The New York herald., 1869-05-14
Tie Third Month Of General Grants
Administrati0n-Whut is the Promise 2

Tue Third Month Of General Grants
Administration--What is the Promise
We are in the third month of General
Grants administration, and still there are no
visible signs in the heavens of the dawn
of the millennium. The Generals inaugural
was good thing. 1t gave general satisfac-
ton in reference to the Cabinet, and likewise
on economy, retrenchment, reform, an honest
payment of the national debt, the fifteenth
amendment and our foreign relations; but
Washburne, first choice as Secretary of State,
was riddle, and the general makeup of the
Cabinet, as 1t now stands, not only puzzles
the politicians, but is by all sorts of men ac-
cepted in the lump as mystery past finding
out. All that the politicians profess to know
of the Cabinet is that Fish in diplomacy is
disciple of Seward that Boutwell, is the in
strument Of a faction in Congress that Cox,
Cresswell and Hoar are mere political make
weights that General Rawlins, as Secretary
of War, is only the recording clerk Of General
Sherman, and that good old Mr. Borie, in the
Navy, is but the tender to Admiral Porter.
All accounts concur in extolling the piety,
gentleness and amiability of the venerable
Borie, and how, after spending portion of
the week in Washington, under Porter's in
structions, he leaves on Saturday to spend his
Sunday in the more genial Sabbath day at
mosphere of Philadelphia.
The Cabinet, taking all such criticisms with
a liberal sprinkling of salt, might be improved
by reconstruction for, as it is, in the lump,
we have no promise of great things
in any special department. Nor are
there any hopeful signs of retrench-
ment and reform in the general division of the
spoils. What with his impediments of the
House and the Senate and the ravenous out
side crowd of Office vultures and the Tenure
of Office law, here was tough job. General
Grant, however, plunged into this jungle of
the spoils as he plunged into the jungle of the
Wilderness, expecting hard knocks, but re-
solved to get through. He has got through;
but the groans of the wounded are painful to
hear and through the rank and file of the re-
publican camps there are weeping and wailing
and gnashing of teeth. To change the figure,
this scramble for the spoils has been most
disgraceful and demoralizing spectacle and
the prevailing influences at headquarters do
not promise much in the way of retrenchment
and reform. The evils here brought to light
may lie in the established and pernicious sys-
TEN Of personal rewards for party services, but
still these evils, since General Grants inaugu-
ration, have been developed more alarmingly
than ever before; for never before has there
been in this country such an exhibition of i'm
pudence, rapacity and shameless wranglng
over the public plunder.
The results were inevitable. IL Is simply
impossible to give general satisfaction in par
ceiling out the plunder when the office seekers
compared with the Offices are as ten to one.
Hence the prevailing hue and cry among the
republican journals over the stupid appoint
ments Of this administration, its ingratitude
to its friends and its reckless disregard Of the
claims of the unucky beggars, hat in hand,
turned empty away. They have become even
scandalous in their accusations; for they say
that the favors of the administration are bought
and sold, that gifts of houses and lots, and
horses and carriages, and books and
hats, and boots and shoes find cordial wei
come at headquarters and these accusers
ask us in derision, what can you expect of an
administration which invites approaches that
we're repulsed even by Johu Tyler, Fillmore
and Andy Johnson
In relation to all such charges we hold that
custom gives an excuse TO General Grant, ant
that the beggarly and contemplate stingines'
of the government to its faithful servants whose
services cannot be measured by dollars and
cents is an excuse for the custom of private sub
scriptions and individual offerings In such
cases. The British government rewarded
Wellington in princely gifts Of honors, money
and rich estates, while for services intellectually
greater and more important than those of the
great Duke, General Grant poor man. re-