The collector of the port, in speaking of the "ten thousand applications," and remarking that the urgency for appointments came from men all over the country, added, "the persons for whom it is made bear their proportion of the responsibility for the character of the whole force."
The surveyor had said:
"I had, within the last two weeks, a letter, from a gentleman holding a high official position, in regard to the appointment of an officer whom he knows had been dropped three times from the service for cause. He has also been to see me about him, and the last time he came he admitted to me that he had been engaged in defrauding the revenue; and yet he writes me calling my attention to the case, and requesting his appointment."
The collector, in his testimony before the commission, said that "the larger number of complaints probably come from the surveyor of the port," and, on being asked their character, said:
"Some are for inefficiency, some are for neglect of duty, some for inebriety, and some for improper conduct in various ways; some for want of integrity, and some for accepting bribes."
The commission further stated:
"The investigation showed that ignorance and incapacity on the part of the employees were not confined to the surveyor's department, but were found in other branches of the service—creating delays and mistakes, imperiling the safety of the revenues and the interests of importers, and bringing the service into reproach. It was intimated by chiefs of departments that men were sent to them without brains enough to do the work, and that some of those appointed to perform the delicate duties of the appraiser's office, requiring the special qualities of an expert, were better fitted to hoe and to plow. Some employees were incapacitated by age, some by ignorance, some by carelessness and indifference; and parties thus unfitted have been appointed, not to perform routine duties distinctly marked, but to exercise a discretion in questions demanding intelligence and integrity, and involving a large amount of revenue.
"The evidence shows a degree and extent of carelessness which we think should not be permitted to continue. This point was illustrated to some degree by the testimony of the chiefs of the appraiser's department, the important duties of which would certainly justify a reasonable exactness. The invoices, which are recorded in that office, and which are sent out to the different divisions to be passed upon and then returned to the chief clerk, are found to exhibit, on their return, errors on the part of the several divisions —according to one witness, nearly eight hundred errors a month— although the number by the appraiser was estimated at a lesser figure. A part of these errors may be assigned to a difference of opinion as to the classification of the goods; but fully one-half are attributed to carelessness. At the naval office it was stated that the balance in favor of the government, of the many and large errors which they discover in the customhouse accounts of the liquidation of vessels and statements of refund, amounts to about a million and a half of dollars per annum."
The commission entered into a full statement and details as to irregularities, inefficiency and neglect of duties in different departments of the customhouse, and recommended various measures of reform, both in the laws regulating the customs service and its actual administration. A copy of this report was immediately sent to Collector Arthur and Naval Officer Cornell, with instructions to recommend to me the number of each grade for each branch of his office, with various details designated by me, and to carry into execution the general recommendations of the commission. I added:
"You will please take your own way, by committee of your officers or otherwise, to fix the number of each grade requisite to conduct the business of your office, and make report as early as practicable."