The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-11-19
THE 1NDEoENC1Es OF POLITICS.

FROM ths ~. r. ITt0ttne.
We value highly vigorous Opposition In
a Tree country the best administration is inn
proved, the worst is made more tolerable. by
pungent, fearless unsparing criticism. 4
good ruler or minister will sometimes err.
and stern, watchful, merciless antagonism,
whether 1t address the public originally
through parliamentary forum or directly
through editorial animadversion. will often
enable and encourage it to retrace its false
steps before they become irreversible. Asa
general rule, falsehoods and groundless ca
lumnies injure their authors more than their
subjects; since the public, having detected an
assallant In one wanton slander, arc slow to
give credit to his subsequent accusations
Hence, we contemplate with patience and
philosophy journalistic effort to damage an
administration by the clumsy, coarse expedi-
ent of throwing infinite mud, in the expecta-
ton that some portion of it can hardly fail to
stick, or at least to stain.
The WoT(d evidently believes that it COM
mends itself to its own party by the extraor-
dlnary grossness and persistency of its impu-
tatlons on the President of the United States.
Perhaps 1t does. We are no judges of the
Iankness OF that partys appetite for abuse;
but, Judging from what it has swallowed
without protest, of sneer and iibe. and scoff.
and scurrility, aimed at the dead Lincoln, it
cannot be fastidlous- less sdueamish-
with regard to the living Grant. Yet it does
seem to us that the World overdoes its work
in uttering column after column of such in
vective as the followlng:-
"THE CUSTOM HOUSE FRAuDs.-We do not pro-
pose 10 defogae in the least from the special dis
honesty of the persons especially Implicated by the
disclosures OF the Custom House frauds Neither
do we wish to avert the blame which the present
administration has justly incurred for the scandal
ousrecklessness with which 1t has appointed incom-
petent persons to office. But behind all this the
TACT that the tarl under which these swindles have
been brought to light, and under which far greater
swindles have doubtless been perpetrated with i'm
pnnity, is one which offers every facility to unscru-
lous placemen to aggrandize themselves"
l. ''The present administration" has ap-
pointed to office none of the persons impli-
Gated in the Custom House frauds here and
elsewhere which its agents have detected.
On the contrary, it had removed some of
them prior to such discovery, and superseded
the rest directly afterward. 1t is exactly as
responsible for those frauds as the Sheriff is
for the crimes of the felon whom he has
arrested and holds in custody.
II. 1.-The tariff under which these swindles
have been brought to light had nothing to
do with most, if any, of them During the
late exhausting civil war, it was found neces-
sary to impose an excise or internal tax on
most domestic manufactures. When ex-
ported, those manufactures were allowed q
drawback or return of this excise, upon due
proof that they had paid it, and that the goods
thus taxed had been exported. On this state
of facts, certain knaves out of Office conspired
with other knaves IN Office Zone here, another
at Washington to swindle our hard-presset
| Treasury by means of forged papers. They
succeeded. Large sums were obtained from
the Treasury by the unofficial contrivers o.
this fraud, and apportioned, four-ffths among
| themselves, one-fifth to their official confede
rates. In ALL nearly million of dollars wa
thus stolen from the people of the United
| States.
III. The duties on American manufactures
| were abolished so soon after the close of the
| war as they we'll could be-some three years
| ago. OF course the drawback fell with them
| This whole system of frauds necessarily fel
with the excise and its drawback. No dollar
| so far as discovered, has been fraudently
drawn from the Treasury by an appointee Of
| General Grant, nor under his administration
No appointee of General Grant is even sus-
pected of conniving at these iniquities. The
frauds occurred under the regime of Andrew
johnson, Henry A. Smythe & Co., long enough
before General Grants election ALI thai
those now in power have done is to detect the
villainies and bring part of their perpetra
tors to the bar of justice. Can that have pro
voked the savage malignity of the World?
L