The New York herald., 1870-03-02
The ssvtsmbss Gsld Csrnsr-Ths Rssaiss q
tho Invsssigations

has ended ltS laDOr6 ana yestorVay A9iu
before tho House two :. reports, which
win be found ip another column. The ma
jority report is straightforward, plain
story. 1t states what the American people
will receive with universal qualification when
1t says that in the whole course Of the search
into the crooked ways of the gold dealers it
has nowhere discovered "a word or an act OF
the President inconsistent with that patriotism
and integrity which beHt the Chief Magistrate
Of the nation" This the people know to be
true. A whole people is never mistaken in its
estimate Of man on so plain point as that
Of honesty; and if there is a single point IN
the character of General Grant as to which the
people have perfect and natural conf
dence it is that he is man OF
unimpeachable integrity. Only the small
winnings of some hungry ours have been
heard against this. with the wise whispers of
quidnuncs who discussed the great gold cor
ner. The strong declaration Of the committee
ought to silence even these whispers; and
with regard to them it is good thing to have
on the record. Otherwise it was not neces-
sary, as it only declares what is so clearly
shown in Grants letter to Mr.. Boutwell,, and
what, indeed, was repeatedly declared in these
columns from the beginning, that the Presi-
dent was not in the least degree implicated in
the game.
The minority report is quite another sort of
story on this important point. II is from the
celebrated ''shoofy" Representative, and Is
decidedly 'shoofy" report-a document
contemplate in its writing, pitiful in its rea-
soning, puerile in spirit, and teeming with
mean insinuation. Indeed, it is difficult to
see any fair reason for its existence. On only
one point Of any moment does the minority
differ. 1t comedies with the majority in
apprehension of the hypocrisy and cupidity Of
old Corbin; in dissatisfaction with the record
of General Butterfeld, in its view Of the
injury done to our credit abroad and to trade
at home, and in it's view of the Gold Exchange
Bank, and of the propriety for legislation to
prevent future harm. On all these points the
majority and the minority are in full
accord; and these are all the points
in the story. The minority report is
written simply to embody and preserve
the pitifal slanders in regard to President
Grant and his family. Without little of evil
dence, affirmative or negative, on which to
rest the exploded imputation that the Presi
dent had an interest in the gold corner--with-
out an argument worthy the respect of fish
woman-without even a theory that might
excuse their course, two Representatives in
Congress-Mr. Cox, of this city, and Mr..
Jones, of Kentucky-maunder through all the
tedious stupidity of this report, mumbling,
hyena-like, over the carcass of dead and rot
ten SANDER, picking again and again the bare
bones of story concocted by the gold
gamblers themselves, and hurled at the ad-
ministration as the only revenge they could
take for the discontinue and ruin it brought
upon them. In this report the two members
who make it stand in pillory for the reproba-
ton of the American people.
The majority of the committee recommends
that the Gold Exchange and the Gold Ex-
change Clearing House be examined into by
the Ways and Means Committee, with q view
to destroying them by taxation, if it be found
expedient; that the Judiciary Committee con-
slider the propriety Of law to ''punish conspi-
racy against the credit Of the United States and
the business Of it's people," and that the Com
mittee on Banking and Currency s'be
instructed to inquire whether further legisla-
ton is necessary to prevent improper use Of
certified checks by national banks" This is
~ - stc ;x,&o H.
sequences and character of the great fnan-
cial furry. The committee probably felt that
after so extended an inquiry it ought to make
some recommendation, and we do not see that
it could make any more innocent than these.
It is no doubt true that these points in our
financial machinery facilitated the operations Of
the sharper. But do not sharpers always
shape their game to usages and rules as they
find them, and does the committee hope to
construct financial fabric that will leave no
room for the combinations of these speculative
financiers? Tinkering the machinery will
not touch the causes, for the causes of this
matter were in human nature. An old fellow,
with keen eye to the main chance, and
shrewdly playing his part, simply fooled the
greatest of our Wall street tricksters by max
ing them believe he had more intimate rela-
tions with the President than he had-merely
victmized them with a confidence game.
What law could prevent the recurrence of
such an event? Besides, though the conse-
quences seemed momentous for evil, was not
some good really secured in the demolishing
of that great bugbear, the gold combination Of
Wall street, which before had been accredited
with enormous power, but which since that
disastrous day has never put feather in the
way of the steady decrease in the price Of the
precious metal?
THE PRINCE OF WALES AND LADY NOR
pAUNT--By the arrival of the European mail
of the 10Th of February we are enabled to con-
time this morning the report of the trial of the