All  the  provisions  of  law  upon  the  subject  show  that  the  govemmrat  seAs
to  obtain  its  army  supplies  at  the  lowest  rates.  All  possible  precautions  ogain-'t
collusion  and  unfair  dealing  have  been  taken  by  the  regnlatione  controlling  gov-
ernment contracts.  Competition  is  invited,  through  pnblic  advertiseroeiita,  that
are  never  dispensed  with,  except  under  the  pressure  of  emergencies  which  it  \i
not  pretended  existed  in  the  cases  now  nnder  consideration.  The  policy  thai
seeks  to  afford  to  those  who  have  supplies  to  furnish  an  opportunity  of  deaUi^
face  to  face  with  the  government  is  nnmistokably  indicated  in  the  acta  of  Con-
gress and  in  the  usages  of  administration  under  them.  The  abandonment  of
the  system  of  advertising,  and  the  creation  of  a  claas  of  persons  known  in  oidi-
nary  parlance  as  "  middle  men,"  to  whom  all  salea  for  the  government,  and  Iroiii
whom  all  purchases  tor  it,  should  be  mode,  if  not  an  original  device  with  Qnar-
tennai>ter  McKiustry,  woa  certainly  pushed  by  him  to  an  extent  which  haf  na
parallel  in  the  history  of  official  delinquencies  as  connected  with  the  militaiy
service  of  the  country.  This  system,  alike  fatal  to  the  pecuniary  interesia  >A
the  government  and  the  morality  of  the  service,  was  not  confined  to  tent*,  bnl
extended  to  every  portion  of  the  field  of  army  supplies  which  was  sufficiently
fruitful  to  attract  the  avarice  of  this  class  of  men.  Honest  mechanics  who  had
tents  for  sale,  merchants  who  had  supplies  which  the  government  needed,  and
men  from  the  country  offering  horses  and  mules,  were  turned  from  the  qowWT'
master's  office  without  a  conference,  and  driven  down  into  the  meebca  of  the
"middle  men,"  to  become,  in  common  with  tho  government,  a  pfey  to  ibeir
rapacity.  WJiether  this  system  was  the  fruit  of  official  indolence  or  connptini.
