The Daily Phoenix

Something Wrong.

The New York Herald, of the 24th, says:

We learn through private channels from Washington that a discrepancy, amounting to some 30,000,000, has been discovered in balancing the accounts of Judge Chase while Secretary of the Treasury--or rather that his accounts do not balance by that amount. If this report be true, is it not strange that the discrepancy was not discovered before? What is the reason his successors, Mr. Fessenden and Mr. McCulloch, have had nothing to say on this subject? There is a rumor that Mr. Fessenden resigned on account of the muddle he found the Treasury Department in when he entered upon the discharge of his duties as its chief. The more he endeavored to straighten matters, the more complicated he found them, and he abandoned their solution in despair. Mr. McCulloch has been instrumental in doing some good to the country, and in giving some fat jobs to outside brokers and jobbers; but he also has failed to expose or explain this discrepancy of 30,000,000 during Chase's direction of the department. All this is very strange. No one will, of course, attempt to ascribe to Judge Chase any improper use of the funds thus unaccounted for; but, as showing the loose manner in which our national financial affairs have been conducted, discrepancies like these demand immediate investigation at the hands of Congress.

Why has this not been done?

The Government lost 500,000 by the failure of a national bank in which Government funds were deposited, and the army paymaster by whose authority the money was placed there has been cashiered, fined and imprisoned, and four others, who testified in his behalf, have been dismissed the service in consequence. Why is it that so rigorous and merciless a prosecution should occur in one department of the Government for 500,000 lost, when 30,000,000 remain unaccounted for in another department? Congress should look into this matter without delay. The entire management of our national financial affairs during the rebellion, and up to the present time, demands sharp and unpartisan investigation.