The Placer herald., 1872-07-06

why may not other public officers do the
same2 For instance, if the President gives
lucrative positions to his f ther, his brother,
MS cousins, his nephews, and his wife's con-
nections, why may not Mr.. Thomas Murphy
in like manner call together the whole circle OF
has kith and kin, and portion out among them
the salaried and fat places of the Custom
House? Why may not Mr. Patrick Jones
Office? Why not Mr.. Casey the same al
New Orleans Why not every other prin-
cipal otice-holder the same everywhere-so
that the SO 900 offices in the gift of the
Administration shall thus be considered the
family property of few favored appointees
: In other words, why should not the whole
government be turned at once (like the pr s
dency tself) into a continental gift enter
prise ?
As to public liberty, if in time of peace
the military power is to reign supreme over
the civil, then farewell republicansm! In
deed, the Republican party itself, as one
reads its debates in Congress, has largely
lost (or sthed) its instinct for repub!canisn.
Mr.. Summers fearful indictment of the
President, accompanied as it was with proofs
and specifications, was answered how ? BY
an admission of the guilty facts, coupled
with the astounding extenuation that they
were frivolous. Is there nepotism? Yes,
but it is trihing crime. Is there gift taking?
Yes, but it is "A venial offence. Is there law
breaking? Yes, but it is of no consequence.
Like Senator Carpenter, the Philadelphia
Convention considered none Of these things
worthy of notice
How ouenched is the ancient spirit of
Saxon liberty! How our forefathers, both
of Oh England and New, would have re
sented such encroachments by the govern
ment on the people! John Hampden, rather
than pay 81 shillings and pence for ship
money, made revolution in England. The
Bostonians, rather than pay pence per
pound on tea, made a revolution in America.
The genius of Liberty is like sensitive
plant--it need not be struck but only touched,
to show when it is wounded. President
Grant has violated the laws more fagrantly
than King Charles or George ILL.,; and it
argues deafness to the sentiment of liberty
to suffer such violation to pass unrebuked.
Has it come, then, to this-that the
American people are so far subservlent to
the existing military regime as to be nditfer-
ent to the supremacy of civil law? Not so.
They are gathering wrath against the day
of wrath Unless the present tendency OF
the Administration is rebuked and reversed
we predict that if Grant is re-elected--w which
may Heaven forbid the very men who
we're lately cheering his denomination will be
demanding his impeachment. .
There is now no existing difference Of
opinion concerning the negro in which the
South takes one side and the North the
other. To array one section of the Union
against the other on the negro question is to
create false issue which has no existence in
reality In reviving this antagonism the
Philadelpoia Convention has failed to adjust
: itself to the circumstances OF the time.
Feigned and fictitious is the contest which
Senator Morton prefgures when he re paints
the boys in blue as once more fighting the
: bows in gray. The boys in blue have put
off their blue; the boys in gray have put off
their GRAY. Former Union soldiers now min
ole freely with their fellow-ctizens n the
South, and former Confederate soldiers do
the same in the North. From the moment
when there was an end to the political dis
tinction between white skin and a black,
from that moment there was an end of the
partisan distinction between a blue coat and
a gray.
The Cincinnati Convention, recognizing
this great fact, "bult upon the event in
marble" 1t dared to say that there is no
longer a war, no longer rebellion, no longer
traitor. 1t buried the past. Its motto
was, "Let bygones be bygones." 1t clasped
hands across the bloody chasm.
But the Philadelphia Convention, not con
tent to see the South accepting the verdict
of the war, not content to see the former
Shareholders subscribing to the doctrine OF
equality. not content to see he original Sc
cessionists pledging themselves to the per
petual union of these states, not content to
see the rebels volunteering to keep lnviolate
the national debt, not content to see the
whole South joyfully accepting the Four
teenh and Fifteenth Amendments and seek
ing to be at peace not ouly with the negro
bat the North-not content with all this, the
Philadelphia Convention now proposes to
fight the finished battle over again; recon-
vertng our present friends into our former
foes re-impering the peace and safety OF
the negro by unnecessarily creating polli'-
cal antagonism against him in the South;
and re- kindIing a quenched animosty be-
tween the sections at moment when both
are equally anxious to be of one mind and
heart In other words, tho Philadelphia
Convention inaugurated policy Of untrater-
nal strife.
Let us, therefore, draw parallel between
the two Republican parties.
Cincinnati. fresh from the people, initiated
long needed movement Of reform; Philadel-
phia, drawing its breath from the public Of
fees, clamored like claquers in theater for
a continuance Of the administration and the
re-appointment of its fifty thousand paid sti-
pendaries Cincinnati declared for the one
term principle; Philadelphia was as hush as
Il 4l,ia aont.nl and Ain