Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1870-12-02
THE GREAT POLITICAL CUR

p H.
The New York Mattons a Radical
journal that steadily sustained the Grant
administration until Grant surrendered to
the corrupt ring of 'hack politicians
headed by Senator Cameron, presents the
following truthful picture of what the
people fird in this country at the present
time:
'sPeople have recovered from the ex-
element of the war against slavery, and
have begun to look closely about them,
and the state of things which meets their
eyes is by no means satisfactory.
'sThey find themselves saddled, with a
tariff of extraordinary completely, which
touches thousands of articles, and is full
of snares and absurdities; they find that,
though its supporters declare it to be the
best tariff that ever was, it is taken up
every winter regularly BY these very per-
soDs, and overhauled from top to bottom,
tinkered and patched and modified, Under
the instigation Of powerful and inssti-
able lobby, to the great disturbance of
business, and to the serious injury of the
national industry
''They find the collection of the ma
tional revenue-that is, the transaction of
the national business = committed to a
body of men from whom not only 10
guarantees as to character or capacity are
exacted, but who are furnished by the
very nature of the system under which
they are appointed with every conceivable
temptation to dishonesty and idleness,
and they are told by competent obser
yer that about fourth of the national in
I come is stolen or lost in the process of
collection.
"They find the State Legislatures, espe-
cially in the East, becoming, enc by one,
terribly corrupt, and passing rapidly under
the control of the great rings of
wealthy and INSCRIPTIONS jobbers, whose
combination are taking complete posses
sion of all the great joint stock enter
prises, the railroads, telegraphs, express
SEES, and rising rapidly above the jurisdic-
ton of the courts.
'They find the character of the judi
ciary seriously deteriorating in the very
regions in which judicial integrity is of
most consequence-theg great centers of
wealth and population.
"They find the schools, the prisons,
the charities of the country, gradually
slipping away from the hands of the men
who make these things the object of hu-
name and scientific pursuit, and passing
more and more into the hands of politi-
cal charlataDs, to whom a school, or
prison, or workhouse is only interesting
as place in which they can find places
for certain number of party hacks.
''They find, too, that in these, as well
as in the postofflce and various other i'm
portant branches of administration, the
separation between the intellect of the
nation and the practice of the art of gov
eminent, is growing yearly wider, and
that in many of them Europe, which
once copied US, has far surpassed us.
"The institutions which are rapidly
gaining, not in wealth only, but in power
and efficiency, are the universities, but
this is unanimously ascribed to the provi-
Dental arrangement which has deprived
the government of control over them"
This is 8 fearful Indictment of the
Grant administration, but its truthfulness
cannot be called in question. And this
is the administration for which it was
claimed by Radical journals and stump
orators less than six months ago, that it
was diminishing the public debt rapidly,
and that it was the most popular admins
tration the country has had for many
years. The St. Louis Republican says:
'Tt was agreed that in certain details the
administration had committed mistakes,
but they were esteemed 80 trifing that
the influence thereof would not change
the character of the elections in any no
ticeable degree. The President especial
ly was so thoroughly convinced of the
popularity of his administration, that he
believed q little personal assistance on his
part would suffice to OYerwhelm the dis
satisfaction in Missouri, and that it would
only require some show of energy to
even turn the scale in New York and en-
rol that State in the ranks of
Republcanism. The Democratic party
had a different view of the matter
They believed that grinding taxes
out of the people, and fictitious, rather
than real, reduction of the public debt
were not just the thing to make an admit
nistration popular, especially when it was
remarkable for its tendency towards
favoritism, monopolies and the centraliza-
ton of the rights and liberties of the
people in the Federal Government. The
Democratic pErty was, therefore, almost
certain that the administration would be
rebuked by the November elections.
Their expectations were more than justi-
fed by the result. In the fall elections
the South, especially, turned the cold
shoulder to the administration. Only in
South Carroll IA and Louisiana, where the
colored vote was thoroughly organized,
and marched TO the polls by legiOEs, did
the Republicans succeed. In the ten
other States, where elections were held,
Democratic majorities were rolled up in
spite of the administration influence,
which was exercised with great yigor.