New-York tribune., 1872-08-15
WHAT 1T COST ANDREW ID. WHITE TO
STAND BIZ GREELEY.

WHAT 1T COST ANDREW ID. WHITE TO
STAND BY GREELEY,
The Hon. Andrew ID. White has made
political speech at Albany, in which he aiudes
with feeling to his own record, and declares
that he will not inveigh against the Liberal
Republican candidate because, says he, l
" bonored and stood by Horace Greeley in
DAYS when it cost something to do so, from
at the beginning of political life until Mr..
" Greeley turned against the Republican party,
Z" and became secretly an instrument to en-
" able the Democratic party to get back INTO
power.n Let us see about this.
The beginning of Mr.. Andrew ID. Whites
poltical life was about 1853, when he was ap-
pointed by President Pierce attache to the Lega-
ton at st. Petersburg, under Thomas IL. Sey-
mOur He found it convenient to stand by
the Democratic party then, and we think ms
devotion to Mr. Greeley did not cost him much
at the hands of Messrs. Pierce and Seymour.
After his return from Russia he became a
professor in the University of Michigan, and
he was still holding that post when, by the
help of some theory of double residence which
we do not clearly understand, he was elected
to the New York Senate. Up to this time GER
tainly it had not cost Mr.. White great deal
to stand by Mr.. Greeley, nor was he
to all appearance seriously inconven-
fenced by his devotion to that gentle
man in his subsequent career in the Legisla-
ture. In the contest for the United States
Senatorship in 1867 between Roscoe COnkling,
Ira Harris, and Noah Davis, Mr.. White was
exceedingly active in behalf of Mr.. Conkling,
and made a vigorous speech for him In con-
yention, Notwithstanding that the idol of his
whole political career, whom he had stood by
" in days when it cost something to do so"
had also been nominated. If Mr.. White was
eager to sacrifice himself for Horace Greeley,
he had an excellent chance then.
Whether it was in reward for this service,
or in expectation of something further, that
Mr. White was appointed one of the Santo
Domingo Commissioners, we shall not presume
to say. But the President and the Presidents
friends had every reason to expect from this
political martyr as favorable report on the
island as it would be possible for any man to
write, and we all know that they got it, For
Mr. Andrew. ID. White, as it has since been
ascertained, wanted to be Secretary Of State.
That ia still his absurd ambition
That is the pole star by which he
has steered his course through the vexed polit-
ica seas of the last two years. In September,
1871, he was chosen delegate to the Republi-
can State Convention at Syracuse, and there
he behaved in manner which will not soon
be forgotten. He was elected in a strongly
anti -COnking district upon pledge that he
would do nothing contrary to the wishes of
bis constituents. By personal appeals and
promises he next obtained the post of tempo
rary chairman. Then he threw off disguise and
made himself openly the tool of the COnkllng
or Custom house faction, packing the Com
mittee on Credentials with COnkling men, and
so excluding entirely the delegation which
represented the Greeley party. When this dis
creditable action was criticised in many Re-
publican newspapers, Mr.. White, confident of
his promotion to the State Department, went
so far as to offer first-class consuishps TO
country editors if they would only whItewash
him for this latest of his ways of standing by
Mr.. Greeley.
A few DAYS ago he charged Mr.. Sumner with
"gross perversiOn of facts" in his statement
of the manner of Frederick Douglasss treat
ment after the return of the SantO Domingo
Commission. Mr.. Sumner promptly showed
that his own statement of facts was entirely
correct and Mr.. Whites entirely wrong. Sure
iy Mr. White must be paid for this wound to
his temper and his reputation. The laborer Is
worthy of his hire, and it will be hard If Pres
ident Grant do not give him either the office
he has SO long coveted, or some other before
the fourth of March arrives, when Mr.. Grant
will have no more offices to give. After that
date we shall doubtless have Mr.. White max
ing more speeches to tell how ne always
stood by Mr. Greeley.