New-York tribune., 1872-06-05
THE CUSToMHoUSE REPORT

The most indecent document WHICH even
the present servie majOrity+in, the Senate has
ever drawn up is the report of the Commit
tee of Investigation and Retrenchment upon
the affairs of the New-York Custom
house. To say that it is grossly
and shamelessly partisan is to state
no more than what was TO be e1s
pected. In the crisis of doubtful convass 1T
would be rather too much to expect fairness
and honesty from Senators devoted to Gen.
Grant. Yet every one surely expected
certain af1ectatiOn of impartiality which
might have saved little dignity while sacri-
ficing honesty. But this report is naked and
unabashed. 1t is as stupidity and openly one
sided as The Nclr- York Times. The per
son who wrote it could not have been
more frankly false if he had been hired
to defend Leet and Stocking in Tombs
Court. 1t betrays in every line the hand of
that attorney of the Administration, whose
open advocacy Of the rogues he was sent to
try, so often disgusted the spectators in the
Committee Room.
The Report says that the people who OBJ
iected to Leet and Stocking and their depre-
dations were "enemies of the President and
:" the Republican party.' 1t goes on IN
strain Of bar-roOm righteousness to refer to
the wide nOtoriety of Leet and Stocking and
their accomplices, and accepts their denlals as
outweighing all the charges of the citizens
who testified against them. 1t insists that
Leet owed all his success to his shining
merits that the Presidents letter to
Grinnell had nothing to do with 1t.
New-York objected to Leet and Stocking, and
is therefore called "a great brawliDg city,"
The Committee fear that in the existing
state of things at Washington, any
condemnation of present-taking may not be
kindly regarded at the Executive Mansion, so
they take the question boldly in front, and
approve the custom The language of the
Committee is so incredibly reckless that we
give it as it comes to us: "The testimony
shows pretty clearly the practice would
"not be condemned by good morals, if
"it were not condemned by law; that the
"money is paid not to secure violation of
claw, but as a compensation for services rem
dered in addition to the services required by
claw" OF course, the Committee find no OBJ
lection to the exaction of funds from Custom
house employees for political purposes. 1t is
even commended, as on level with the piOus
offerings VI CuuICH IOI IchRlOub
enterprises This will not be believed unless
we give the words Of the Report:
"The Committee entertain doubt that In the
perience Of political parties, N that OF religious
denominations money is sometimes needed. There can
be no doubt that the members of the party well
members Of the Church. often asked to contribute TO
such needs. The Committee why those
who draw salaries may not as properly be invited
contribute as those who do not"
The expulsion of members of the Republican
party from the Custom-house because they
did not belong to the Murphy-C Conkling faction
is justified on the ground that some of the men
thus expelled have since joined the Liberal
movement for reform We hope our friends
who still fondly imagine that Gen. Grants
party is in favor of Civil Service Reform
will not omit to ponder this passage. The
ufianism to which Mr.. Jayne and his friend
resorted to terrify timid importers into the
payment of black mail is thus referred to- in
language which shows that the Senatorial wit
is equal to the Senatorial morals
&c If they do not always uncover their heads while
investigating such alleged frauds It is complained
OF the special Of the Treasury do not 1t is
better, probably to tolerate even that outrage upon
good manners rather than allow the frauds 90 un-
punished"
IL any self-respect remained in the body
where Nye and Flanagan have taken the seats
of Webster and Calhoun, the Senate wonld
refuse to receive report equally intolerable
for its falsity and its puerile vulgarity.