by his energy, skill, and perseverance, and by physical and mental exertions almost incredible. He has been known, for weeks at a time, never to leave the department, even to see his family, and to have remained several successive nights without sleep--the activity of his mind actually preventing repose.
"The accumulation of business connected with the war rendered such exertions absolutely necessary; but it is vain to expect that those labors can be sustained for any length of time. The stream of business through the departments is choked up by an accumulation of extraneous matter. Each department (with the exception of that of the Navy and the Post Office) is loaded with business which does not properly belong to it, and which it cannot transact promptly or properly, without wholly neglecting that which is within its peculiar province. For instance, what connection have Indian affairs with the War Department? or the Land Office, or Coast Survey with the Treasury? or the Patent Office with the State Department! How little soever this incongruity might have been felt in the infancy of the government, it has reached such a point now that it cannot be suffered to last any longer. The heads of the three departments we have named, have more than enough to claim their whole time and attention in the immediate and proper business of their office.
When Mr. Walker retires next March, the Treasury Department must, of necessity, fall to pieces, unless, in the mean time, it be in some way relieved of the weight that crushes it."
"The report of the Secretary of the Treasury, of last December, as well as his various other fiscal papers, and his management of his department, have elevated that department to an eminence to which it never before attained. He has produced these results by his energy, skill, and perseverance, and by physical and mental exertions almost incredible. He has been known, for weeks at a time, never to leave the department, even to see his family, and to have remained several successive nights without sleep--the activity of his mind actually preventing repose.
"The accumulation of business connected with the war rendered such exertions absolutely necessary; but it is vain to expect that those labors can be sustained for any length of time. The stream of business through the departments is choked up by an accumulation of extraneous matter. Each department (with the exception of that of the Navy and the Post Office) is loaded with business which does not properly belong to it, and which it cannot transact promptly or properly, without wholly neglecting that which is within its peculiar province. For instance, what connection have Indian affairs with the War Department? or the Land Office, or Coast Survey with the Treasury? or the Patent Office with the State Department! How little soever this incongruity might have been felt in the infancy of the government, it has reached such a point now that it cannot be suffered to last any longer. The heads of the three departments we have named, have more than enough to claim their whole time and attention in the immediate and proper business of their office.
When Mr. Walker retires next March, the Treasury Department must, of necessity, fall to pieces, unless, in the mean time, it be in some way relieved of the weight that crushes it."
What sub-type of article is it?
Biography
Historical Event
What themes does it cover?
Moral Virtue
Triumph
What keywords are associated?
Treasury Secretary
Department Reorganization
War Business
Secretary Walker
Fiscal Management
What entities or persons were involved?
Mr. Secretary Walker
Where did it happen?
Washington
Story Details
Key Persons
Mr. Secretary Walker
Location
Washington
Event Date
Last December; Next March
Story Details
The New York Herald praises Secretary Walker's industry and talents in managing the Treasury Department amid war-related business accumulation, noting his extreme exertions. It criticizes the overload of extraneous duties in departments and urges reorganization to prevent collapse upon his retirement.