The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-11-11

McCull0ch, Seward, and Evarts, who unite in
preventing any action from being taken upon
his report. Thus we find at every step OBJ
structions to the investigation OF the frauds
that SO notoriously exist in the Revenue De-
partment. They meet US at every turn--in
the Cabinet, in the Departments and in the
courts. Now it is Cabinet officer, now the
head OF department, now the head of
bureau, and now district attorney, Judge,
or marshal, who rises up as barrier be-
tween the criminals and the law. II is a
significant fact too, that at the very moment
a disclosure of rasoalty Is threatened the
Seward organs open their batteries against the
parties supposed to be instrumental in the
movement, and the Congressional committee,
which has been for months lying dormant,
reappears upon the scene and becomes sud
denly active in the business of investigation.
But while every thing is thus muddled and
confused, the people bear in mind these lead
ing faets:--First, that enormous frauds actu-
ally exist in the Revenue Department; SEQ
oudly that honest officials would chserf1lly
avail themselves of any means, regular or
irregular, authorized or unauthorized to dis
cover the offenders: and, thirdly, that there is
an evident inconsistency in allowing the par
ties accused OF completely in these frauds to
have anything whatever to do with the pro-
secution OF an investigation into the fact
whether such frauds really exist.
President Johnson 10 the only man who now
has it in his power to cut the Gordian knot
and set all these matters right 1t is useless
for him to appeal to his Cabinet while three
of its members are resolved to prevent any
recognition of Judge Fullerton's charges.
While in some movements he is bound to con-
suit his Cabinet, he can In others act indepen-
IDENTIFY OF their cooperation or advice. The
Tenure Of Office law gives him the power to
suspend, If not to remove, certain officers of
the Government. Enough has bsen brought
1.1. g.. L..
five or six of the leading officials implicated in
Judge Fullerton's charges. Iudesd, if he
suffers them to remain in Office he defeats the
investigation at once; for it is direGted against
them, and they are the parties officially en-
powered to conduct it. If he will remove
them out of the way fair and thorough in
vestigation can be made, but not otherwise.
We call upon President Johnson, therefore,
to throw himself back upon his honest inn
pulses, and to rid his administration in its
last hours of the stigma that rests upon it
through the corruption with which it is
surrounded. The world which gives him
credit for sufficient courage, will be disposed
to question his inclination to purify the Gov
eminent unless he forces thorough investi-
CATION into the frauds now brought distinctly
to his notice. If he should talter or refuse to
suspend all suspected officials, high and low,
until the charges against them have been fully
tried and disposed OF, he will seriously damage
his own reputation, but viii afford little pro-
| lection to the parties he screens from justice.
| The work he hesitates to undertake his sue
cessor will thoroughly perform. General Grant
will, beyond doubt, make complete cleaning
out of the Revenue Department from top to
bottom as soon as he succeeds to Office. The
new administration will rise in the light of
purity and honor, if the present one should
set in the darkness of corruption and disgrace.
1t is for Andrew Joanson to say whether such
a contrast shall live on the page of history, or
whether he will yet do an act that will fasten
the notorious corruptions of his administra-
tion upon his radical enemies, and leave his
own reputation for honesty and integrity un-
! tarnished.