Mr. HOWE. No, sir; not on this occasion. The facts stated in that letter were communi cated to me by this same gentleman some weeks since. They were communicated to me, as the Senfrom Maine has said, as presenting reasons why the 6th Auditor should not be confirmed in the nomination of the office that had been tendered to him. The Senfrom Maine asks, with considerable emphasis, why we did not oppose his confirmation. I will tell him very frankly why I did not. It was not because I doubted the truth of the statements contained in this communication; I have no manner of doubt of their truth; but I did not oppose his confirmation for these reasons: 1st, I advised the gentleman to communicate those facts to the Senfrom Maine and also to his colleague on the other side of the Chamber. I advised him to do so in order that he might ascertain what would be the influence of those facts upon their judgment; and I told him that if they, in spite of those facts, still recommended the confirmation of this gentleman he would undoubtedly be confirmed by the Senate; at all events, I should not feel at liberty to offer any opposition. I had another reason for not opposing him, and I stated that to him, and I will state it now to the Senate. It was that I did not feel at liberty to censure the 6th Auditor of the Treasury Dept very much for the conduct disclosed in that communication not that I did not believe he had discriminated in favor of his political friends; but we alaced the power in his hands to do that. I was opposed to doing it. I never believed that appropriation ought to be made to the Treas: ury Dept. I opposed it as far as I could oppose it; but the Senate and the House voted that money into the hands of the Secretary to be distributed as he judged proper. It was very proper for him to take the advice of the 6th Auditor. The 6th Auditor, I under stood, to be politically a Democrat. Now, when the question came up before the 6th Auditor between 2 clerks equally competent and equally faithful as to which should have $200, when it was impossible that both should have Iit, did not think it a very surprising thing that he should have given it to the Dem ocrat and not to the Republican. if I had been in his place I am extremely afraid I should have given it to the Republican and not to the Democrat, and I should not have felt very guilty in doing so, and I am not disposed to impute any great guilt to the 6th Auditor for doing the same thing. He never ought to have had that power in his hands but we gave it to him; we put it there; and f am willing to take my full share of the respon sibility of doing it. For these reasons. I did not offer any opposition to the confirmation of the 6th Auditor. Now, sir, that all has reference to a question which is not before the Senate. The question before the Senate is, whether we shall appropriate a certain sum of money, not to be distributed arbitrarily among the clerks in the Treasury Dept, but whether we shall appropriate a certain sum of money to enable the SecyTreasury to employ tem porary clerks, additional help not extra com: pensation to regular officers, but an additional sum of money to employ extra help from time to time. I do not see why that ought not to be done, why it must not be done. I am sor that that power is in the hands of an officer o whom I i.the opinion that I have of the SecyTreasury. I differ, as the Senfrom Massachusetts differs, from the Senfrom Maine in my estimate of the administration of the Present SecyTreasury. That he is corrupt, of course I do not say; but that he gives to the country a bad administration of the affairs of that Dept I think l know. Of course I do not hold myself responsible for his political opinions. Of course he is not responsible for mine. Of course I do not stand here to attack the honesty or sincerity of the opinions that he avows; and if he sincerely believes them he has just the same right to maintain them that I have to maintain mine. The Senfrom Maine, however, testifies to the country that his political opinions do not influence his administration of the affairs of that Dept. There are certain facts within my knowledge that lead me to exactly the opposite conclusion, and I feel bound to state them. The State of Wisconsin is entitled by the Constitution to 6 RePresentatives on the floor of the other House and 2 on this floor. It became known to us during the last session of this Congress that there was a difference of opinion, upon certain political questions betweenthe SecyTreasury and a majority of the RePresentatives from Wisconsin in this Congress; and we were given to distinctly understand, those of us rePresenting that State who differed from the SecyTreasury, that our advice was not wanted, and our wishes were not to be consulted in reference to appointments to be made through that Dept. I do not find any especial fault with the SecyTreasury for shutting his ears against our advice in reference to an appointment. I should not take his advice, and I suppose for the same reason. But why would he not take our advice? because we held to one theory of reconstruction, as it is called, and he held to another. There was a large body of people in the U.S. who held to precisely the theory of reconstruction that he did, and in that large body of men he might have found men of personal character and personal integrity to fill the employments in the gift of that Dept, and those employments are very numerous and very responsible. Those employments are charged with the labor of collecting from 300 to 350 million dollars of internalrevenue. He is called upon to select men to go right into every man's house, right into every business man's counting room, right on to their farms, right into their banks, and know the business of every man, as well as the man knows it himself. It is the most delicate and the most responsible duty that ever was devolved upon any official in the U.S.; and it is a duty that should only be confided to the most prudent, the most honest, and the most incor ruptible men we have in the country. Now, I do not say that the SecyTreasury might not have gone into the ranks of those men who held to his theory of reconstruction and found men of just as much personal integrity as he could have found on the other side; but it did not suit the purposes of the SecyTreasury to do that. The SecyTreasury seemed to think there was some necessity for employing, not men who held to his theory of reconstruction, but men who could be selected out of the ranks of the Republican party and who would subscribe to that theory of reconstruction. Now, then, that being the case, the patron. in his hands operated precisely as a bribe. fery dollar of it had the same effect as if so much money had been placed in his hands with which to buy up Republicans to support the opposition theory. If it was essential to have a man in any public employment who held to his peculiar opinions it was of no importance to the SecyTreasury whether he was a man who held them 2 years before or whether he was a man who attained to those opinions during the last summer; but the Secretary thought differently. Now, what the effect of that rule of appointment was in other States I cannot say, but I know, and I say here opo my official responsibility, that in the State of Wisconsin it lowered the character of that branch of the service and lowered it immensely. There were some men in our State, I am bound to say that, of good personal character who subscribed to the theory of reconstruction advocated by the SecyTreasury; but while there was one maroof that character who from conviction subscribed to it there were a great many men in different parts of the State who were willing to subscribe to it for the pay that was offered. And the consequence was that a large number of these employments were put into the hands of men who sacrificed their own personal character, if they ever had any, in order to get them. I do not believe that that was treating the public service right. I do not believe that it was treating it fairly. H fbeeelilebvoeuintdwatos astbautseintghetshee fpaucbtslicansdersvtiacete, athnids conclusion.