The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1869-05-06
The NY. SUN ON Gen. Grant.

plain terms of Gen. Grant and his admins
tration. Thus far he has signslly failed to
meet the expectations of the leaders OF his
party. as the debate in the Senate just pre-
vious to the adjournment of that body con-
clusively proved. When he came into power
he was the possessor of many valuable gifts
of real and personal property, and COM
msncsd his administration by appointing to
Cabinet offices some of the very men who
had been prominent in subscribing to these
costly presents. This was proceeding 30
unusual and SO unexpected that the public
sentiment of the country reyolted against it.
If he displayed spirit of avarice in accept
ing these gifts, he mistook the dignity as
well an the nature of the Presidential office
by bestowing positions of honor and profit
on the men who had donated them. This
was followed by the appointment, in rapid
succession, of nearly all of his own and his
wife's relatives to lucrative Offices. In one
single week no less than three of his brothers
in-law were the recipients Of official favors
at his hands. He was the first of our PreSi-
dents to inaugurste this system of nepotism.
All his predecessors avoided it with scrupu-
lous fidelity. Both Washington and Jeffer-
son had put themselves on record against
the practise in the strongest possible lam
guage. On this subject the New York Sun,
a leading radical paper edited by Charles Fl.
Dana, who was Assistant Secretary Of War
under President Lincoln, speaks as follows: :
On the fourth of March, 1901, Thomas
Jefferson rode on horseback unattended to
the capitol, hitched his sober ge!ding at the
gate, assembled the steps. took the oath Of
office from the lips of John Marshall, and
delivered that inaugural address which
has since been the keynote of the democrat
ic party. John Quincy Adams, when his
Presidential term expired, mounted quiet
nag, mailed a portmantua behind him and
wended his way lcisurely from Washington
to Quincy, declining to receive any public
demonstration from his admirers along the
route. At the close Of General Jackson's
| long and remarkable administration, he de-
! parted from the federal capital seated in a
smoking car Of the railway, clad in simple
! garb. waving a graceful farewell to the
| friends who crowded the depot, and draw
| ing consolation from democratic clay pipe
! Each Of these eminent men on several oc-
| casions, some of them Of historical celebrity
/ refused to receive presents as testimonials of
regard for public services, both previous to
! and when filling the Presidential chair, ex-
! cepting that State legislatures voted two or
| three swords and medals to Gen Jackson
while he was in private life, as tributes to
! his gallantry in the battle of New Orleans.
! Neither of them ever bestowed Office upon a
relative, while both Jefferson and jackson
! declined to do so, the former in a letter
/ which rebuked the practice with marked
! emphasis.
! We have fallen on other times. Are they
better times2 Ou Wednesday, the third of
| March, 1869, the President elect accepted
! SOS, 900 out of a sum Of money raised in
New York at his own pressing solicitation
for Gen. Sherman to pay him 1.-THE PreSi-
dent) for house which he desired to sell.
On Thursday he took the oath of Office, and
in his inaugural address pledged himself to
! the rigid execution of all laws, whether he
! liked them or rot. He then spent nearly
the entire first week of his term trying to
evade the plain provisions of salutary stat
utes, because they blocked the way for the
| admission of the most important seat in his
| Cabinet to the almoner who had bestowed
| this dazzling present. Bafied in this by the
| frmHess Of the Senate and the frowns of the
public, he nevertheless installed among his
constitl tional advisers other individuals who,
though not obnoxious to this particular OBJ
| lection, were chiefly distinguished for hav-
! ing conferred upon him costly and valuable
! benefactions. Along with other appoint
ments bearing this sort of trade mark, he
appointed as his Secretary of the Navy a
/ gentleman wholly incapable of filing the
/ place, who had taken the lead in giving him
a fifty thousand dollar house in Philadelphia,
some three years before and he surrender
ed the baton of general of the armies to a
renowned soldier, who, with his knowledge
and appreciation lifted one hand to take the
oath of Office, while receiving with the other
a tempting gift valued at 500 900, OF
which the fifty thousand dollar house in
Washington formed part. Not to go back
to Jefferson, or Adams, or jackson, for vir-
tuous examples, even Andy johnson had
sense and decency enough to refuse the
present OF a carriage and horses with the
Presidential oath lingering upon his lips.
Such evil practices of men in high places,
whose past achievements have dazzled the
popular imaginations, tend to dernoralze
the public service, and debauch public opin-
ion. OstentatiouS displays and profigate
expenditures como to be regarded as neces-
sary concomittants Of official station, and il
is felt that the main object of effice is not to
discharge ones duties to the country, but to
thereby attain sudden riches and indulge in
shoddy magnihcence. The natural result
of all this must inevitably be, that corrup-
tion aid venality will walk unabashed and
almost unrebuked through every department
OF the government. Morever, such evil ex-
amples not only shed their pernicious influ-
ence through the place-hunting and place
holding classes. but reach the very roofs oI
society. They inf1ame the young men oi
the land with passion for wealth as the
great object Of life. They tend to make lu
ere the badge of honorable distinction. and
the possession of riches the sole passport tc
power, eminence, or even respectability.
Is il not high time that the masses of the
people, who neither seek nor hold office
should labor for the return of the good old
times of republican simplicity, when states
men felt stain a wound when the dis
penser of patronage would scorn to feed his
poor relations from the public crib anc
when a preSidenE would cnt off his riohi