The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1868-12-16

Can he DO lt!-wlll he uo ~ =,
and epauletted sphinx" as some orlsh' 00p
perhead editor calls. Gen. GrantT Whae can
he do ifhe wiIl?-what will he do if he canY
The telegraph told us yesterday OF certain
eeeeptric South Sea Islanders, nobody KNOWS
who, dwelling somewhere in the misty ex-
papse of the Indian Ocean, nobody knows ex-
&C Is where, who killed and eat the master
and crew of the barque Martin Renney, and
that thirty six skulls were found in one of
their huts But justice, in the guise of a
British cruiser, speedily overlook these unre-
generate anthropophagi, and they were bonn
blrled into proper sense OF their aWiul
trausgressIons forthwith.
But the South Sea islanders DO not i've III
"the greatest, freest, most enlightened country
in the world" have no churches, schoo' houses
OIL town meetings,-no "snnrase' arc '"No
cent of operas, theatres anu Tue A'i"n''
Monthly, never heard OF GARRISON, PROFESSOR
Bereh or any of our philanthroplsts and re-
formers.-have not read What Answer
have no social science meetings or boards of
trade-no Professor Blot to instruct them in
the arts of a civilized cuisne-in short they are
wretched crew of naked savages, useful
chiefly in supplying necessary link for the
Darwinians 10 connecting man with the bab
DON.
That the American people do not eat roast
mariner is a fact that proves them higher than
the South Sea gentlemen in the scale of civil
lizatlon but not in that of morals, if morals be
regarded as relative to the degree Of enlighten-
ment. But things occur in America that are
as discreditable in our stage of progress as the
cannibai feast is to the inhabitants of the bonn
barded village. Just see here:
1t is acknowledged on all hands that the
most important source of internal revenue is
the gre at source of fraud, ard that not more
than half of the tax on distilled liquors is col
lected The rest of it is stolen, with the aid
and consent of government officers, and a good
? rtof it by them.
The Indian Bureau of the Government is so
corrupt and its agents such gigantic swindlers
that they keep as constantly embroiled in a
war with savages who undeniably haze right
on their side. The whole trouble arises from
the activity of government employees in steal
ing money.
The civil service is acknowledged 10 be per-
vaded by and to take its character from nest
OF thoroughly corrupt, venal, plundering
knaves, who have found their golden age in
the administration OF Andrew johnson. There
is corruption in the Treasury Department, in
the custom houses, everywhere.
So that when it IS rumored that over twenty
two hundred thousand dollars ia gold were
paid to get the Alaska appropriation bill
through, nobody concludes instantly that it
mast be false. There is not that antecedent
improbabllty in the case that there ought to
be among people who have upright public
servants. When it is rumored that the Whis-
key Ring is about TO Shear" the whiskey mar
ket, buy up immense quantities and then get
the tax put up to 50 again, it is thought likely
enough. For is not Whiskey King?
When Gen. Grant comes into power he will
find that his predecessor, whom we find eulo-
gized in some of the Democratic papers as
ian honest man"-his predecessor whose NOR
al standing is well indicated in the PROPOSE
tons of his last message-has left almost every
department of the government a prey TO tri-
umphant and glorified dishonesty The in
huence of the Executive has been so pen.cous
that its poison has infected the people them
selves and their representatives, so that, aban-
doning the path of iegitini ate enterprise, thou
sands have chosen to resort to speculative and
gaming devices for increasing TIER means
Now the question is, have we in Grant the
the hero that will clean out the Augean STA
bles? Will he attack and conquer all the
monstrous outgrowths of the last eight years
commotion? Will he, after strangliug the Ku,
Klux serpent, crush the Whiskey Ring and
all the other deadly enemies of the Republics
financial we'll being? Has he the courage?-
has the brains? The people hope SO and be-
le,e SO. If he answers their expectations he
shall get more glory than Apollo from his VIC
tory over Python, more than st. George from
hisstruggle with the dragon, Oh st. Dunstau
when he demoraIizei the Devil with his red
hot tougs.