New-York tribune., 1872-08-13
DFCFNCY IN POLITICS,

nered iournals of the Administration, the prln-
o;noI snnnorters of Mr.. Greeley are rogues and
blockguards (or, to use the language OF one OF
the least respectable of them, Old Honesty
SIS surrounded and run by thieves,~ ana
the Liberal Republicans are deserters ana
fraudulent pretenders, who ought not 10
be recognized in respectable society. ms
paper is only little more violent and vulgar
than the leaders of It's party; for 1t has
been an understood thing since the cam
paign opened that those who would noV
stay in the Grant organization from choice
should be frightened into remaining ny
the unbounded abuse of those VINO Went
out. We say nothing now OF charges againSO
the candidates; if a Grant organ pelicNo'
Mr.. Greeley to be a burglar and seces-
sionist it only fulfills its duty, according 10
its own intelligence, in saying so; just as We
act according to our conscience when We oo
iect TO Grant as an inefficient and ignorant
man. controlled by corrupt favorltes' DuV "o
ask the American people whether they arc
satisfedthat political controversy shall degeh-
erate into the vile system of outrage upon
norsonol character which some of the Admin
| istration organs are trying to make 1T
A majority of the most eminent puDlic
men in the Republican party see ut TO give
their vote for President to Que who mas peeh
q consistent Republican ever since the party
has had an existence, and who fought for Re-
nubl;can principles when it cost something to
proress them, rather than to one VINO never
voted a Republican ticket in his life, and was
always at variance with Repubhcanism until
the party made him President Instantly the
orators and scrbes of the Administration de-
nounce these men as the vilest OF the Vlle'
Mr. Sumner is q Catiline. Mr.. SchuTZ IS a
low adventurer. Gen. Banks is coward.
Mr.. Trumbull is rogue. There IS no IN
dignity which has not been o1ered
| TO these high-bred virtuous and dlsun-
puished gentlemen by speakers like Mr.. Conk-
ling and writers like those of The NeW- York
Times. No opprobrious epithet is too strong
for them. No sanctites of private life deter
their invading footsteps. No respect Tor TRUTH
or Justice, or the rules of social intercourse ever
gives them moments pause. 1t is enough
! for the Administration stumper and the
licensed hack that an adversary will not vote
for Grant: "He's a stranger; heaye half
brick at him."
|
example set at Washington. Mr.. Sumner was
shamefully used by the President because he
could not conscientiously support the Santo
Domingo scheme. Every independent Repub-
lican in Congress who objected to the Executive
usurpations was made to feel either in person
or through his friends the weight of the Presi-
dents displeasure. Merchants who testified
against the CustOm-hOuse officials on the re-
cent investigation were threatened with prose-
cution. Clerks who told the truth were turned
| ont of office. Wherever the Executive arm
could reach, there the policy of punishment
and prescription was enforced against those
who preferred any other than Grant for
the next President of the United States.
And now the speakers and campaign
zealots have taken their cue, and begun to
abuse all the voters who cannot be reached
through the agency of the reformed Civil
| Service. Who assumes to make the support
of Grant a test of good citizenship and moral
integrityf Who dares tell the Republicans of
the United States that they may not choose
their own candidate, or dares accuse them OF
desertiOn" and dishonesty" beCluse they
vote for one of their oldest leaders and follow
the counsels of their foremost patriots and
statesmen2 Who is attempting to drag0On
the party into the reelection of an unfit and
unpopular PRESIDENT When U. S. Grant and
Horace Porter and Benjamin +. Butler
undertake to cut off Greeley, Brown, Sum-
ner, Banks, Schurz, Trumbull, Bowles, White
and host of others equally well-known in
political history from the communion of the
Republican party, we may really ask in
amazement what the symbol of orthodoxy is
And when, following this arbitrary and i'm
pudent discrimination, the Presidents friends
give license to their abusive tongues, We
wonder whether in their code there really is
any crime more infamous than preference
for Greeley over Grant.
REVIVAL OF THE AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE
More than month ago we directed atten-