The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1868-11-20

ministration Of John Quincy Adams, the annual
expenditures of which were about thirteen
millions q year.
Now, with peace establishment and a civil
war debt absorbing four hundred millions a
year, we say that General Grant has her
culean task Of genuine retrenchmeRt and
reform before him, inasmuch as in the col
lection Of this sum Of four hundred millions at
least hundred millions by frauds are lost to
the Treasury, while many millions are wasted
In its disbursement. But how is the new Presi-
dent to begin this work Of reform, when they
tell us that the laws are so defective as to
encourage frauds, and that no amendments can
be expected from Congress? We say, for
instance, that as the whiskey rings have grown
fat, powerful and insolent under the present
batch of revenue officials, the first duty of Pres
dent Grant will be to clear them all out, from
the Secretary Of the Treasury down, and to
put new men in their places, and to watch them
all as he watched every movement Of his
various armies and army detachments during
the war.
This, from his comprehensive experience as
the master of vast bodies of men actively EN-.
ployed and widely diffused, will be no difficult
task for Grant, though vastly too much for
johnson. In truth, the whiskey rings seem 80
far to have perplexed and befogged johnson
with their manifold tricks and complications
that he hardly knows whether Fullerton or
McCulloch, or Rollins or Buckley, or Court
ney, Fitch or Mrs. Stephens is to be trusted.
whiskey, though we are assured that with him
it is ''touch not, taste not, handle not the I'M
clean thing" 1t is enough, however, that the
whiskey rings have so confused him that he
knows not where to begin or what to do, and
so does nothing. Some of his apologists still
plead his want of power to remove even con-
fessed rogues, and that so the Tenure of
Office law ties him up. But he has still the
power of suspension, and If DESTROYS of a
thorough exposure of these whiskey frauds
he would surely suspend these corrupt whis-
key officials by the score, on the evidence at
hand, and challenge an Investigation by tho
Senate.
But as there appears to be no hope Of any
decisive action Of this sort from Mr.. Johnson,
we may assume that the work of ferreting out
and putting stop to these whiskey frauds,
tobacco frauds, and all the other frauds upon the
Treasury and honest taxpayers, will be trans
ferred in the bulk to General Grant. But still
this legacy from johnson will be but a bagatelle
compared with the legacy from Buchanan to
Lincoln. We know, too, that Grant is the
man for the work, and that where he has
task before him he does not hesitate in count
ing up the dangers Of pitching in, but
pitches in and fights his way through. The
opportunity will be before him, even with the
laws as they stand, of saving at least hundred
millions to the Treasury, now divided among
gangs and rings ofthieves and robbers, officials
and outside confederates, and all in conse-
quence of the imbecility Of the present admin.
istration. We look to General Grant to pounce
upon this opportunity la Fort Donelson, and
to give the confederate Treasury robbers,
great and small, no other alternative than
an unconditional surrender"