American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1872-06-29
WhiteWaSh.

1t is most fortunate thing for the
Grant party that lime is abundant and
whitewash cheap in this country. That
party uses an incalculable amount of the
article, and if its manufacture were lin
tied to Massachusetts, or Pennsylvania,
and high protective tariff imposed on
its importation, the whItewash bill for a
single session of Congress would bank
rupt the party. Never were so many in
vestigating committees ordered and put
to work, as at the late session-ordered
and put to work, be it remembered, in
spite Of the opposition of the party whose
officials and favorites were to be lnvestl-
gated. Never was so much corruption
inquired into; never were so many reports
made; and never were so many suspected
official characters found to be SO lmmacu-
late and shining. The Administration
party could not consistently refuse to in
vestigate the charges against the Presl-
dents friends and favorites; but they did
the next best thing, they whitewashed the
last man of them. They vindicated Sec
rotary Robson, who paid the $93,OOO
Secor claim without authority; they vim
dictated the War Department, which sold
arms to France, knowing that they were
to be used in the war against the Ger
mans; they indicated Casey, who used
Calling guns and revenue cutter for par
all, they vindicated those precious fel-
lows, Leet and Stocking, the g Knights
of the General Order" as Mr. Schurz
called Them Some of these accused
Presidential favorites had been openly
denounced by the more respectable or
gans of the Administration, which, NOR
titled by their shameless conduct, had
loudly called upon the President to re-
move them. They had spoken of Casey
,sry1 RI
counseled the President, for the good of
the party, to turn him out of the New
Orleans Collectorship and they had join
ed with the opposition journals and the
merchants of New York, in denoun cling
the General Order" robberies of Leet
and Stocking, and demanding their re-
moval and the abolition of the &c General
Order" business But notwithstanding
all this, the majority reports of the in
vestigating committees found no fault
with the Presidents pets. They discov-
cred nothing wrong in Louisiana, and
nothing wrong in New York. The man.
agement of the New Orleans Custom
House under Collector Casey, and OF the
New York Custom-House under Tom
Murphy, was reported to be excellent.
Casey was found to be an excellent fellow
and most decorous and proper official !;
SO was Tom Murphy so were Leet and
CtOchlugs So were all tic 1CSI VI
them. They saw nothing wrong about
the General Order business in New York.
out of which Leet was making hundred
thousand a year, and of which =. T.
Stewart had complained to the p resident
they heard of no Calling guns and mis-
used revenue cutters at New Orleans ;
they heard of nothing wrong anywhere.
At all places they found things in de-
hghtful condition, and the whole civil
service under Grant to be as pure and
chaste as in the most virtuous age of the
Republic and SO they virtually reported.
There never was more cold-blooded
defiance of the public sentiment than this
wholesale embarrassing of corrupt Off
cials by the Presidents party in Congress.
The facts, as charged and admitted by re.
spectacle Administration journals, were
sufficiently established the whole coun-
try knew them, and fair minded Republi-
cans condemned them Yet, in the face
of this universal indignation, the Presi-
dents party refused to find the offenders
guilty, and the President refuses to re-
move one of them from office--Missourl
Republican.