[Footnote 145: Instructions to Hon. Caleb Cushing, commissioner to China
and envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to the Court of
China, etc.]
WASHINGTON, _February 21, 1845_.
_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
In compliance with your resolution of the 23d January last, asking
information "if any, and what, officers of the United States have been
guilty of embezzlement of public money since the 19th August, 1841, and,
further, whether such officers have been criminally prosecuted for such
embezzlement, and, if not, that the reasons why they have not been
so prosecuted be communicated," I herewith transmit letters from
the Secretaries of the Treasury, War, and Navy Departments and the
Postmaster-General, and from various heads of bureaus, from which it
will be seen that no case of embezzlement by any person holding office
under the Government is known to have occurred since the 19th August,
1841, unless exceptions are to be found in the cases of the postmaster
at Tompkinsville, Ky., who was instantly removed from office, and all
papers necessary for his prosecution were transmitted to the United
States district attorney, and John Flanagan, superintendent of lead
mines of the Upper Mississippi, who was also removed, and whose place of
residence, as will be seen by the letter of the head of the Ordnance
Bureau, has been, and still is, unknown.