The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1869-03-20
GRANT AND THE OFFICES.

And the President has already incurred the
charge of nepotism from organs of the party
which elected him. Having selected a Der.
sonal friend or relative, it is not clear
which, for postmaster of Cincinnati, in place
of an efficient and popular incumbent, the
fact provoked the Cincinnati Commercial to
remind him of the semi-official announcement
that be would retain officers who had done
their duty in an exemplary manner, and then
the paper went ON to say
II we are to understand that President Grant
makes exceptions to all rules in regard to his per-
| sonsl friends and the friends of ms family we
have to observe that his list Of acquaiu is
perhaps. hardly sufficiently extensive 70 warrant
him In supposiDg that he can select from them the
best governing material in the country. We con.
Tess that we cannot regard it As an inaGspicious
symptom that the first change In an important
Office in this part of the State is the removal of an
officer OF recognized efficiency and the appoint
ment of u gentleman who has, there is no doubt.
many excellent qualities, but whose promotion
seems rather due TO the circumstance that he was
personal friend than to any endowment or expe-
Renee.
We have not tho slightest objection TO seeing
Mr.. Fouds In the service of his country in the
capacity Of postmaster, but he IL a resident of
CoviDgton and the postmaster in that town is
an OLD gentleman, and not able TO give much at
W tno OuCe, ana Wltndl IN comfortable
circumstances, we suggest TO the president that
he should remove Jesse r. Grant from the Gov
IDgton postofice, and appoint Thos. II. Foulds TO
that place, permitting @. w. Thomas to be post
master OF Cincinnati, while he is preferred for
that Office by those interested most directly and
largely In lis manage ment.
This looks dreadfully like railing at the
Lords Amounted" Clearly the paternal an
cestry of the Grantian dynasty is not alto
gether sacred in the eyes of some of those
who claim the honor of having created it,
But, really, we can not see why Republican
journal should regard as either novel or mon
strous the notion which President Grant
seems to have taken up, that all the official
emoluments of the country are his own to be
disposed Of if he thinks proper to the best
advantage of his circle of friends and relatives.
For how has the Republican party, or rather,
the Washington caucus which have represent
ed the party, acted with regard to the same
emoluments? They treated them as
their absolute property to be used solely for
the purpose of aggrandizing themselves and
their friends and expressing and disabling |
their enemies. But they went much further
Grants theory is very mitigated version of |
theirs. They laid claim to the whole country |
as belonging exclusively to them. They were
the saints, and the only inheritors of the |
land. They were the only truly loyal Ameri-
cans. All others were reprobates, and rebels,
and traitors. Under this plea, they justified
all manner of extortion, robbery, and tyranny.
The disloyal--snd all were disloyal who were
not embraced in their own sacred circle, all |
indeed: whom they chose to stigmatize as
such-had no rights which they were bound
to respect and to appropriate the goods of
the disloyal was simply to recover their own.
There are three ways in which President
Grant may look at the Offices in the executive
department of the government He may
lo6k at them as the spoils of the party which
elected him, to be disposed of and managed
with paramount view to the interests of the
party. He may look at them as in the nature !