The Plymouth weekly Democrat. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1860-1869, 1869-04-01
The Grant Gift Enterprise.


Shortly after General Grants election
70 the Presidency, and Immediately after
his brief visit to this city, last November,
the Citizen felt forced to allude to what
was then deemed delicate matter, to wit,
the Generals reputation as one of the
readiest of receivers. We recounted how
soon after the close of the war, certain
gentlemen in this city subscribed and pre-
scented to him the handsome sum OF $780,
900 in L nited States securities; how friends
had bought, furnished, and stocked house
for him in Washington; how other friends
had bought house for him in Galena;
how still other friends had purchased and
presented yet another completely fur
nished house in Philadelphia; and how
Grant had been the recipient of libraries,
pictures, horses, wines, cigars, dogs, and
pretty much everything else worth Offering
or bestowing-all Of which had been free
ly poured in upon the General and as free
ly absorbed, till it had come to be under
stood throughout the country that Grant
was ready to take almost anything except
advice. The "gifts" which fall to a few
men by nature, or come by education, in
Grants case have been compensated in
great measure by the generosity of his
friends.
We have today the scandal Of Presi-
dent sitting in the White House, not only
as a general receiver of his " old friends"
but as the pleased recipient of watever
these old friends" or new aCquainatances
may bring III the way of gifts, from q bank
check to new pair of boots. The Presi-
dents "receI lions" have strangely literal
meaning. The daily levecs at the Execu-
tive Mansion are like the Sunday gather
ings in the Marshalsea, when the father
of that institution, the elder Dorrit, re-
ceived the testimonials" of his admirers.
But to this scandal must be added the ma
tiOnal disgrace of the yet more shameful
spectacle of daily distribution of public
offices in actual return for fayo-s received
Grant did not hesitate to unblushingly
write to Mr. Washburne that he honored
him for services rendered in times past to
Grant individually" 1t is notorious low
that Borie, who was appointed Secretary
of the Navy, was generous contributor
to the subscription which bought the
Grant house in Philadelphia, and, so far
as the public knows, Borie is noted for
nothing else, AMI has no other claim
or qualification for his new Office.
II is equally notorious that another
man in the new Cabinet was the
giver of a fine library to General
Grant, and beyond this claim the man is
so little known, even TO his own party,
that his party papers have not yet decid-
ed whether his name is Ebenezer Rock
well, or Samuel TOmpkins, or something
else. Besides such direct returns for SUBJ
stantlal gifts, Grant is comforting favors
right and left, post-office here, collec-
tOrship there, an assessorship elsewhere,
upon people whose only qualifications, IS
confessed by Grant himself, are that they
are " old friends" who have given some
thing to Grant, or have rendered some
heretofore ,unrequited favor. Under or
binary circumstances it might be crafty
ing to see the great beneficiary returning
something to his old benefactors, especial
ly if be paid his old debts from his own
pOckets-but Grant is President of the
United States, and the whole nation has
sense of shame in seeing public places
prostitufed and the public treasury picked
for the sake of paying off the personal OBJ
legations of the President, or of furnishing
the near or remote relations of the Grant
and Dent families with easy means of get
ting their living ut he expense of tax-pay
ers. No such disgraceful nepotism as dis
tinguishes the first fortnight of the new
administration has heretofore been seen
in all the combined administrations since
the establishment of the Republic.
The new President may be pachyder
matOus even to the sharp prods of his
own party, but it is to be hoped that the
old friends" the old subscribers, and the
relatives of the Presidents family are few
in number and will soon be paid off in
full for their friendship, services, presents
and relationship. We implore the Presi-
dent, however, for the sake of his posi-
ton, if not for his own sake, to now close
the gift enterprise business so far as it may
concern new applicants who may bring
a pair of boots in the expectation of car
rying away cOnsulship. Let the barter
shop be shut and the executive Office be
opened for the transaction of pu' c bust
ness in preference to private trad. ---Neo
York Citizen, Mdrch 90