The Shasta courier. [volume] (Shasta, Calif.) 1852-1872, 1853-07-30

|
Progress of Public Plumber
| II is usual with us Americans Especially on
4th of July occasions,) to look back upon the
days of Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Ham
cock and Adams with peculiar complacency.
We are lost III admiration of their sterling pa
triotism, noble disinterestedness and unbending
integrity. TO these commanding virtues we are
accustomed to ascribe the great deeds of the
:" Times that tried mems souls In them we
see the cause OF our success in the arduous and
protracted struggle for liberty and in firmly Sc
curing that lnestimable blessing by the organi-
cation and triumphant operation of system of
Government, III which the people are less re-
strained. and the laws more efficient in protect
ing the poor and weak against the rich and
| strong. than in any other upon earth. Yet we
never stop to compare those times with the pre-
sept-we do not notice the wide DETECTION from
the path OF rectitude, so plainly marked the con-
duct OF many OF the politicians and public men
OF the present day.
| What kind of figure would Galphin (or his
representatives. and Gardiner have made DUR
ing Washington's administration What ire
mendous excitement would have been produced
throughout the nationl What monster meetings
would have been held What indignant and
scathing resolutions would have been passed +?
| How many pages of our national history would
be occupied in relating with accurate minute
ness the details of schemes IN which government
| was swinded out of a million of dollars
Nevertheless, one member of the cabinet, in
opposition to unbroken series of precedents,
from the organization Of the government, and in
opposition to the opinion OF eminent official
counsel, gives legal and official advice authoriz-
| ing another member of the same cabinet to pay
| to their colleague some three or four hundred
thousand; while in the less elevated walks OF
life, travelling tooh-plugger manufactures from
1 Il.
lion of dollars, embracing within the outlines of
his nefarous scheme enough of perjury and ter
pitude to mantle a whole people with worse
than Punlc reputation. and yet there is not rip
pie perceptible in the ocean of public opinion.
Indeed such things have become so common and
OF SO little interest, that the newspapers z>lish
us with no account of them. 1t is with difcu\v
that we can ascertain the facts constituting thes\
magnificent plans OF public plumber. Occasion
ally tie word :. Gal phanism,'' or " the
Gardiner trial is still progressing in the col
umns OF newspaper; but we may search those
columns in vain for ineligible explanation of
the affairs, to which these terms are supposed to
relate and still more certainly would we fail to
find comprehensive history of those infamous
transactions, expressed in the language of an
honest Indignation, and accompanied with hearty
and abundant maledictions, as well upon the
perpetrators of the villainies, the unparalleled
stupidity or culpable negligence of the officials
and dignitarles permitting their success. In
fact the people have heard and seen so much
of such things, that they have grown careless of
their occurrence-they take SO little interest in
their narration that it is worth an Editors
while to publish them. The gyrations of an
itinerant danscuse the speech of a demagogue, or
the g discovery OF new diggings," are themes far
more likely to attract public attention than the
actions of the Indian Commissioners in their
pretended disbursement of eight hundred thou
sand dollars, without the shadow of authority,
and for an alleged purpose VIGOROUSLY silly and
supremacy absurd or the sale OF Mare Island
to the government for some eighty thousand dol
lars by party having scarcely a squatters title,
or the story of an ex-Collector of San Francisco,
extracting from the public crib some three hun
bred thousand, (more probably a Million and
that the Grand Jury of Federal Court have
found an Indictment against him therefore.
1t would be too harsh to designate these dif-
ferent distractions stealings, yet stealing is
too mild term it does not express the dam
ming features of the crime.
The man who looks upon and values his Off
cal station. not atfording him the means of
providing for the comforts Of those who are de-
pendent upon him, and of assisting the admins
tratlon who gave 1t to him, in the execution of its
policy and OF contributing his mite to the mental
Improvement and moral elevation of his fellows
but prizes 1t simply because it affords him in.
creased facilities for public plunder is incom-
parably lower in the scale of moral degradation
than the comon felon.
The one yields to a want that is great or an
ASSOCIATION and influence that is irresistible
while the intrinsic baseness of the other is so
deep and comprehensive as to impel him to be-
tray those who trust him, to give the lie to
those who have recommended his fidelity and
integrity, and adding ingraitude and treachery
theft, forces himself from social and political
distinction into that gulf of infamy into which
Judas and Arnold have gone before him.
Another ex-collector, we are told has "sus-
pended account - of a half million or a million
and he. by late report had gone to Eprope-to
spend 1t forsooth-to drink wine with English
Lords, and surpass even them in princely mag
nihcence. Suspended account" 2 merely on
account of monies taken without the authority
of law. OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES all.
Indeed we are a nation of Progress We are
progressing downward with fearful rapditv.
There was time, and it has not been long
since, when, if the clerk Of dry goods store,
the cashier of bank, or the receiver of a west
ern land office could not make his books balance
by few thousand his name was on every
tongue, his defalcation the topic of every
circle. the newspapers were filled with the par
ticulars, and were loud in their denunciatons of
the man and the act Yet now men, not obscure
and without abilities. but men of talent. emin-
ent in society and politics, default by millions
instead of thousands. and it is scarcely noticed
and if spoken of at all. it is touched most deli
cately, as If II Were an unavoidable misfortune
rather than a stupenduous crime
Where is this to end 1t has been our GOOD
fortune heretofore 10 have been blessed with
Chief Magistrates of unquestionable integrity,