Gazette Of The United States, & Philadelphia Daily Advertiser

The Gazette.
PHILADELPHIA,
FRIDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 28.
Justum et tenacem propositi virum,
Non civium ardor prava jubentium,
Non vultus instantis tyranni,
Mente quatit solida.

MR. FENNO,
THE iniquities and abuses of Mr. Dallas have
been heretofore so completely detected and
exposed, that even his unblushing effrontery
has not dared to attempt a refutation. Sensible
that further investigation would only
display new proofs of his malversations, he
has offered no excuse for retaining in his
possession 22,500 dollars of public money upwards
of two years; nor has he explained
his reasons for opening one account in the
Bank as Paymaster, another in his private
capacity, and exhausting both far, very far
below the balance which he confesses to
have been always in his hands unexpended.
What will be the astonishment of the good
people of this state when they hear that this
insatiable adventurer now claims for his trifling
services as paymaster the monstrous compensation
of 8847 dollars and 68 cents.
This charge he has actually exhibited, making
it a part of his credits in his public account;
and he has boldly withheld public
money from the treasury to this amount.
Then it is indisputably true that he held in
his hands for a long time more than thirty
thousand dollars, and that according to his
own statement he still holds upwards of eleven
thousand dollars, if these commissions are
excluded!!!
Where is the revolutionary officer, or
war-worn soldier who has ever received such
an allowance for the services and hazards of
years? The entire yearly pay of the Paymaster
General of the United States is less than
a fifth part of this sum, yet he devotes his
whole time and undivided attention to that
object:—Whereas Mr. D. has a salary of
two thousand per annum as secretary of the
commonwealth: he has lucrative jobs from
the public for revising and publishing the
laws; and a great portion of his time is
profitably employed in defending his particular
friends in the criminal courts.
If the Secretary of War, of State, or of
the Treasury were to make such a charge
for all new duties devolved on them from
time to time would they not be immediately
impeached and displaced? Would we not
find Mr. Dallas the first and loudest of their
accusers? Denouncing their extortion and
rapacity?
One condemning fact will stamp an indelible
character upon this mysterious money
agency and explain Mr. Dallas's own private
opinion of it. The committee of ways
and means in February 1796 called for a
statement of the accounts relative to the
Western expedition on the 2d march: they received
credit as follows:
"Amount of pay rolls for which
Delivered vouchers are rendered
to the United States, 131,968 40
"Amount disbursed since the
account was rendered about
6,600
Now this "amount disbursed since account
rendered" when examined in the account
really rendered, instead of being a disbursement
to the troops, is found to be Mr. D's
charge of "about" 6,600 dollars for his services.
This claim was concealed from the
committee of ways and means, as was also
the additional claim of 2294 dollars and 93
cents for paying the bounty to the stage line,
making in the whole, the sum first mentioned.
Mr. D. wrote letters at different times
on this subject to different committees in
1795, 1796, 1798, which are now ready to
be produced. In those letters he affects to
complain of difficulties he meets in the war
office, of the delays of that office, of his eagerness
to terminate the agency accounts,
but not a whisper, not a syllable of this extravagant
demand of near 9000 dollars for
his commissions.
A committee has lately been appointed in
the Legislature of our State to examine these
accounts of Mr. Dallas. The majority of
that committee are the warm friends and
political associates of Mr. D. but it is hoped
that no improper consideration will move
them to suppress a fair and full investigation
or to abstain from inflicting exemplary punishment
upon their dear, though guilty favorite.