The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1872-05-09
ALFRED licking These rules won't do to go
by-Gncinnati Times.
Strong Attack upon President Grant from
Republican Source.

q HepuDlIcan Source.
One of the most significant illustrations of
the powerful movement against President Grant
in the Republican ranks is found in the an
| nexed article, copied from the May number of
the Atlantic Monthly:
The replies of the friends of the Administra-
tion to the charges made agai inst the President
have been from the first, considered merely as
replies, singularly Ineffective. The official re-
ply to the charge of nepotism was that, instead
of having appointed twenty-four relatives to
Office, the President had only appointed twelve.
But the difficulty with this method of meeting
the accusation was, that it did not go far
enough. Obviously the question was not
whether the number of these appointments had
been exaggerated, but what the proportion was
between the whole number of appointments
actually made and the whole number of rela-
tives. If the President has 1000 relatives
clamorous for office, the appointment of twelve
lit may possibly have been eleven) was not
very large On the other hand, if he has only
thirteen relatives who seek offices, and are elig-
ibe under the Constitution, the appointment
of twelve shows different spirit. To have
made its reply complete, the official organ in
New York ought to publish not only COM
plete list of all the relatives of the President
and Mrs Grant, but at the same time furnish
full information on the points we have indica-
ted. To the most serious charge of all, that OF
these family appointees several were incompe-
tent to discharge the duties of their offices in
fit and honest manner one of them being the
notorious Casey, of New Orleans, no reply has
been made. The country has as yet been
spared hearing by way of official answer that
these indecent appointments were not in reality
four in number, as had been reported, but only
three
In the second place, the charge that, in the
face of repeated remonstrances, the President
has allowed an obscure and impudent adyen-
turer to amass fortune by systematic system
of plunder, under the protection of the author
tiles of the Government, it was replied that the
general order system would soon be modified.
And it has been modified, and no one knows
to-day whether Leet retains the control of it
OF not. To the charge that the President took
no interest in the most important political
question of the day, that of civil service reform,
| it was replied that a board of eminent men
had been appointed to consider the subject and
that the President would be guided by their
conclusions. Their report was made and adop-
ted by the President, and great flourish of
trumpets was made over, this reform, which
might quite as easily have been introduced
three years BEFORE and it had hardly been
adopted, when it was announced that the rules
would be temporarily suspended whenever the
Administration thought proper.
And, lastly, to the charge of present-taking,
the reply made, is that tho whole matter was
talked over in 1867 by Col. Forney, Mr.. JUS
tice Carter, and Senator Thayer and General
Grants chief of staff, and it was decided that,
as General Grant had saved the rich a great
deal during the war, it was only fair that he
should get some of it himself All these accu-
sations however, are merely matters of detail.
Those who distrust the Administration have an
underlying ground of complaint, which it
would require great deal to remove. 1t has
often been repeated, but repetition does not
weaken its force. It is, that when General
Grant was elected, four years ago, it was the
popular belief and understanding that he would
bend all his energies to the work of purifying
the Government, of redeeming it from the cor
ruption into which it has fallen, of assisting
those whose objects it is to make political life
in America once more respectable and honora-
BILE. Instead of doing this, he has allied him.
self with the very men whose names are by
words throughout the country for those vices
which he professed his desire to root out; he
has lent his warm assistance to petty factions,
warning not for any political object, but for the
control of plunder, and he now demands his
reelection on the strength of these services to
the country.