red in unanimously by the committee on
appropriations. It showed that certain irregularities had entered
into the management of the fund and that certain improper entries
had been made in the account, but that only a trifling loss had
resulted to the government therefrom.

I was before the committee and stated that I never had any knowledge
of any wrongdoing in the matter until it had been brought out by
the investigation. The report fairly and fully relieved me from
the false accusations made against me. It said: "Touching the
statements of Senator Sherman, that he had no knowledge of its
irregularities, etc., established by the evidence, no witness states
that Mr. Sherman knew that any funds of the treasury department
were ever used for his individual benefit or otherwise misapplied."

I could not have asked for a more favorable ending of the matter.

At the close of the examination the committee addressed to the head
of each department of Arthur's administration an inquiry whether
the laws then in force provided ample safeguards for the faithful
expenditure of its contingent appropriation, and each of them
replied that no change in existing law was necessary. The committee
concurred in the views of the heads of the departments, and suggested
that they keep a constant supervision over the acts of their
subordinates; that the storekeeper of the treasury department should
be required to give a bond, and that careful inventories of the
property of each department should be made, and that annual reports
of the expenditures from the contingent fund should be made by each
department at the commencement of each regular session. While this
investigation imposed a severe labor upon the committee on
appropriations, it had a beneficial effect in securing a more
careful control over the contingent expenses of the departments,
and it silenced the imputations and innuendoes aimed at me.

In regard to these accusations, I no doubt exhibited more resentment
and gave them more importance than they deserved. I felt that, as
Secretary of the Treasury, I had rendered the country valuable
service, that I had dealt with vast sums without receiving the
slightest benefit, and at the close was humiliated by charges of
petty larceny. If I had recalled the experience of Washington,
Hamilton, Jefferson, Jackson and Blaine, and many others, under
like accusations, I would have been content with answering as
Washington and Jackson did