e it their support?

I have watched the operations of this Government with great interest
and care, and I have noticed that every approach toward making each
source of revenue or expenditure separate and independent of all
others, tended to the profit and advantage of the Government, and
increased the chances of securing honorable and honest agents to
transact its business. A marked instance of this will be found in the
administration of the affairs of the Post Office Department. And here
I cannot refrain from relating an anecdote which is strongly in
point, and which forms one of the pleasantest recollections of my own
connection with the administration of the General Government.

Upon a certain occasion I called my cabinet together. Sad complaints
had been made concerning the administration of several of the
Departments, and the press had not failed to predict heavy losses to
the Government through the dishonesty and the defalcations of its
agents. I determined that I would know what the facts were, and I
directed all the departments to furnish me, by a certain day, with a
correct and accurate list of all their defaulting employes, and on the
same day I summoned my cabinet to consider these reports. The lists
came in from the several Departments, and I assure the Conference that
they were formidable enough to give ample occasion for anxiety. But
the list from the Department of the Post Office was not forthcoming.
My friend, Governor WICKLIFFE, was at that time at the head of that
Department. The day of the cabinet meeting arrived. We were all
assembled but the Postmaster General. We waited for a long time for
him and for his report. At length he came, bringing his report with
him, but with the marks of great care and anxiety upon his brow. _He
had discovered a defalcation_ in his Department. He had been occupied
for a long time in tracing it out, but he had at length succeeded. He
came to announce to the President that the postmaster of a certain
"Cross Roads" in Kentucky had absconded, and defrauded the Government
out of the sum of _fifteen dollars_! and worst of all, his bail _had
run away with him_!!

This is only one of the many proofs which my own experience would
furnish of the propriety, if not the necessity of keeping each
Department of the Government by itself--of not connecting it with
others, and of making the agents of each Department responsible to
itself alone. Carry this idea into practice in all the