Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-02-21
TIE NArroNAI. eANaRENE.


1t is said the Radical members CT the
committee sent to New Orleans to investi-
gate affairs in Louisiana, are very much per
picked as TO the kind of report to make, now
that they have got back to Washington,
Some of the members of the committee
who wish to whitewash the Administration,
are in favor of making a report, showing
the troubles to be purely local and of char
acter to put them beyond Congressional in
Prevention, while others are agreed that the
entire difficulties had their origin through
customhouse intervention seeking to con-
troll the State in the interest of Grant. As
to the character of the developments made
by the committee, the New Orleans Plea
yllne says;
'sStrange facts have been brought to light
by that body. The corrupticns which have
been lurking in darkness all around us are
startling. The moral pestilence has crept
into houses which the public thought were
free from these communications. The cor
ruptions which Radicalism has brought to
the city and State are of the most danger
GUS character. How humiliating, that citi-
zens Of Louisiana, many of them men Of
wealth and influence should secretly join
these alien enemies in obtaining the spOils
Of Office, and in piling up State and city
debts mountain high" Whereverthe probe
Of Investigation is inserted, the same results
follow: fraud, corruption, robbery.
Still an effort is to be made to whitewash
this rascality in order to save Grant from
harm. Was the like of the corruption
which the Grant administration has en-
gendered and fOstered ever known? A
patronage is at the disposal of the Presi-
dent, reveals a mass Of corruption which is
truly appalling. But this is not all. The
influence extends to and crops out places
outside of government circles. "The rava-
ges made by the gangrene Of official dis
honesty throughout the land,n says the
New York Journal Of Commerce, ''may
well alarm even the most apathetic citizens,
and rouse them, if anything can, to the her
culean task of extirpating it. Take up al
most any days newspaper, and the number
whatever they may be caIed-reported
from different parts of the United States, is
astounding. Consider that these are the
cases found out, and that innumerable
others are hushed up or undecided, and one
gets feeble idea Of the large total of such
Offenses. From a single copy Of journal
now before us, where there has been no at
tempt made to group the crimes of public
officers, but the paragraphs relating to them
occur in the ordinary course Of news, like
fires, railroad accidents and the like, we
note the following, all exclusive of New
York city, where several committees of
citizens and of the Legislature are still hard
at work trying to get to the bottom of the
alleged rascalities in high public stations.
prejudging those which yet await trial, and
hope'that the parties accused may be able
10 clear themselves and relieve somewhat
the blackness of the picture. Treasurer
Blakely, of Santa Cruz county, Cal, who
claimed to have been robbed of county funds
by masked men, has been held 10 trial for
robbing the county himself. Marshall Laws,
accused of stealing money from letters in the
Boston postofice, has given bail of $4,000
to answer in March. G. w. White, Deputy
Postmaster at GAINESVILLE, Va, has been
arrested for robbing mails. James NJ.
Blackburn, Clerk of the United States Cir
cult and District Courts at Covingt0n, is in
custody on the charge Of Incorporating
$4,000 of government funds, and not being
able to raise $4,000 bonds has been thrown
into Jail. James Biggs, late United States
Marshal at Covington, is held to answer for
a $1,000 deficit in his accounts. Exon
gresham VIM. B. Stokes has been con-
victed of misdemeanor in prosecuting claims
for compensation before Congress while a !
member Of that body. Mercer, the de-
faulting Philadelphia County Treasurer,
and his accOmplice, Yerkes, a broker,
have been sentenced to prison and |
heavily fned--a sample, by the way, Of
Justice TO public INSIDERS worthy of imme- |
date and universal imitation. These are |
all the instances of official dishonesty that |
we find in a single paper-but they are |
enough to illustrate the lamentable preva-
lence Of class Of crimes which, in better |
days Of the republic, were almost unknown. !
Perhaps we ought to include in this dark |
catalogue q specimen of official sharp prac- |
tice, which, If the whispered charges can be |
proved, will overshadow all the rest. We |
refer to Senator Summers resolution of in
quiry and accompanying statement with re-
ference to the sale of government arms and |
stores to the French during the Franco |
G. rman war. Viewed by the light of this /
frightfuI array of official delinquincies, it is |
not whit surprising to find in the same |
paper that John O'Connor clerk in a rail- |
road office at Scranton, bad vanished stimuli |
taneously with $4,000 of the company's
funds. He was only patterning after the
greater rogues in higher positions. The /
little thieves should not receive all the /
stripes, while the giant ones 60 unscOurged, |
and therefore it is that we are not unpity |
ing towards that probational preacher
Stephen Morgan, of Cincinnati, who stole
quantity Of books from a theological library .
to help on his studies. 1t is sad, indeed,
that the Plague of corruption not only RACES
among the sheep, but should also faint tie
shepherds. If Morgan had pleaded the
CONTAGIOUS example Of public officials,
which even be, armed as he should have been
against the vulgarest Of sins, could not re-
sist, we should have taken his defense in
some mitigation of bis misdeed, though we
might not go as far as the clerical council
and retain him in the ministry, or ceem
him the most desirable person TO expound
the eighth commandment to Sunday
school,"
THE Southern Claims Commission al
= IL ]