New-York tribune., 1872-05-25
4 SPECIMEN CIVIL SERVANT

A SPECIMEN CIVIL SERVANT
Some time AGO an announcement was made
from Washington that Mr.. Samuel l.. casey,
Collector of the Port of New-Orleans, had
been removed from his place. The Official
career of this man had been so scandalous,
the protection which he had so long enjoyed
was so powerful that the announcement of his
dismissal was received with equal approval
and surprise by the public. His faults were
mainly those of an INSCRIPTIONS partisan.
He was the brother-in-law Of the President.
1t was thought that these circumstances Sc
cured him against question for his acts. when
it was stated, therefore, that Gen. Grant had
dismissed him, the act was greeted with very
general praise 1t was not only good but
promising thing to do. People began to think
that Cincinnati was doing beneficent work,
even in the Executive Mansion. There were
those who imgined that Cramer might be
brought home.
But the approval as in many other cases,
came too soon. There is no confirmation OF
the good news Casey still sits at the receipt
of Customs IN the Crescent City. The name
of no successor has as yet reached the Senate,
though the end of the session is near.
1t viii be well to rehearse some OF the
reasons why Mr.. Casey is not proper person
to remain in any high Government oiice'
Many well-meaning people think the only
objection to him Is his relationship to the
Presidents family This connection serves
him as tower of strength. He can do what
he pleases, and defend himself against all
criticisms by merely saying, "All that IS
"nothing but hostility to Ulysses" Under
this agis, Mr.. Casey has allowed himself
liberties that ought not to be permitted
even to brothers-in-law. One OF his ex-
ploits was putting in practice an entirely
new, and, we may hope, unique system OF
controlling political organizations. When the
Republcans of Louisiana assembled in State
Convention at NewOrleans last Fall, they
found the cOnvocation removed to Mr.. Casey's
Custom-house and guarded by United States
troops. This arbitrary abuse of power was
for the purpose of keeping out such delegates
as might be considered unfrendly to the Grant
or Custom house interest. Tickets of admis-
sion were required of every citizen who de-
sired to enter the building-which was the
property of the nation-and Marshal Packard
sat in his Office and peddled out the coveted
pieces of pastebOard which gave entrance
to the Custom-house, guarded as it was
by two companies of United States Infantry
and four Gatling guns. These facts have
never been gainsaid; they can never be de-
Tended.
Having succeeded in dividing the party at
the Convention, Collector Casey, intent on
having things his own way, tried to break up
the State Legislature, which had in it an anti
Grant majority. In violation of law, he lent
the revenue cutter Wilderness to the cOnsDira-
tors. who fed in order to prevent quorum.
Laughing at this shrewd trick, he kept that
vessel, the property of the nation, steaming
up and down the Mississippi, in full sight OF
the city, with the fugacious legislators on
board. defying civil process from their floating
fortress.
These are fair specimens of the kind Of work
Collector Casey has thought proper to furnish
for the benefit Of a President and kinsman
who pretends to be in favor of reform OF
the Civil Service. Nobody attempts to justify
these instances of zeal, but the President, for
whom these outrages were committed, accepts
them and continues his favor to the perpe-
traitor, and the entire party which supports
him agrees to profit by this shameless lawless-
ness. There are gentlemen devoted to the
cause of reelection whom we cannot suspect
of insincerity in their advocacy of reform in
the appointment and control of civil officers.
But they are blind and dumb before these
glaring proofs of the contempt in which their
President and their Candidate holds their pIin-
ciples