American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1872-03-09
The Presidents Game.
In the Senate debate upon the Amnesty
ill last Tuesday Senator Thurman made

| In the Senate debate upon the Amnesty
| bill last Tuesday, Senator Thurman made
the following exceedingly sharp point:
| Now find great difficulty in understanding this
! Administration. The President in his annual mes
| sage recommends amnesty. and here is the Sen
ator from Indiana Morton; one Of his chief sup
| mends Civil Service Reform and the Senator from,
! Wisconsin MIR Carpenter pour- ont upon it the
vials of his wrath and rdici,lc. I can hardly un-
| derstand it, but IL l Were suspicious man. |
would say tina; this is the old trick of throwing
| tub to the whale would suspect that when the
President says, Let US have Civil Service Reform.
there is mental reservation that il shall be killed
in Congress- and when he says, - Let us have Am
nesty. there is a mental reservation that the Radi-
Gals in the Senate shall kill Amnesty. / do not
charge any such hypocrisy upon the President. but
| it does look wonderfully strange that every i'm
portant recommendation by the President is ig-
nored by his friends in this chamber.
| Sensible people of both parties have al
ready come to the same conclusion which
| the Ohio Senator here sets forih-or
rather, very strongly intimetcs. Indeed
it is impossible to reach any other, under
| the peculiar circumstances of the case.
There has heretofore been the most thor
ough understanding between the Presi-
dent and that portion of the Radical ele-
ment represented by Morton and his
particular friends; and until the present
time the former has initiated no policy
which has not been warmly seconded by
the latter. In fact, it is believed by those
| who have had the best opportunities for
knowing, that every important movement
of the Administration is originated by the
kitchen Cabinet which Morton heads. and
then adopted and formally promulgated
by the Executive and his Constitutional
advisers. That there has been any rup-
ture or dissolution of partnership in this
curious political firm, no one supposes :;
yet the two principal propositions upon
which the President has apparently fixed
his affections arc bitterly opposed-we
may say kiiled-by the very men who
might naturally be eXpectedto support
them and secure their success. Amnesty
and CivilService Reform are permanently
shelved, and the Morton wing have done
the business.
Senator Thurman is unwilling to charge
tho President with hypocrisy" but call
it by what name you please, we, at least,
are satisfied that his EXcellency is playing
deep game in this matter-and the meth
cd of that game is clearly exposed in the
extract quoted above. Amnesty and re-
form are presidential tubs thrown to the
popular whale, and the distinguished per-
sonage who threw them knew beforehand
precisely the fate they would meet in Con
gress. He is not now, and never was,
sincerely in favor of a generous policy to-
ward the Southern people he is not now,
and never was, earnestly DESTROYS to re-
deem and purify the civil service from
the corruptions which encompass it; but
these are nice hobbies to ride in the ma
tional race, and so he mounts them amid
a great flourish of trumpets. And his
champions in Senate and House are quick
to perform their part of the farce. The
President is to preach Justify, and they
are to steadily refuse putting the precepts
into practice. Thus the former hopes to
gain credit with the people for his good
intentions, while, by previous arrange
ment, there is not the smallest possible
chance of these intentions amounting to
anything more than cheap talk
As one evidence of the correctness of
this view, we would remind our readers
that when President Grant espoused the
Domingo annexation scheme, and said
scheme hung fire in the Senate, he re-
peatedly visited the Capitol, interviewed
influential Senators, and urged them to
vote for his pet measure. Has he done
as much in the present instance ?-and
are not reform and amnesty of more con
sequence to the country than the acquisi-
ton of dirty little island in the Gulf ?
He is reported to have remarked, Il few
days since, that he was anxious to see the
plan of the Civil-Service Commission
adopted, but if Congress refused the nee
essary legislation, he, of course, was pow |
erless in the premises. One-tenth the |
pressure brought to bear for Domingo |
would have carried that plan through sue |
cessfully; but this pressure has not been |
and will not be exerted, for reasons we |
have specified.
Here, then, is the game being played |
by President Grant on the one side, and |
the MortOnites on the other and in |
which the people are to be the victims |
But with the light now thrown on the
table and cards, the gamesters are not |
likely to win.-Missourt Republican.