Tri-weekly phoenix. [volume] ([Columbia, S.C.]) 1865-1875, 1872-05-02

Low in the dripping lock she lies,
With tangled hair and altered eyes
q iTinsley's Magazine.
Serious holt at s.The Hub',-Tho Atlantic
Monthly Attacks President Grant.
The replies of the friends of the Ad-
ministration to the charges made against
the President have been from the first,
considered merely as replies. singnlarly
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 with
this method OF meeting the accusation
was, that it did not go far enough.
Obvioualy the question was not whether
been exaggerated, but what the proper
tion was between the whole number of
appointments actually made and the
whole number of relatives. If the Pre-
sident has 2, 600 relatives clamorous for
office, the appointment of twelve lit may
possibly have been eleven) was not very
large. On the other haud, If he has
only thirteen relatives who Il. elk Offices,
nnd are eligible under the Constitution,
Tho appointment of twelve shows q
different spirit. To have made its reply
complete. the official organ in New York
ought to publish not only g complete
list OF all the relatives of the President
aud Mrs. Grant, but at 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 incompe-
tent to discharge the duties of their
offices id 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 in
decent appointments were not in reality
four in number, ns had been reported,
but only three.
In the second place, tho charge that,
Ill the face Of repeated remonstrances,
the President has allowed an obscure
and impudent adventurer to amass for
tune by systematic system of plnnder,
under the protection of the authorities
of the Government, it was replied that
tue general order system would soon be
modified. And it has been modified,
and no one knows today whether Leet
retains the control of it or not. To the
charge that the President took no inte-
rest in the most important political ques-
tion of the day. that of civil service re-
form, 1t was replied that board OF emil
nent men had been appointed to consider
the subject, and that the President would
be guided by their conclusions. Their
report was made and adopted by the ire
sident, 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 be temporarily sus-
pended whonever the Administration
thought proper.
And. lastly, to the charge of present.
taking. the reply made is, that the whole
matter was talked over in 1857 by Col.
Forney, MIR. Justice Garter. and Senator
Thsyer and General Grants chief of
staff. and it was decided that, as General
Grant had saved tho rich a great deal
during the war, IL was only fair that he
should get some of it himself. All these
aocusations, however, are merely matters
OF detail. Those WHO diatrust the Ad-
ministration- have an underlying ground
OF complaint, which 1t would require q
great deal to remove. It has often been
repeated. bnt repetition does not weaken
ito force. It is, that when General
Grant was elected, four years ago. it was
the popular belief and understanding
that he would bend ali mis- energies to
the work OF purifying the Government.
OF redeAming it from the corruption Into
which It han fallen, Of assisting those
whose object 1t is to make politicallifo
in America once. more respectable and
honorable. Instead OF doing this, he
has allied himself with the very men
whose names are by-words throughout
the country for those vices which he pro.
iessed his desire to root ont; he has lent
bis warm assistance to petty factions.
warning not for any political object, but
Tor the control of plunder, and he now
demands bis reelection on the strength
OF these services to the country.
Atlantic Monthly, for May.
An Atlanta lady recently playfully tied
her htlsband's hands aud feet together,
and while he was thinking IL was a
capital Joke, abe picked his pockets Of a
certain billetdonx. Since the occur