then indeed, the Representatives of the People presented but a feeble barrier to the power of the War Department. It is probable however, that Congress will find means hereafter, to restrain the recruiting service within proper bounds; and they have already, by an act of the first of May. 1820, provided that no contract thereafter, shall be made by the heads of any of the departments 66 except under a law authorizing the same, or under an appropriation adequate to its fulfilment and, excepting also, contracts made by the Quarter Master's Department, which may be made by the ecretaries of those Departments." If the Secretary of War shall consider this very radical law as binding upon him, it will put an end to Rip Rap contracts. As soon as it was discovered that more than 3000 men had been recruited for the year 1820, the House of Representatives, on motion of Mr. Tracey, called upon the Secretary for information upon this subject. In answer to which, on the 2nd of January 1821, he communicated the following letters and statements "Department of War, 30th Dec. 1820. "SIR-In reply to the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 26th inst. requiring a statement from this Department, shewing the number of soldiers recruited for the Army, during the year 1820, indicating the fund from which the expences of recruiting have been paid; and whether any unexpended balance of former appropriations has been used, and in what year said appropriations was made: I enclose reports of the Adjutant and Inspector General, and the Second Auditor of the Treasury, shewing the number of recruits, and the expences of the recruiting service. It is deemed proper to observe, that although the number of recruits exceed three thousand, the army has not been so much increased since the last year. The difference between the enlistments and the increase, is accounted for by the discharges, desertions, and other casualties, during the year, amounting to half as many as have been enlisted. I have the honor to be, your obedient servant, J. C. CALHOUN. Hon. J. W. TAYLOR, Speaker of the House of Representatives. Adjutant & Inspector General's Office, 30th December, 1820. SIR-In answer to that part of the Resolution of the House of Representatives, requiring the number of soldiers enlisted during this year, which you referred to me, I take the liberty to make the following extract, rom my report to you of the 2nd inst. viz: Abstract of the recruiting returns for 1820, whole number enlisted during the year, 3,211." The number of recruits for this year is taken from the returns made to this office, of the first three quarters, and an estimate for the present quarter. I have the honor to be, with perfect respect, your obd't. serv't. The SECRETARY OF WAR. D. PARKER, Adj't. & Insp. Gen❜l. Treasury Department, Second Auditor's Office, Dec. 28th 1820. SIR-In compliance with the resolution of the House of Representatives, of the 26th inst. I have the honor to transmit to you, herewith, a statement of the funds out of which the expenses of recruiting for this year have been paid. I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant. WM. LEE.." Hon. J. C. CALHOUN, Secretary of War, " STATEMENT exhibiting the funds out of which the expences of recruiting have been paid, during the year 1820 in obedience to a resolution of the House of Representatives, dated 26th December, 1820. BOUNTIES AND PREMIUMS. Balance unexpended in the hands of the Treasu 3,197,92 21,000,00 3,441,01 26,917,54 1,2120 : 35,364,56 EXPENSES OF RECRUITING, $91,133 03 Amount appropriated for the year 1820 34,125 Amount available by the Secretary of War for 2 the recruiting service of the year 1820, $125,258 03 EXPENDITURES. Amount of warrants issued by the Secretary of War 38,610 17 Treasury Department, Second Auditor's Office, 28th Dec. 1820. WILLIAM LEE. Note. When we say Robert Brent, late Paymaster General, refunded in 1820 $35,364,56, it ought not to be understood that he refunded that sum in money; he refunded it in settlement of account only; that is to say, a balance being due to him, for disbursements on account of subsistence, and being a debtor under the head of bounties and premiums, to a large amount; his account of subsistence was closed, by carrying a part of the balance, due by him on bounties and premiums, say $35,364,56, to his debit on that of subsistence, by which transaction, bounties and premiums received a credit on our books, while subsistence was debited." This statement, which the Secretary communicated to the House of Representatives by way of throwing light upon a subject of enquiry, is a most rare and singu lar Document. The Radicals were about as wise after this elucidation as they were before it, as the Secretary, no doubt, intended they should be. But a paper of this character, thus communicated to Congress, deserves a little more attention than it has received. As to the ba lance of $58,867 80 remaining on the 26th of December. 