Daily Richmond Whig

WEDNESDAY MORNING, MAY 6, 1829.

The rumours for some time in circulation respecting defalcations in the Navy Department at Washington, seem at last coming to a head. On Thursday evening last, Dr. Tobias Watkins, late 4th Auditor at Washington, was arrested at Philadelphia by a warrant of the U. S. District Judge, granted on application from Washington, and conducted by a Marshal's escort, to Washington, where he was expected to arrive on Saturday night, or Sunday. We are not apprised of his actual arrival. The ground of the arrest is alleged fraud upon the Government of the U. States. The case was to be examined and tried by the civil authorities of the District. Being therefore in a course of adjudication, delicacy and justice forbid comments in the newspapers at this time.

The National Intelligencer of Monday, says not a word upon the subject. In the Journal of that day, we find the following observations. It is not to be doubted, that the worst construction has been put upon Dr. Watkins' conduct, for the purpose of gaining to the new administration as much credit for vigilance as possible---and for the further purpose, of justifying the numerous removals from office that have been made without cause, and excusing further removals without cause, that Gen. Jackson is resolved upon making. This is in exact accordance with Jacksonism, as developed in a thousand hues and forms.

Of all the party spirit that ever existed, that of Jacksonism is the least merciful and the least scrupulous. Duff in hinting at the defalcation of Watkins, has already covertly and insidiously appealed to it, as proving the necessity of proscription, and if it shall upon investigation, prove to be real, we may expect to see it made the pretence and the justification, of an universal amotion of Anti-Jacksonians from office. Duff will certainly prove logically, that as Dr. Watkins committed depredations upon the Treasury, a fortiori, the whole party are rogues!

Meanwhile, we know nothing of the circumstances of Dr. Watkins' case beyond bare rumor, and wish not to be understood as being desirous to screen him from deserved odium or punishment. We only express the belief that the worst construction has been put upon it. He was evidently on his return to the District when arrested, and this does not look like the consciousness of guilt. We sincerely trust that the affair may be satisfactorily explained.

"We learn, that Mr. Tobias Watkins, the late Fourth Auditor, was arrested on the night of the 30th ult. in Philadelphia, at the suit of the United States. He may be expected in this city this evening. We presume that the transactions which form the cause of his arrest, and which have been heretofore alluded to in this paper, will be investigated by the Grand Jury, to be in session next week."

The foregoing article from the Telegraph of Saturday, occasions us to advert, for the first time, to the rumors, which, for the last fortnight, have been circulated in this city, in regard to the late Fourth Auditor. Learning that they were founded on an inquiry instituted by his successor, and aware of the ingenuity, the vindictiveness, and the reckless malignity of Amos Kendall, we deemed it but justice to an absent individual that he should have an opportunity of being heard, before we contributed to give publicity to the allegations which are now, it is understood, to be the subject of judicial inquiry. We were confirmed in our convictions of the propriety of this forbearance, by a knowledge that the late Fourth Auditor was absent on business, unconnected with his former official relations to the Government, and that his return might be expected about the close of the last month. That the administration believed the business to be thus unconnected, is apparent from the Telegraph of 29th ult. and the correctness of our expectation is evidenced by the fact, that the late Fourth Auditor, left Boston for Washington, on the 28th ult. and had advanced on this voluntary journey as far as Philadelphia, when he was arrested under the authority of the U. States, the President being unwilling, it would seem, that he should return under any other circumstances, to his home and to his family.

As the charges against him are so speedily to be investigated before a more solemn tribunal than that of Mr. Kendall, any detailed commentary on them would now be premature. We cannot, however, refrain from remarking that from the accounts which we have been enabled to obtain, they are all susceptible of explanations consistent with the hitherto unassailed and unsuspected honor of the accused; that our long established convictions of his integrity leave us no room to apprehend that they will now be impaired; that he has been subjected to an ex parte inquisition, during his absence, and at the hands of his direst foes; that his arrest was based on the affidavit of a witness who had, on a former occasion, obtained an unenviable reputation for voracity: and that his voluntary effort to meet his accusers, afford a presumption in his favor which it would require something more than such an affidavit to put down. If any consideration can strengthen our belief in his innocence, it is the extreme folly in him which is implied in a contrary supposition: For the offences imputed to him are of a nature which would have made them constantly liable to detection under the last administration: and he knew too well President Adams and his Cabinet, to hope for one moment's impunity to guilt. In the mind of that illustrious citizen, patriotism has ever been paramount to every other social consideration, and he would have enforced the law on the late Fourth Auditor, if obnoxious to it, with as little hesitation as on the unworthy person who has succeeded that officer, or on any other delinquent.

And it may be added, that the late Secretary of the Navy would have been the last man in this nation to stay the hand of public justice.

We shall now only remark, that if we did not believe the general view which we have given of the case to be correct, we should be among the first to justify, at whatever expense of private feeling, the proceeding adopted by General Jackson.