"Next, Mr. Douglas says that five millions of the expenditures
of 1838 consisted of the payment of the French indemnity money
to its individual claimants. I have carefully examined the
public documents, and thereby find this statement to be wholly
untrue. Of the forty millions of dollars expended in 1838, I
am enabled to say positively that not one dollar consisted of
payments on the French indemnities. So much for that excuse.
"Next comes the post-office. He says that five millions were
expended during that year to sustain that department. By a
like examination of public documents, I find this also wholly
untrue. Of the so often mentioned forty millions, not one
dollar went to the post-office....
"I return to another of Mr. Douglas's excuses for the
expenditures of 1838, at the same time announcing the pleasing
intelligence that this is the last one. He says that
ten millions of that year's expenditure was a contingent
appropriation, to prosecute an anticipated war with Great
Britain on the Maine boundary question. Few words will settle
this. First, that the ten millions appropriated was not made
till 1839, and consequently could not have been expended in
1838; second, although it was appropriated, it has never been
expended at all.
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