American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1872-04-06
The Presidency as a PerquIsite.

The Presidency as a PerquIsite.
When the motive in seeking and ac-
cepting office is to get money out of it
and out of its opportunities, tina mode of
performing its duties is generally that
which will insure the most money. There
is a prejudice in the minds of the masses
of the American people against men who
carry an Etching palm" into the higher
offices of the Government Statesman
ship, patriotism and impartial Judgment
can rarely be looked for from one whose
estimate of the duties of his office makes
the salary his chief inducement to accept
it. When, therefore, Colonel Forney ex-
hibits himself before the country as dick
ering with President Grant as to whether
the latter could afford to resign life Of
nee OF eighteen thousand a year in con-
| sideration of one term of the Presidency
at twenty-five thousand year, and when
| we find the President accepting the first
term only on an implied promise that he
| should have a second at the same salary,
We are compelled to ask, in what estima-
| ton does the President hold his office =?
If it is valuable only for its perquisites,
there are certain railroads and several
| life insurance companies which would
| pay as high salary as the Presidency.
The position of Collector of the Port of
New York, which the President has SO
jealousy kept within the limited circle of
his confidential friends, would pay at
least twice as much. True, it has less
dignity, and affords fewer opportunities
for moulding the policy of the nation. 1t
is not so sublime a field wherein to exer-
else the powers and display the acquire
ments of a deep, powerful, and diversi-
ned mind, in manner TO quicken the
march of progress OF enhance the welfare
of the country or the world. But, for all
this, a man whose thoughts are upon
money does not care. He necessarily de-
spises them as visionary and meaningless
phrases.
This conversation with Forney har-
monies in spirit with the general drift of
the Presidents personal and official course
since his election. His Cabinet appoint
ments, as originally made, were parceled
out among few very rich men, who had
led the way in making him valuable pres
ents of houses, etc, while General Two
of them were given to his two personal
advisers while a General. Gratitude for
past services or favors to himself individ-
ually dictated the appointment of Raw
Inns, Stewart, Borie, Fish and Hoar, no
one of whom, except, perhaps, Mr.. A. T.
Stewart, would have been, at that time,
selected by any other person for Cabi-
net position. The Cabinet appointments
seemed to be valued as perquisites for
paying private debts, not as a means of
placing statesmen in charge of the Gov
eminent. Messrs. Fish, Borie and Hoar
were appointed for the pleasing manner
in which they had entertained the Presi-
dent OF course such mode of appoint
ing invited the whole country to compete
for office by making presents and render
ing other pecuniary and personal SER
vices.
In these or any other appointments, no
Republican leaders were consulted. No
impression gained entrance into the Pres
ident's mind that the Republican party,
and its leaders in the Senate or House or
country at large, were to have voice in
his counsels The Vice-President and the
leading Republican members of Congress
might as well have been Democrats for all
the share they were invited to take in the
counsels of their chief. 1t was not a Re-
publican victory, but victory of the Gen
eral and his family that lifted him to
power
We have not often alluded to the ap-
pointments of relatives, because, however
numerous or worthless they might be, we
do not regard them as publicly SO demon
aliZing as the appointment of patrons-Of
men who have only earned their positions
by subserviency to an individual whether
by entertaining him, giving him houses,
or otherwise pushing his private interests.
Where this system of polite corruption
communicates the fountain of official dig
nifty and power, the lower stream cannot
run clear The fav oritism of the Presi-
dent for Murphy, growing out of the So
cial festivities at Long Branch, may seem
to be mere good-felowship so long as it is
confined to the amusement of the water
ing place. But when Murphy receives in
structions to pack the New York Conven-
lions in 1871, with delegates who believe
that Grant ought to be renOminated in
1872, and when he proceeds to do this by
fraud, force and bullying, we perceive
relation between the watering place fes-
tivities and the disgraceful and tyrannical
in the primary conventions
which is not attractive.
We cannot assent to the low estimate
which regards the Presidency, with all its
great powers-eXceeding for the time
those of any other humane potentate-as
the mere means of enriching ones self
and relatives, and rewarding those who
aid in the same work. Yet this has been
President Grants estimate Of the position,
and its consequences have led to most OF
the complaints against him. 1t is not SO
much that he is not Il statesman as that he
does not conceive that he ought to be.
He assumes that any other person in his
place would have the same picayune ideal
of the objects for which he was placed
there, viz: to get money, andto help those
who help him. This, in legislation, is
known as log rolling, and the courts OF law
have called it by some severe names
W neither it is any better in executive adj
the people are beginning to
Tribune (Re'udtican).