The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-09-30


nion proves to be correct. The increase OF
the revenue is the predicted consequence of
the reduction of the taxa reduction in which
General Grant had no agency, and for the
expected fruits of which he deserves no
praise. The unfairness of Mr.. Delano IN
contrasting several months of General Grants
administration with the corresponding months
of President Johnson's last year, will be ap-
parent when we recall a passage in the last
annual report of Commissioner Rollins VINO,
in accounting for the small revenue from
whisky for several months preceding the re-
duction of the tax, said that 1t was
owing to the fact that the reduction was
expected by the distillers, and that they
therefore left their whisky in the bonded
warehouses to take advantage OF the antlcl-
pated change in the law. They would nave
been fools to have taken their whisky out OF
bond and paid two dollars tax, when they
were expecting that Congress would soon
exact but small fraction of that rate. 1t
was inevitable that during the period oil sus-
pense and expectation, the revenue from
whisky should almost entirely cease by tne
bonding of the whole product OF the dlsCli-
leries on which any tax was meant to be pald'
And Mr.. Delano has the impudent etfrontery
to contrast those months of suspense ana
stoppage with the corresponding montns Oh
the following year, when the tax had Deen
settled at fifty cents General Grant musC
be in sore need of eulogy when 1t can be
found only in such pitiful sophistry.
Mr.. Delano says that the revenue is more
faithfully collected under General Grant than
it was under President Johnson We do not
doubt it. The reason is that President John-
son was not allowed to select his own officers.
The Tenure-of-Office law tied his hands ana
prevented the removal of Mr.. Lincolns ap-
pointees, depriving him of the power to pre-
vent the rascalities of revenue collectors
whom he did not select and could not con-
troll or cashier. The first thing General
Grant did when he became President was to
demand the repeal of the Tenure-of Office
law, declaring that he could not otherwise
collect the revenue. After struggle OF seve-
raj weeks between him and Congress, the law
was so modified as to give him control OF his
subordinates; and now he is absurdly praised
for excelling Mr.. johnson when Mr. Johnson
moved in fetters. If the tax on whisky had
remained at two dollars, and General Grant S
hands had been tied by the Tenure-of- Office
law. the tax would not have been any better
collected than it was under his predecessor
Mr.. Delano bestows preposterous praise on
General Grant because some of the expenses
of the Government have been reduced. Gene
raj Grant has had no more agency in the re-
ductions than the man in the moon. Alaska
was paid for last year; but he deserves no
commendation because that payment hap
pened to fall last year instead of this The
Freedmen's Bureau was abolished Just before
he came into Office; it is ridiculous to praise
him for the stoppage of this source of ex-
pense. The same remark will apply to the
cessation of military government in seven of
the ten revolted States. The extra bounties
to soldiers ceased just before his inaugura-
ton; in the preceding year they drained the
Treasury of nearly twenty-five million dollars.
The Pacific Road was just on the point of COM
pletion when his administration commenced,
stopping an increase of the public debt which
had been going on in the last years of his
predecessor. To make a merit for General
Grant of reductions Of expenses in which he
had not the slightest agency is absurd and
dishonest; but it was only by absurdity and
dishonesty that Commissioner Delano was able
to say anything that even ignorance could ac-
cept as an extenuation of President Grants
feebl eness and imbecility.