The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-09-23
Republican ResponsIbiIity for Omo,al
Corruption.

settled then as it isto-day.
Republican ResponsIbIIIty for Omo,aI
Corruption.
From me ~ y. World.
1t would be of great service to the political
education of the people, if they could be made
to understand two or three simple, central
ideas in the science of government. It is the
chief function of government to protect its
subjects against injustice; first, against the
injustice of other organized political communi-
ties, or, in other words against foreign aggres-
sion; secondly, against the rapacity and bad
passions of members of the same community.
Ot these latter, crimes of fraud require more
constant vigilance than crimes of violence, as
thefe are thousands of rascals who will cheat
for every ruflian who would main or murder
The prevention of fraud, therefore, is the chief
burden OF the ordinary duties of government:
and as government is administered by human
beings OF like passions with the rest and
greater opportunities for knavery, protection
against Their rapacity is the principal end of
political evertion. In free government this
protection is attainable only through the
agency OF parties. Political parties have an
adequate motive to watch and expose each
other, and 1t Is only by such mutual arraign-
ments at the bar of public opinion that the
administration can be maintained in that de-
gree OF purity which human affairs admit of
II IS only by holding the party in mower
responsible for the malieasance of its members
that the community can be protected
On TINS righteous principle, the Republican
party is responsible for the enormous and
astounding corruption which pervades all de-
partments of administration but which. at the
present moment is most conspicuously ex-
hlblted IN the collection of the internal reve-
nue.. The Democratic party is obviously not
responsible, since none of its members are in
official positions, and it has no power to turn
out any corrupt officer, except by the dilatorv
method of carrying the elections.
1t cannot with any justice be pleaded in ex-
tenuatlon of Republican culpability that the
legislative and executive departments do not
cooperate. The Republican party elected
both, and are as responsible for the conduct
of one as for that of the other. Moreover. the
nominations of the President go for nothing
till confirmed by the Senate, which makes the
Republican Senate equally answerabls with
the Republican President for incapable or cor
rupt officers. That corruption exists on the
most gigantic scale is undeniable: the whisky
frauds that are every day coming to light shut
ting the mouths OF all gainsayers. The Repub-
lican party must bear the full blame of all this
rottenness. 1t is no business of its opponents
to be very exact in apnortioning their respect
i've shares to Congress and the Executive It
1t is asserted by one of the Republican organs
the Iribune-that the Government is losing
two hundred million dollars year by the
whisky frauds alone; and what the Govern
ment thus loses is taken ont of the pockets of
the people to swell the dishonest gains of the
dlstillers and the revenue officers who connive
at their rascality. An administration under
which such injustice is perpetrated cannot be
saved from public odium by reciprocation of
invectiveS between the resident and Con-
gress. These two branches of the Govern
nnr1t oVn aINcy 10 ;,,,,
and the party which elected them is respon-
sible as a unit, for system which, instead of
protecting the people, is itself the chief engine
OF their robbery and oppression.
1t cannot be denied that part of the blame
belongs to Congress. We do not complain
that the whisky tax is high; it ought to be
high. The tax on distilled spirits is a chief
source of revenue in other Governments, and
there is no reason why it should not be in
ours. But when Congress imposed so high a
tax as two dollars a gallon on whisky, it
should have strengthened, in every practi-
cable way, the machinery for its collection.
The cost of manufacturing whisky is not more
than forty cents gallon; two dollars is there
fore tax of FIVE hundred per cent. A duty of
thirty per cent. on imported goods is high
enough to encourage smugglers, and it should
have been foreseen that duty fifteen times
as high would hold out a powerful tempta-
tiOn to illicit dstillatiOn. We love to be
ingenious, and must concede that while en-
gagged in framing the revenue laws, Congress
seemed not wholly unmindful of its duty. But
it acted (to borrow dairyman's simile) like
cow which gives good pailful of milk and
then lifts her foot and kicks it over. The
fanatical zealotry of Congress on the recon-
struction question impelled it to risk the pub
lie revenue for the sake of spiting the Presi-
dent. By passing the Tenure of Office bill,
and taking from him the power of removal, it
showed how recklessly it was willing to ieo-
Pard the revenue to crafty party passions.
we nave indeed no evidence that matters
would be any better if the President could
promptly remove every officer in the revenue
service; the power signifies little where there
is no disposition to use it, But in the hands
OF vigorous and faithful Executive, the power
OF summary dismissal would be a capital safe
guard against frauds. Instead of waiting for
their actual perpetraton, he could in many
cases prevent them. There may be hun
dreds OF cases where doubts are entertained
OF the honesty of officers against whom
there would be no sufficient grounds for legal
proceedings. The power of removal at the
pleasure OF the Executive meets all such cases.
III winch an ounce Of prevention is worth a
pound OF cure; as well as all the cases in which
the slackpess of an indoent disposition in
spires the efficiency of the officer, but yet
affords no tangible ground for his removal on
criminal charges or the evidence of trans pired
facts. With the high internal taxes imposed
Dy congress there was q necessity for increas-
ing, ii possible, the facilities for holding the
civil officers Of the Government to a prompt
nl..,