The Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1855-1875, 1867-10-17
Debauchina the Revenue.

Debauchins the Revenue.
II is well said that drunken Repub-
lican makes the best Of Democrats but
it is not upon this ground that wo i'm
pute the failures Of the present Admin
istration to Democracy. That Admin
istration was and is just as much n
Republican as Gen. Lee was q Unionist
when he turned traitor. We assert that
the recklessness and fraud which unite
to reduce and disgrace the collection of
our Whisky Revenue is the very con-
sequence of that general unsoberness
which ripples out from Washington to
the utmost circle of our finances and
revenue. The front of the offending is
Mr.. Johnson's own unsteady political
bearing. The attitude Of the Govern
nent is in all respects shaky enough,
and no wonder; for We have seen it in
hundred sinister ways, drinking in
" the wine of the wrath of the Rebell-
ion. So it does not stand straight be-
fore the people, nor will its siHews bear
it stif1y up to do the work which it
privately proposes. It would not be
unjust to refer the general danger of its
policy to the typsiication (if we may be
allowed the word (which the President
and his attorneys have carried into the
question of reconstruction. How can
We expect to rebuild safe house with
insane architects, and how hope that an
Administration not equal even to its du-
ties OF clerkship can re create States
and harmonic peoples ?-can make rev.
enue while it mars reconstruction ? A
Government which has its agencies de-
bauched at the North will not act in
sober faith at the South for every pen
ny's worth of influence gained at the
South it loses a pound of the nations
money at the North. We do not need
to charge it more particularly. or more
The Administration has
been drinking from the lees of the old
Bourbonism which, we thought, had end
ed when Mr.. James Buchanan went out
of Office. Politically speaking, it is on
a long bender, and no wonder if it ends
in the usual catastrophe.
The whisky frauds are still before the
public a scandal of magnitude Not be-
cause one collector is charged with
swindling, but because the whole of our
revenue collection is a defaulter to the
tune of a hundred millions and moro do
we now loudly. complain of the Execu-
tive. What can he be doing that in
field which can be made to yield so
abundantly its crops are SO beggarlyf ?
What has taken hold OF our financial
that the revenue shows a
virtual deficit Of sum large enough to
pay the interest upon the National Debt?
What ails the palms or the brains of
since whisky is SO easy
swindler, and industry so heavy u tax
payer. It is proved that we can collect
our fair revenue from whisky, greatly to
tho relief of certain more reputable
subjects of taxation? On whom. then,
rests the blame7 Here ise the colossal
deficit of hundreds of millions-too vast
to be charged upon few petty agents.
We earnestly charge it, therefore, to the
geneal decentralization of their chief
employers at Washington--a demoraff-
zation not more evident in the deficiency
Of ideas and scruple manifested in Ex-
ecutive dealings with the question of
than in the corruption
which bloats our Revenue System
One hundred millions or more, uncol-
lected, is thus the price which we must
pay for an Executive spree into recon-
struction. We are not surprised that
with equal hardihood Mr.. Johnson's
policy removes Sheridan at the South,
and nullifies an equivalent, one hundred
millions at the North. Can we trust the
Administration with either of those
great duties-Reconstruct or Reve-
nue-since at North or South it alike
fails to maintain its legs !? We plainly
see that the devil of Democracy long
ago entered into it, and is now rapidly
running down hill.-N. Y. Tribune.
During the long French war, as two
4 lol;o. ;~