1883, were in relation to matters where the law made the expenditure imperative, and Congress, though asked to do so, had failed to appropriate the necessary funds.

Under the firm, just, honest, yet judicious and humane administration of the laws thus established, based upon the theory that tax-laws were devised to raise revenue, and not to oppress the tax-payer, or to harshly punish him for trivial or technical violations of the law, where no fraud was intended, a feeling of mutual confidence and respect between the larger tax-payers and the officers of the Government was developed, and an important moral aid was thus thrown on the side of the observance of the laws. But a most difficult task yet remained to be accomplished, viz: the suppression of the illicit manufacture and sale of whisky and tobacco in the mountain districts of the Southern States, by which not only was great loss inflicted upon the revenue, but whole communities were demoralized and kept in a constant condition of lawlessness and almost open insurrection against the laws of the United States. An embarrassing feature of the problem was, that the law-breakers had, to a considerable extent, the sympathy of the State officials, and others of high authority amongst them. In one year (1879) the Commissioner was called upon to report not fewer than one hundred and sixty-five officers of the United States, engaged in the revenue service, prosecuted in the State. courts for acts done in their official capacity. To break down this vicious and mistaken public sentiment, and to bring about a peaceable and orderly enforcement of the laws in all sections of the country alike, Gen. Raum concluded that the first requisite was to put down forcible resistance by superior force. He made requisition on the War Department for breech-loading arms of the most approved pattern, which were promptly supplied, and placed in the hands of the Collectors for use. The "squirrel

guns," and old-fashioned smooth-bore rifles and shotguns with which the "moonshiners" had been accustomed, with impunity, to pick off suspected revenue officers, from ambuscade, were thus met by the weapons of longer range and greater accuracy, in the hands of brave and determined men, with the law on their side; and a very few skirmishes sufficed to bring about a realizing sense of the changed order of things. Then the campaign was opened in earnest. The operations were carried on by well-organized forces, commanded by experienced ex-officers of both armies, carrying out, in some of the most disturbed districts, a combined and converging movement, from different States, planned and directed by the Commissioner himself. The struggle was protracted and desperate, but in the end the supremacy of the law was vindicated, and whole communities began to sue for terms of surrender. Then came into play a policy of most judicious leniency. After meetings had been held, addressed by United States Senators and members of Congress, in some of the infected districts, counseling obedience to the laws; after similar expressions of sentiment had been received in writing from the highest law officers of some of the States, accompanied by a promise not to attempt to further harrass the officers of the United States, arrested under State process for acts done in their official capacity, an agreement was entered into that if those who had been guilty of violations of the laws would surrender to the United States Courts within a given time, and plead guilty, the Government would ask that sentence should be suspended during good behavior, and that they should be discharged on their own recognizances. In many of the worst districts the illicit distillers availed themselves of this conditional amnesty by the hundreds. A wholesome revolution was thus effected in public sentiment; and it is a curious fact that some of the

counties which had previously been most notorious for "moonshine" outrages and violations of law, became subsequently the scene of temperance movements and religious revivals.

At the same time that these active coercive measures were being carried out to secure compliance with the laws, Gen. Raum was inaugurating other and more peaceful methods of breaking down the practice of illicit distilling. One of the most cogent arguments used by those who defended the practice was this, that it was the only way that the small farmers of those comparatively inaccessible mountain districts had of putting their surplus corn to profitable use. To meet this point, and to enable small distilleries, of the capacity suited to the requirements of the people, to be established, and carried on successfully, (if carried on they must be), and within the requirements of the law, the Commissioner recommended to Congress, and Congress adopted, a relaxation of the rules which were complained of as being impossible to be carried out in distilleries of such limited capacity.

There was no detail of his office with which Gen. Raum did not familiarize himself; and even the methods of gauging spirits were rendered more certainly accurate by a change in the plan of measurement and an improvement in the standard gauging rod devised by him.

The morale of the service throughout the country was still further improved by the promulgation by the Commissioner of a civil service order prohibiting a practice which had grown up in a number of districts, of collectors distributing their subordinate offices among their own and their wives' relations. Very strong pressure was brought to bear to break down this rule, but it was consistently maintained, with beneficial results which constantly became more apparent.

Whilst these improvements were being effected in the service at large, important changes and modifications were introduced in the department at Washington. The exercise of the immense powers conferred by law upon the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, in regard to the abatement and refunding of taxes, was wisely restricted by a regulation drawn by Gen. Raum, and approved by Acting Secretary McCormack, providing that ex parte affidavits should no longer be regarded as proof, but that evidence in regard to these claims must be taken on notice, with the opportunity given to the counsel for the United States to appear and cross-examine. Important recommendations were made as to the terms of official tenure, and the conditions which should govern appointments, promotions and removals; and, as far as the law allowed, these principles were put into practical operation in the Internal Revenue Bureau.

In 1882, the excess of revenue over the actual needs of the government, and the constant temptation thus presented to extravagance in appropriations, was forcibly brought to the attention of the Forty-seventh Congress by Commissioner Raum, and a plan of reduction of about forty million dollars upon certain objects of taxation was suggested, and was adopted by Congress with scarcely any modification.

Abuses in the administration of justice, in connection with internal revenue cases, resulting from the practice of compensating United States Marshals and District Attorneys by fees, early attracted the attention of Gen. Raum, and in his annual report, dated November, 1879, he exposed the evils inflicted by this system, and recommended that marshals and district attorneys should be paid fixed salaries. This recommendation was renewed in still more vigorous terms in subsequent reports, and has now been adopted by the Department of Justice, and

favorably reported upon by the appropriate committees of Congress. The passage of this measure by Congress would be a fitting cap-sheaf to the six and a half years administration of Gen. Raum, as Commissioner of Internal Revenue, and his efforts to correct abuses, to elevate the character of the service, and to bring it into harmonious relations with the tax-payers.

April 30, 1883, General Raum voluntarily resigned the office of Commissioner, to resume the practice of law.

General Raum was born at Golconda, Pope county, December 3, 1829; he was admitted to the bar in 1853, and practiced his profession throughout Southern Illinois.

CHAPTER LI.

WHISKY FRAUDS.

During the time the tax on whisky was $2.00 per gallon, the rules and regulations governing its collection were not so rigid as now, and great frauds were practiced all over the country. Many of the employees of the Government, in high and low places, were corrupted, and for a long time it was difficult to ferret out the frauds. Indeed the Government never fathomed the enormity of the conspiracy until after some of the leading conspirators turned State's evidence, which resulted in a complete overthrow of the whisky ring. In Illinois, the frauds were mainly committed in the first, Chicago, and the eighth, Springfield, districts. When the great exposure was made in the first district, it was apparent that many of the officers had been corrupted, and comparatively few were continued in