American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1872-03-09
The Same from the Beginning.

| OUR able contemporary the Nation ha.
| repeatedly said that Gen. Grant 'trieC
the plan of making appointments for fit
ness solely during his first year, and sur
rounded himself with excellent men.
| This seems to us a very curious halluei
. nation.
1t was during his first year of office
that Gen. Grant appointed Adolphe Z
BOrie to be Secretary of the Navy, al
though he knew that Borie had never
been familiar with public affairs, and
was disabled by nervous infirmity for
any work whatever, and could not fix his
attention for an hour upon any subject
At the same time Grant Illegally detailed
Admiral Porter to perform, under false
pretenses, the duties of the office to
which he nOminally appointed the inca
pable Boric. Was this surrounding him
self with excellent men?
1t was also in the first year of his
Presidency that Grant appointed his
brother in-law, James +. Casey, worth
less and incompetent fellow, to be Collec-
tor of the Port of New Orleans. The
same year he made his cousin, Silas Hud-
son, an ignorant tin-smith, of Davenport
Iowa, Minister to Guatemala. At the
same time he appointed James S. Wads-
worth, his wife's cousin, to be Marshal of
New York, Notwithstanding his charac-
servile to the last possible degree in com
plying with the Presidents wish, was
obliged to reject him.
AT the same time Grant surrounded
himself with a military court at the White
House, consisting of Brevet Brigadier
General F. T. Dent, his brother in-law, of
General o. f. Babcock, and of the noted
General Horace Porter, all claiming to be
his Secretaries, although they have no
right to that title, and are all more or less
involved in the Custom House robberies
which are now being exposed for the sec
ond time by a committee of Congress
AT the same time he appointed James +.
Mclean, the business partner of his
brother, Orvil l.. Grant, a man wholly IN
qualified, to the important office Of Col
lector of the Port of Chicago, on the I'M
derstanding that he should divide his off
cial income with the Presidents brother
Orvil. At the same time he reappointed
his father, Jesse II. Grant, to the office of
Postmaster of Covington, although he
well knew that he had neither the physi-
cal, the intellectual, nor the moral quail
fications requisite to discharge the
duties of the place And at the
same time, through the manruvres of
Simon Cameron and the villainous Wlis-
KY Ring of Baltimore, he appointed John
A. j. Creswell, of MARYLAND, to be Post
General and Creswell has ever
since Justified his appointment by engag-
ing in frauds upon the Government like
the great Chorpenning swindle and by
the ring of Post Office contract
ors to enrich themselves and their friends
by fraudulent contracts for the convey
fncc of the mails.
These appointments, and others like
hem, were made at the very beginning of
Grants career as President. They more
han overbalance any credit that he may
deserve for appointing men like Gen.
Cox and Judge Hoar, especially when it
5 remembered that Cox and HOar were
both forced out of the Cabinet because
hey We're not willing to appoint rascals
IF political influence TO important Offices
where they could make money-Ncr !
Yo1k SIN. -