1820, nearly the whole of it would be expended when all the expenses of the recruiting service of that year should be paid. The bounties, premiums, and other expenses of recruiting 3,211 men, would amount, according to the estimate furnished by the War Department, to $118,116 63. The amount available by the Secretary of War for this service, as by Mr. Lee's statement, was $125, 358 03,-leaving a surplus of no more than 87,141 40. The funds out of which bounties and premiums were paid for 1820, consist of six items. The first an uuexpended balance in the hands of the Treasurer of $3,197 92. This balance is not mentioned in the Secretary's estimate, in which he asks $183,925 for recruiting 5000 men. Congress did not take it into consideration, or they would have appropriated a certain sum in addition to this balance, to recruit 1,500 men. The second is the sum of 21,000 dollars appropriated, and all that Congress intended should be expended, for bounties and premiums for the year 1820. As to the third, fourth, and fifth items, the Secretary could not suppose that any body should understand them. He might as well have informed Congress that 30,000 dollars and upwards had been refunded to the Treasurer, and received from certain persons, at sundry times, and in divers manners. As to the sixth item of $35,364 56, refunded by Robert Brent, it must have surprized those who knew that Mr. Brent died in September, 1819, utterty insolvent, and a defaulter to the Government to a very large amount. By a letter of the Comptroller of the Treasury of the 27th of November, 1820, it appears that a balance was due to the United States, from Robert Brent, late Paymaster General, on the books of the Third Auditor, of $40,911 18. Besides which there were other and much larger sums due from him to the United States; for, by a report of the Comptroller of the Treasury of the 27th December, 1822, it appears that he was a delinquent to the amount of $115,598 38, accruing out of advances made to him from the 18th of May, 1816, to June, 1819, reported for suit on the 4th of May, 1820. As the sixth item was involved in some obscurity, Mr. Lee adds an explanatory note, which Mr. Calhoun must have taken for a satisfactory elucidation of the subject, or he would not have made it a part of his Report. I have examined this explanatory note over and over, and never read any thing more ingeniously perplexed. Who would suppose that the magic force of a few entries in the books of the Second Auditor, by which not a cent was obtained from Mr. Brent. and which was not to diminish the general balance against him to the amount of a cent, could authorize the Secretary of War, or any other person, to draw $35,364 56 from any fund belonging to the United States? Robert Brent had expended more money upon the article of subsistence than had been put into his hands for that particular purpose, which he took from monies put into his hands to pay bounties and premiums;-upon both items of account, however, there was a large balance due from him to the United States. It is easy to understand how his subsistence account was balanced by charging it with $35,364 56 which he had taken from the monies in his hands to pay bounties and premiums, and that the balance on his account of bounties and premiums should be diminished by that amount. This might be a convenient mode of ascertaining the final balance due from him on both accounts, but could be of no other importance to him or to the United States, as they were to receive no money from him on either account, and surely were not expected to pay any. But whence came the money? Robert Brent refunded in "settlement of account only." This is not money: Yet the money was obtained from some quarter, for bounties and premiums cannot be paid in "settlement of account only." If this sum of $35,364 56, said to be refunded by Robert Brent, but which never was and never will be refuuded, was drawn from the Treasurer of the United States, as agent for the War Department, or from the treasury or any other fund belonging to the United States, after being charged to Robert Brent as if actually paid to him on account of his advances for subsistence, and credited to him as if actually refunded on account of an unexpended balance of money placed in his hands to pay bounties and premiums, and then applied to the recruiting service of the year 1820; if all this was done with obert Brent, while he was in his grave and knew nothing of the matter, it proves, at least, that the Secretary is very expert at raising the wind. In June, 1820, Robert Brent was indebted to the United States in the sum of $115,598 88. He was dead, and his estate utterly insolvent; and this money never has been, and never will be, refunded. An attempt to draw money from such a fund, thus sunk in the bottomless pit of the Paymaster's pocket, would formerly have been deemed as hopeless as the attempt of the philosopher of Laputa to extract sun beams from |