The spirit of democracy. [volume] (Woodsfield, Ohio) 1844-1994, 1872-06-04
THE ATLANTIC ON GRANT,
Serious Bolt at the EEub--The AZ.
lanttC Attacks President Grant.
From the Atlantic Monthly.l /

The replies of the friends of the ad-
mlnistration to the charges made against
the President have bee n, from the first,
considered merely as replies, singularIy
ineffective. The official reply to the
charge Of nepotism was that, instead of
having appointed twenty-four relatives
to office, the President had only ap-
pointed twelve. But the difficulty of
this method of meeting the accusation
was, that it did not 90 far enough. OBJ
viously, the question was not whether
the number of these appointments had
been exaggerated, but what the proper
tioh was between the whole number of
appointments actually made and the
whole number oil relatives. If the Pres
ident has two thousand relatives clam
orons for Office, the appointment of
twelve Git may, possibly, have been
eleven was not very large. On the
other hand, if he has only thirteen rel.
atives who seek offices and are eligible
under the Constitution, the appointment
of twelve shows a different spirit, TO
have made its reply complete, the Off
cial organ of New York ought to pub
lish not only complete list of all the
relatives of the President and Mrs
Grant, but al the same time furnish full
information on the other points we have
indicated To the most serious charge
of all-that of these family appointees
several were incompetent to discharge
the duties of their Office in a fit and
honest manner, one of them being the
notorious Casey Of New Orleans-no
reply has been made. The country has
as yet been spared hearing by way of
official answer that these indecent ap-
pointments were not in reality four, in
number, as had been reported; but only
three. In the second place, the charge
that, in the face of repeated remonstran-
ces, the President has allowed an oh
scure and impudent adventurer to
amass a fortnne'hy systematic system
of plunder, under the protection of, the
authorities of the Government, it was
replied that. the general order system
would soon be modified, and no ,one
knows to-day whether Leet retains the
control of it or not. To the charge
that the President took no interest in
the ostimportant political question OF
the day, that, Of civil service reform, il
was replied that a board of eminent men
had been appointed to, consider the sub
ject, and that the President would he
guided hy their conclusions Their re-
port was made and adopted by the Pres
ident, and great flourish of trumpets
was made over this reform, which might
quite as easily have been introduced
three years before; and it had hardly
been adopted when it was announced
that the rules would tie temporarily sus
pended whenever the Administration
thought proper. And lastly, to the
charge OF present taking, the reply
made is, that the whole matter was talk
ed over in 1867 by Colonel Forney, Mr.
Justice Cartier, and Senator Thayer and
General Grants chief of staff, and il
was decided that, as General Grant had
saved the rich great deal during the
war, it WAS only fair that he should ge,
some of it himself. All these accusa
tions, however, are merely matters ot
detail Those who distrust the Admin
istrstion have an underlying ground o
complaint, which it would require s
great deal to remove. 1t has often beer
repeated, but repetition does not weaker
its force 1t is, that when Genera
Grant was elected, four years ago, il
was the popular belief and understand
ing that he would bend all his energies
to the work of purifying the Govern
ment, of redeeming it from the corrup
ton into which it has fallen, Of assist
ing those whose object it is to make po
litical life in America once more re-
spectacle and honorable. Instead o
doing this, he has allied himself with
the very men whose names are bywords
throughout the country for those vices
which he professed his desire to root
out; he has lent his warm assistance 10
petty factions, warning not for any .po
litical object, but for the control of plum
der, and he now demands his reelection
on the strength Of these services to The
country. i" '11i."' 5a .H IN ).
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