New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1872-07-28
OLE NEW Y0RK LETrFR.
The OutIOOk-Retrospectiv and PrOspec-
tive-Whence Came the Liberal Move

mocracy, which was to be expressed in that
city on the vital question Of the Presi-
dency, has been heard by all the nation.
The announcement has given heart to de-
pressed nation Baltimore greets Cincin-
natl. The Liberal Democrat and the
Liberal Republican agree to stand upon
the same platform and fight for the same
principles under the same flag. The chival-
rous SouthrOn and the gallant NOrthman
'clasp hands across the bloody chasm for
Greeley and Brown. The people, regard
less of the beck of party leaders or the
machinery Of party caucus are in healthy
and earnest revolution against an imbecie
and corrupt administration, whose purpose
was to subvert the government OF the re-
public and establish personal and military
rule in its place
Never before was a movement inaugu-
rated, political or otherwise, involving such
vast questions of vital Importance TO the
whole nation, which came so thoroughly,
so freely and so purely from the hearts of
the people. The overshadowing incentive
to action in this great political revolution,
which will end only when the government
is thoroughly reclaimed and reOrganized
upon its original basis of constitutional law
and equal rights, has been nothing less
than sincere desire to rescue it from the
humiliating degradation into which the
thousand complications, naturally follow
ing internecine war, have contributed to
plunge it. The greatest of these, as shown
by the light of impartial history, was the
election, in 1868, of General Grant as Presi-
dent.
When the importers of New York first
began to complain of extOrtiOns in the New
York customhouse, and the daily press an
nounced defalcatiODs in the internal reve-
nue. service, the robbery of widows and
orphans in the Pension Bureau, and whole
sale robberies by disbursing officers OF the
government in almost every department.
and when rumOrs were current that the
Presidents agents were influenced by
Spanish gold to prevent the republicans OF
Cuba from asserting their rights and
achieving their independence as our fore
fathers obtained theirs and when it was re-
ported that the President had dispatched
military aid-de-camp to threaten the young
republic of Hayti and to retard repu6-
lican revolution in San Domingo, to the end
that certain railroad and land speculatOrs
might fill their Golfers; when these reports
and others equally startling were first
mOoted, the people hesitated and many re-
fused to believe them. They did not think
it possible that such Encouragement and
corruption could exist in a government
presided over by man who had so recent
". as General in Chief of the army of the
United States, wrested the standard of re-
bellion from the most formidable of the
insurgent forces Their feelings of gratitude
for dangers encountered and services rem
dered by him il the field III defense of the
Union. were toe fresh and great to permit
them easily to believe that President Grant
could, directly or indirectly, have any
knowledge of such disreputabie' transac-
tions, much less be party in interest to
them. The columns of the American press
bear evidence that it was the farthest wish
of its conductors that such things could be.
But time passed, ami the plot thickened.
Those who knew the facts and whose as5er-
tons were doubted by disbelievers, became
more earnest and bold and indignant in
their expressions and exposes. The import
ers, in whose hands the commercial interests
and honor of the country rested, were being
robbed by combinations known as ''rings,'
most of whom either belonged to Grants
domestic or military family. These crea-
lures were found fostering upon every spot
where a dollar could be Ieeched from the
hard earnings Of man, or flched from the
unlocked treasury. They so ingeniously
cOnuiyed to transpOse the whole work
ing machinery of the CustOmhOuses
as to subject tie merchants carmen
in some ports to an unlawful taxation of
ten cents for every load of duty paid goods
belonging to the MERCHANT, not to the gov
eminent; they increased the price of the
government Carting in a single Custom
house to at least half a million Of dollars
more than the same business had been ex-
ecuted for under former administrations,
by contractors who made enormous profits.
Offers to perform the work for this admin
istratiOn at the lower rates were made to
Secretary Boutwell,, who listened to them
and promised the reform necessary, but
was Gverruled by the President, who acted
in the interest Of the family ring. The in
Jury thus inflicted upon commerce in the
city of New York alone was enormous.
The new impOstiOns of the perniciOus
general order system, introduced into the
CustOmhOuse by Grants confidential agents,
amounts to an eXtOrtlOn of not less than
half a million of dollars annually in excess
of the old system. The absorption and dis
tributiOn of this money has been traced
81 Il A. 4
personal agents and friends of President
u. S. Grant. The Carting system, about
which so much complaint was made under
Collectors Grinnell and Murphy, is as per-
nciOusly corrupt to-day as it was then. 1t
is controlled, under a little political var
uish, by the same men, at the same high
prices, and is estimated to be an annual
robbery of nearly half a million dollars
more, being a distinct ring from Grants
general order system, which is run ex-
ciusiveIy By Leet and Stocking, under the
name of their landlord. As against these
rings Secretary Boutwell, has been power
less to afford any remedy to the merchants.
Ii was publicly asserted by one of the
counsel employed by the importers and
shippers Of this city, two years since, and
never authoritatively denied, thatin seeking
redress for the odiOus eXactiOn IN the gen
erdl order business complained of by the
merchants, he was told by Collector Murphy
that while he lMurphy) believed with See
rotary Boutwell, that the reform desired by
the merchants would be equally safe and
more beneficial TO commerce, he cOulS not
consent to the change, because it was neUes-
sary TO provide for party purposes and for
the friends of President Grant, In 4 word,
il was necessary to rob the merchants of
100000 annually, and discOmmOde the
shippers and retard commerce for the
benefit of the presidential ring
Ii is among the extraordinary facts CON