West Virginia Argus

YORKTOWN PRETENSIONS.

That Congress would be called on, after the $100,000 appropriated for a Yorktown monument, the $20,000 for a Yorktown celebration, and the second $50,000 for the same purpose, to make an additional appropriation for expenses incurred beyond these limits, says the New York Sun, was quite according to precedent. Junketings in which Congressmen take part are roundly paid for by the people's money; and an item of $32,595.09 in the Deficiency bill tells how much the Yorktown carousal cost, above the $50,000 authorized. A call for an explanation of this bill in the House debate of last week disclosed that 250 men had been fed free, and had also consumed $1,500 worth of liquor and tobacco during the frolic. Some members hastily arose to mention that French officers and the descendants of Baron Steuben were our guests; but Mr. Mundell repeated that he found no authority in that fact for feeding 250 men, while it is palpable that neither the French officers nor even the Steubens can be accused of swallowing this monstrous amount of liquor. Waiving the quality of the beverages, the prices were eminently respectable. There was brandy at $15 a gallon, and though nearly $1,080 worth of champagne was bought, it cost even in that quantity $50 a case. There were 8,600 cigars at $105 a thousand, 2,000 at $170, and 8,200 at $195. And it is noticeable that, in the credits for goods returned, there was some $10 brandy, but none of the $15, while 290 domestic cigars at $50 a thousand went back, but not a solitary stump of the $105, $170, and $195. Mr. Hepburn, clinging to the desperate theory that it was the Steubens and the French visitors that had made way with this liquor and tobacco, protested against "flaunting the party items in the face of those whom we invited here," but Mr. Holman supported that it would be strange to allow bills to be contracted in direct violation of law, and then to prevent Congress from knowing what it was paying the people's money for. Mr. Cobb, also, laid down a sound doctrine in the following language:

"There is no better remedy for the people of this country to prevent the constant recurrence of these unlawful and disgraceful expenditures than to expose them if they have been committed, and let them receive public condemnation as they will."

Of course, there was no expectation of defeating the payment of this bill, but some members very properly determined that this score of grog should be put before the people.