New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1872-06-04

Sometimes puOllc men, even IN OUT COUNT u,
have taken gifts, but it is not known that
any President has before repaid portion
with Office. For public man to take gifts
is reprehensible. For the President to select
Cabinet cOunselOrs and other officers from
among those from whom he has taken gifts
is an anomaly IN republican annals. An
ancient patriarch feared Greeks beariD g
gifts and these words have become pro-
verb 'But there are Greeks bearing gifts
elsewhere than at Troy
A public man can traffic with such only
at his peril, and at its appearance prayer
should be said, LEAD us not into tempta-
ton" The President VIGOROUSLY has taken
gifts while in the public services, some at
least after he had been elected President,
until the Galena tanner of a few hundred
dollars year, to borrow the words of my
colleague, one Of his supporters, is now rich
IN houses, lahds, and stock above his salary,
being probably the richest President since
General Washington. He has appointed to
his cabinet Greeks bearing gifts, without
seeming to see the indecOrum, if not the in
deeency. of the transaction. At least two,
if not three, of these Greeks, having no
known position in the Republican party, or
influence in the country, havO been selected
as counselors in national affairs, and are
heads of great departments of the govern
ment
Nor does the first Secretary of State, ap-
pointed as a compliment, differ in character
from the other threat, The President. feel
ing under personal obligations to Mr.. Wash
burne for important Support, gave him
complimentary nomination, with the under
standing that, after confirmation, he should
forthwith resign. l can not forget the in
dignant comment of the late Senator Fes-
sender, as we passed out of the Senate
chamber Immediately after the cOntrma-
ton, who said he ''never heard before of
man nominated as Secretary of State merely
as a compliment But this is only another
case of the public service subOrdinated to
personal considerations, not only in the
Cabinet, but in other offices. There is rea-
son to believe that the President has been
under the influence of patrons. Why was
he SO blind as to Thomas Murphy The
CustOmhouse of New York, with all its cap
acity as a political engine, was handed
over to this agent, whose want Of recOgni-
ton in the Republican party was OUT
balanced by the President, and whose gifts
have become notorious; and when the de-
mand for his removal was irresistible, the
President accepted his resignation, with an
effusion of sentiment natural toward
patron, but without justification in the
character of the retiring officer. | have
now completed survey of two typical IN
stances of nepotism and gift-taking official
ly compensated, in which we are compelled
to see the President In these things he
shows himself; this is no portrait drawn by
a critic or an enemy. Its original stands
forth, saying Behold the generosity l
practice to my relations at the expense of
the public service; also, the gifts take, and
then my way of rewarding my patrons at
the expense of the public service" In the
open exhibition we see how the Presidency,
instead of a trust has become perquisite
A President that can do such things, and
not recognize at once the error he has com
mitted, shows that super-eminence of egOt-
ism under which the constitution, inter-
national law aud municipal law, to say
nothing of republican government in its
privileges, are all subordinated to the Pres
idential will, and that this is a personal
government. Add an insensibility to the
honest convictions Of others, and you have
a characteristic incident of this pretensiOn.
Lawyers cite what are called "leading
cases" A few of these show the Presiden-
tial will in constant operation, with but
little regard to precedent or reason, so as
to be caprice, if it we're not pretension.
Initiating the POpes ID nepOtism the Presi-
dent has initiated them in an OstentatiOus
assumption Of infallibility.
Other Presidents have entered upon Office
with a certain modesty and distrust, but
our soldier, absolutely untried in civil life,
entirely new man, in entering upon the
sublimest duties, before which Washington
and Jefferson had shrunk, said, in his in
augural: "The responsibilities of the posi-
ton feel, but accept them without fear"
The next step, after the inaugural address,
was the selection of a Cabinet, and in his
selection of a Cabinet the general disap-
pOintment was only equaled by the gene
raj wonder. All tradition, usage and pro-
Drietv were discarded; the Just expectations
of the party that had elected HIM set at
naught, and the safeguards of a constitu-
tional government were subOrdinated to
the personal pretensions of one man.
Marked among the spectacles which fol-
lowed, and kindred in its character with
the appropriations of Cabinet as an indi-
vidual property, was the appropriation of
the offices of the country. Mr. Sumner
here repeated the charges of nepOtism in
appointing relations to Office, etc.
Mr.. Sumner criticised in severe terms the
conduct of the President in sending a mes
sage to Congress, March 6, 1869, asking
them to set aside a fundamental law, in
order that Mr.. Stewart might enter upon
the duties of Secretary of the Treasury-he
(Mr. Stewartl being one of those from whom
the President had received gifts. He next
spoke of the military ring at the White
House, and said the executive mansion as
sumed the character of a military head
quarters, to the dishonOr of civil service
and in total disregard Of precedent, the
President surrounded himself with officers
of the army, and substituted military forms
for those of civil life, detailing for this SER
vice members of his late staff, although
Congress has shown purpose to limit the
of military officers in civil
service by three different statutes.
Mr.. Sumner condemned the President
FOR the taking away frOm their proper du-
ties of officers in the army, to make them
Presidential secretaries. In defiance OF law;
the subOrdinatiOn of the War Department
to the General-in-ehief; the attempt to de-
volve the duties of the Navy Department
upon deputy. so that orders were TO be
signed "a. E. Borie, Secretary of the Navy,
by ID. D. Porter, Admiral;" the efforts to
absorb the Indian Bureau into the War De- |
partment; military interference at elections;
the efforts to secure the repeal of the ten |
ure of Office act, which limited the Presi- |
dents power of appointment, and Presiden- |
tial Interference with political questions |
and party movements in distant States, |
from Louisiana to New York.
Mr. Sumner also again referred at length |
to the San Domingo question in terms of |
and SAID the whole cOntriv- |
ance, besides being wrong to the black re- |
public of Hayti was an insult to the col |
Ored race, not only abroad, but here at
nome. HOW Chief Magistrate, WIFE TOUR /
millions of cOlOred fellow-citizens, could |
have done this thing, passes comprehension. |
The cOlOred orator, Frederick Douglass, |
was selected by the President one Of the |
to visit San Domingo, and
yet on his return, and almost while in sight |
Of the executive mansion, he was repealed |
from the common table of a mail steamer
IN the Potomac, while the other commits
siOners were already seated, and through
aim was the African race lnsalted and their
equal rights denied. But the President |
Il h,I hnr.r,n 4 -. |