The Placer herald., 1872-08-31
FRUGAL GRANT.

| 6oo" icoiucht. COHIlSOn was q cOrrupt
man; he did many things which were not
right; but in the eyes of loyal, upright,
conscientious, patriotic people his shortcom-
ings could not and did not go unnoticed; and
as punishment for his ong-doing be came
very nearly being impeached. But with all
his faults, there was none more grevous
than that he was most shamefully cxtrava~
CANT. johnson was elected by the Repub-
lican party, and that party is, of course, and
las for some time been the national party,
the peoples party, the right party, the lib
eral, honest, raightforward, holy and just
party, and as such could of course tolerate
nothing that in any way bore on its face the
marks of suspicion. These honest efforts to
impeach Andy were defeated by lot of
unprnciped men, who did not know any
better. We wonder how such men ever get
into office; but that they do is evident, or
Johnson never would have been President
Well, we can't impeach Johnson, they said ,
so we will have to bear with his cxtrava-
gance little longer; but one thing we can
do, we can elect good man to succeed him,
and we will do it; and we will put a plank
in the platform which will bind him to be
economical at least In went the plank, and
this is it:
-"REsoLUTroN 7. The Government of the United
| States should be administered with the stIctest
economy" and the corruptions which have
been shanefuly nursed and fostered by Andrew
Johnson call loudly for radical reform"
Thus reads the seventh resolution of the
Chichago platform, framed in 1868. They
now said, we have the platform all right,
now for an honest man who will abide by it,
stand by it, and in no wise deviatc from it;
then in the future we need have no fears Of
undue extravagance, and further shameful
waste of our public funds. Such man
was found; man who filled the bill exactly
and that man was General Grant. He has
been Democrat, they said, but that makes
no difference; he was not very good one,
so is just suited to make good Republican.
He can carry out our plans; he don't stand
at trihes; it is true, he may not be much of a
statesman, Or know very well how to run a
great government, but that makes no differ
ence; he was a lucky if not good general
and as we have no more battles to fight, he
is Just the man we want. We want man
who is economical, and we know he is all
right on that Why, it was said, the people
in the little town in which he lived before he
became great man, all agree that he owes
bills of various amounts in every grog-shop
and grocery store in the town. and certainly
no man would let liquor and grocery bills go
so long uncancelled unless decidedly econom-
cal and anxious to save money. Grant is
the man; he is economical; there can be no
doubt of that; the evidence is conclusive,
and we must elect him. And they did elect
him. They got their man. True, he was
not statesman but when a nation is Just
emerging from the dark and dismal gloom OF
long protracted civil war, and much arbi-
traton has to be done at home and abroad
to settle up accounts, they have no need for
one He was not much of an orator, but
others could make speeches for him. He
was not very sagacous, but it was not nee
essary that he should be; if 20 he would too
soon detect them in their infamous schemes
to swindle the people. lie was not very
honest, but honesty they did not want, or
they would be stopped when detected. lie
was not very wise, but wisdom was not re-
quired in these try ne times. lie was not
devoutly loyal, but loyalty was becoming a
humbug. lie was not very moral, but
morality was at discount He was eco
nomical, and that was enough.
But here, what are we going to do with
this !? Before us lies a carefully prepared
table of statistics, which shows the following
fact, and how are they to be answered ?
During the last year of Johnson 's--extrava-
giant johnson administration the total ex-
penditure for civil service rendered the gov
emment was $2.S00,5S4 81. During the
year 1870, with economical Grant at the
head of these affairs, the total expendi.
lures for the same purpose was S.
694 ACT IA. During the year 1871, the
total expenditures for the same purpose waa
S6,l67 1888 10. Where. again we say,
where shall we find the explanation Per-
haps the good Boutwell, can explain these
things, but as yet he has failed to do So
Is it possible? Must we admit that Grant,
frugal, honest Grant, could have spent OF
the peoples money, for the same service in
the same length of time, nearly three times
as much as the most extravagant President
that ever preceded him, especially when we
consider he stood on a platform in which ex-
travagance was loudly condemned, and fru-
gality made binding? 1t seems hardly cred
ible, but it is nevertheless true. And what
is more astounding yet, is, that he could
have the audacty, and men could be so far
lost to all regard to honesty and justice as to
presume to bring this man again before the
people, asking their votes to renew his lease
Of plunder and corruption. Grant has ig-
nored every clause of the platform on which
he was elected, broken the planks into slivers,