American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1872-10-05

The President has now been absent
from the capital for three consecutive
months, and regularly established at Long
Branch. He was among the first to quit
Washington upon the adjournment OF
Congress, although the public business
actually required his presence and atten-
ton. 1t is doubtful whether the brief pc
RODS of recreation of all the Presidents
combined, from Washington down, would
sum up total of continuous absence
equal to that of the present incumbent
Certainly no predecessor ever set the bad
example of abandoning his post formally
for Il whole season, and adopting an indie
pendent residence remote from that which
the law assigns to the executive, and
which he is supposed to occupy.
This imitation of the habits of mOnar-
chy is consistent with other innovations
upon the simple uSaGeS of the fathers, with
which Radicalism has been gradually I'M
dermining our institutions, centraliZing
power, and preparing the way for a
change even in the form of government.
Every rejecting mind is oppressed with
the visible revolution, which eleven years
of this rule have wrought in the tone,
practices and principles which mark pub
lie and private life now, in sad contrast
with the condition which existed before
the war. If Mr.. Buchanan, when the cur
rent duties OF the executive were not hall
as great as they now are, had deserted his
post for month of personal pleasure,
there would have been an Out5urst OF in
dignatiOn throughout.the country. Now.
Gen. Grant goes to the seashore, closes
the executive mansion, and is absent
more than third of every year cOntinu-
ously, and yet this selfish neglect is de
Tended by his INSCRIPTIONS partisans.
And the President who does this sends
messages to Congress and pirates about
civil service reform! The first element
of any reform is fidelity to duty. With
out that there can be no improvement.
Gen. Grant is directly and personally re-
spOnsible for the present decentralization
in the public service. He has made neg
lect rule of official practice by his own
example. How can he rebuke others for
omissions, when he himself discards all
usage, defies public opinion, and makes
his own qualification superior to every de-
mand of his high position?
What the President does the cabinet
initiate, and what the cabinet do the chiefs
of bureaus follow. And so the precedent
runs all through the departments down
to the very messengers. And this is not
all. Absenteeism breeds other vices.
When strict supervision is gone and re-
sponsibility removed, loose ideas of duty
insidiously creep in, and they are sue
ceeded by corruption and collision. 1t is
perfectly notorious and capable of legal
proof that no large claim, however just it
may be, can pass through the departments
without paying toll.
The roll of some of the principal absen-
tees will of itself, without comment, show
much injury must be inflicted on the Or
binary business of the departments. For
months together, hardly anything but
mere routine has been attempted. Papers
involving important private rights, as
well as public concern, have laid week af-
ter week on the desks of members of the
cabinet awaiting their signatures, which
only.