Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1872-07-19
NepOtlsn.

DIR. JOHNSON was always anxious that
disputants should free their minds of
cant; and nothing is more desirable in the
debate Upon the Presidency. The word
nepotism has played an imposing part in
the arraignment of the President. IL is
not everybody who understands the
word, and therefore its mystery Is power,
as the same DR. johnson found when he
called fieh-Woman an intransitive verb.
Mr.. Sumner solemnly appeals to history,
cites the terrible example of popes, con-
lures the image of monster, and then
denounces the President as nepotist.
He uses his po9ition to heap honofs and
emoluments upon his kindred, Is the cry
of the great and little orators; IL is infa-
mousl But let us see exactly what all
this means
In itself, of course, there is no impro.
priety in appointing relative to office.
The Intimacy arising from the relation
often gives opportunity of a knowledge
of fitness which cannot otherwise be OBJ.
tanned. At the beginning of the rebellion
a high officer of the Government was CEN
sured for giving certain naval contracts
to q relation. He very properly replied
that he knew both the character and ca
pacity of the person, and they were so
precisely what were demanded that he
was not willing the service should lose
them merely because of the relationship.
ii Alexander Hamilton had been Wash.
ington's cousin instead of his friend,
Washington's opinion of his peculiar fit
ness for the head of the Treasury could
not have been different; and if he had ap-
pointed him, should we have quoted the
popes against him, or been glad that he
had had the courage to appoint the man
whom he thought most fit for the placer
In our present system of the civil service
the President can usually know little of
those whom he appoints Is it tunpardon-
able that he should, in dozen instances,
appoint those whom he does know, even
if they are also of some degree of kin?
What we are saying is that kinship will
often enable the appointing power to Sc
lect the fittest person. Nobody, surely,
complains that Mr.. Seward wished his son
to be Assistant Secretary of State, nor
that many high officers appoint their sons
or nophews as secretaries or chief clerks.
They know all about them because of the
relationship. Such an appointment is
not, therefore, an offense in itself. If the
public offices are filled with honest, able,
efficient men, by whom the public busi-
ness is well done, there should be no
complaint of nepotism. Indeed, Jeiier-
son, who is constantly quoted against the
appointment of relatives, does not object
to it per Sc. His argument is that people
will always think that such appointments
are not made upon proper grounds-not
that they may not be so made-and, there
fore, as matter of policy, they had bet
ter not be made.
From the manner in which the Presi-
dent is accused of nepotism it might be
supposed that he had filed most of the
offices with his relations, or that he had,
at least, appointed most of his relatives to
Office. AS a matter of fact, out of the
sixty or seventy thousand offices of vari-
Gus degrees, some twelve or thirteen are
filled by persons in some way related to
him. We do not believe that this is held
to be very grave offense, although it is
called solmenly and mysteriously the
grOsseSt nepotism. 1t is undoubtedly i'm
polite, as Jefferson says; but to magnify
such appointments into comparison with
papal nepotism, or the bestowing of great
hereditary powers and revenues upon IL
legitimate children called nephews, is a
proceeding thousand-fold more mon
strous than the alleged wrong. Again, to
represent that it is the habit of the Presi-
dent to fill the offices with his. relatives is
bald and absurd falsehood. The few
instances, however, are enough for the
cry, which is raised precisely as jefferson
describes, namely, that people will not be-
lieve Presidents motives in such mat
ters to be good, whether they are so or
not.
Some dozen offices, mostly of insignif-
cant value, which are not under our sys-
TEN retained beyond the term of the
~ llo halI htr n
dozen persons in some degree related to
the President. They are not alleged to
be unworthily filled except in one in.
stance, for the charges against Mr.. Cra-
mer have been disproved. In the other
case, that of the Collector at New Or
leans, although in the fury of misrepre-
sentation it is not easy to know the facts,
| the President thought it best that, under
! the circumstances, the Collector should be
asked to resign, which he Immediately
did. But at the request of members OF
! Congress, and large and influential body
of Republicans, the case is for the pres
ent suspended, and the Collector remains.
This is the truth of what is called the
| Presidents nepotism. 1t is one of the
chief charges most elaborately urged in
Mr.. Summers indictment. 1t is the sole
ground for the bitter denunciation of the
President for treating the Government of
the United States as if it were his private
property. Let the honest people of the
country honestly consider it, They may
grant, as the result shows, that Jefferson
was right in thinking it inexpedient.
But do they think that it proves such
shocking unfitness for the Presidential
Office ?
1t is true that the Presidents father is
a small postmaster in Kentucky-and il
is not alleged that he is incapable or dis
honest 1t is true that the brother-ir-law
of the President fills some position IN the
White House-and there is no charge
against him but that he is brothCr-in
law. Is not the very fact that such things
with his going to the seaside in summer
and with hundred other details, are in
geniously distorted, magnified, anC
elaborated as proofs, of his gross, dull
sordid baseness, and total incapacity o.
apprehending his office, enough to sug
gest that there is no serious cause Of
complaints If the President lcere Caesar
as Mr.. Sumner declares-if his Admins
tration were so ignominious and outrage
Gus as his enemies allege, who believes
that the organized opposition to il would
have steadily crumbled during his whole
term, until now its sole desperate chance
of recovery lies in attempting, with thu
Republicans who could not control tht
President, to defeat his reelection by
poisoning the public mind by the mos
malignant and personal SANDER ?-HaJ
per'S Weekly.