The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1870-07-02
Decadence of Radical Power.
THE WEAKNESS OF GRANT-THE
PARIY's EPITAPH.

OO1umOTCldl, III ONO OI Ills JcCcuC
letters, says that no measure of
public interest passes Congress
except as a compromise log-rOlled
through with schemes of public
.plunder, and leaves behind a Re-
publican minority that secretly re-
.joices that such measure has yet
to be passed on by the people, al
though in such popular adjudica-
ton the result may be the triumph
of Democracy. In a word, the
Republican party in Congress is
composed Of factions in such dead
ly antagonism to each other that
the hate among themselves is more
intense than that given the Dem
ocracy.
If from this unhappy condition
of affairs in Congress we turn to
the Executive, the condition is yet
more deplorable. At the time
when our country needs states
man, and our party at least a
shreWd business man, we have a
man whose ignorance of and in
difference to public affairs excites
only contempt. For the first time
in the history of our Government,
we have seen our President stand
ing hat in hand at the doors of
the Senate, begging the passage
Of ajob-and begging in vain. In
this San Domingo fraud I have
not heard a single prominent man
offer a defense of President Grant
that was not based on his ignor-
ance. General Grant," they say,
els a well-meaning man, but he is
ignorant as politician, and there
fore liable to be imposed upon by
designing men,"
The best illustration, however,
of what Iwish to say is to be found
in the agitation recently expert
enced over the tariff. Had Gen
eral Grant and his friends posses
sed q particle Of common sense,
Or an honest desire to continue
the Republican party in power,
they would have said that there
was q question upon which Re-
publicans can honestly differ and
yet be Republicans. Therefore let
us strive to compromise upon an
adjustment that will make some
approach to general satisfa ction.
But no, the administration begins
by throwing itself into the arms
Of the prohibitiOnists, and ends by
prosecuting the advocates Of free
trade. This tail end Of the Re
publican party, this little knot of
prohibitionists, is the meanest and
most corrupt faction with which
we are cursed. With Simon Cam
eron, at it's head, and Ames and
Morrell, Of Pennsylvania, whose
fingers are tainted with untold
plunder, who stand in their places
and without blushing, vote money.
directly into their own pockets, at
it's tail, we are told that their vile
dogma of protection is the plat
form of the party, and on our be-
lief in it depends our recognition
as Republicans.
It is understood within the last
two days that the bonds of union
between this faction and the ad-
ministratiOn have been strength
ened. The edict has gone out
that the Office now held by David
A. Wells is to be superseded by
some stolid believer in ~thieving
made legal. And his Excellency,
who began his administration with
such loud assertions of purity,
after drinking with Gould and
Fisk, sleeping with Corbin, and
dallying with Ben Butler, has
publicly opened his executive
arms to embrace Simon Cameron,
the vilest political prostitute of
them all
Last night the New York Tri-
bune, containing two;solid columns
ofabuse of David A. Wells, reach
ed Washington The attack is so
absurdly violent, so ludicrous in
its inconsistency, so much the
blind scolding Of a hysterical old
woman, that it excites only ridi-
cule and laughter. However in
significant in itself, taken as a
part of late events in the political
world, it is important. We re-
ceive notice to quit. The partner
ship heretofore existing between
the honest men and the rogues is