New-York tribune., 1872-03-21
CHARLES SUNNER.

The first Message ever transmitted by Gen.
Grant to Congress embodied recommends
ton that the laws be so altered that leading
importer might at the same time be Secretary
of the Treasury, and Mr.. John Sherman was
ready with bill echoing that recommended
tiOn which he proposed to put through mt
race-horse speed under a suspension of the
rules. There was brief pause, but all seemed
willing to defer to the chief dispenser of pat
ronage, or, at all events, unwilling to thwart
his pleasure 81 object" at length pealed the
sonorous voice of Charles Sumner, and the
project was arrested. Next day, you could
find no one willing to admit that he had
ever acquiesced in it. An hours reflection
backing word of remOnstrapce had sufiiced
to kill it very dead.
The acquisition of SantO Domingo was urged
upon Congress by the President. Mr.. Sumner,
as Chairman of the Scnate's Committee on
Foreign Affairs, strenuOusly opposed 1t. A
majority Of the Senate thercupOn degraded
him from the Craftsmanship he had long filled
with eminent capacity, dignity, and fidelity.
That Craftsmanship was never moro honored
than while he filled it. 1t will never again be
so honored till he shall have been requested
to resume it,
At the opening of this session, an investi-
CATION of crying abuses in the management OF
our Custom-house was demanded. Mr.. Sum-
ner zealously promoted it, as he would have
done had he been President. 1t was stub
bornly resisted, but at length grudgingly or
dered; care being taken that those who had
opposed it so long as they safely could should
mainly compose the Committee, and that no
Republican who had urged it should bear
them company. Mr.. Sumner noted the fact,
but did not complain of it.
Mr. Sumner was made acquainted with facts
and documents that indicated wrong in the
sales of arms by our War Department during
the late desperate struggle between France
and Germany. TnereupOn, he moved an in
yestigation, rcciting in preamble the circum-
stances which seemed to him suspicious. 1t
WAS perfectly competent for the Senate to
strike ont the preamble, as prejudging the
case. and pass the simple inquiry. But the
Drop0sition was met Us an attack on the Prcs-
dent (whom it did not even hint at), and
weeks of angry discussion finally resulted IN
ordering an Investigation by Committee
whereon neither Mr.. Sumner, MIR. Schurz, nor
any one else who had urged the investigation,
was placed This Committee was so ashamed OF
the partiaity which had governed its formation
that it invited Mr.. Schurz to attend It's sit
tngs and question the witnesses.
Meantime, the TwO-Term Journals were let
loose on Mr.. Sumner. Harper'S pictorial black
guard has caricatured and libeled him, from
week to week, as though he were second
Tweed or Connolly. If he had been proved
Il gigantic peculator, he could not have been
rcviled more unsparingly. Yet The Albany
journal reioices in the hope that he will take
40 part in the Cincinnati Convention, and
trusts that he will show that his devotion to
"a principle is superior to all narrow i'm
pulses" "Mr. Sumner is honored and
esteemed" it graciously adds "because he
"has been true to bis convictions, and has
"put his country's good above all personal
"auestiOns,n &C., &c.
Such praise is more deserved than ii can be
from such quarter desired. May not The
journal be entreated 10 cyincc equal freedom
and frankness III treating OF Mr.. Ierwiiiigers
twenty per cent. on Senate printing Mr..
Cushmans thrifty dealing in postage-stamps'
Mr.. Parsonss $1,000 to the lobby agent WHO
put through his bill for btHnt-up documenls.
and Mr.. MOntanYG'5 s5)OSi May we not hear