American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1873-04-26
The President and Mr.. Curtis.

Mr.. George W. Curtis deserves well of
the country for telling the blunt truth
about the Presidents Ciyil-Service farce,
and for the resolute way in which he in
sisted on having that truth brought before
the public mind. There was an attempt
made by the Administration sycophants
to keep it out of sight by making the
courteous but lying announcement that
Mr. Curtis had resigned "on account of
i'll health;" but Mr. Curtis met this lie at
the threshold and throttled it at once. He
first authorized a New York journal to
state that he had not resigned ION account
of i'll health" and then, to prevent all fur
ther conjectures about the matter, he made
public his letter to the President, giving
his real reasons for resigning. These
reasons are very creditable to himself and
very discreditable to the President. Re
cent appointments by the Executive, and
circumstances under which they were
made, ''show an abandonment both of the
spirit and letter Of the CivilService regu-
lations;" these are the plain words which
Mr.. Curtis addresses to the President; and
the President was, no doubt, surprised to
find himself so sternly rebuked by one of
his hitherto faithful and most docile sub
ordinates. AN abandonment both of the
spirit and letter of the Civil-Service regu-
lations'' is an indefensible recreancy to "A
cause to which the President has pledged
the authority of his person and his admin
istration; and for the President to be bold
ly reproached for this betrayal by so
faithful Il supporter as Mr.. Curtis, shows
how fast all respect for the Presidents
person is vanishing from his party.
And yet, after all, Mr.. George w. Curtis
is behind the times. The truth which he
now tells the President and the country
was substantially asserted by the Opposi-
,r,r1,f JSt as
plain then as now, but the calm eyes of
Mr.. Curtis could not or would not see it.
Tom Murphy and the general ORDER out
RACES in the New York Custom-H House;
Collector Casey and his scandalous mis-
conduct at New Orleans; the indecent in
reference of the United States Assessors
and Collectors with the elections in North
Carolina; and the equally indecent inter
ference of the Federal officials with the
municipal affairs of New York-all these
wrongs, approved by the President, were
proclaimed over and over in the canvass
of last summer, till Mr.. Curtis had no eX-
cuse for not knowing them. But he not
only refused to recognize and admit them,
but denied and defended them, and assist
ed TO re-elect the President who had ap
proved them. Nay, more: when the
Opposition press foreshadowed that
Credit Mobilier scheme of bribery which
has since been proved to have involved so
many eminent Republicans, Mr.. Curtis
treated the matter as too tritling to merit
serious notice. Subsequently, when the
proudest heads of his party were made to
bow in shame and dishonOr before the rev
Citations of their bribery and perjury, he
yielded to an influence which he
could not longer safely resist, and gave us
grave and decorous rebukes of Con
gressiona felony. Mr.. Curtis is
now following In the wake of the
Opposition press; he is beginning TO adj
nit the scandals and hypocrisies which
the Opposition denounced last summer;
he has discovered that the CivilService
Reform, which the President twice pro-
claimed with official authority, was moth
ing more than an amusing by-play intend
ed to deceive the people, and that Mr..
George w. Curtis was the unconscious
chief puppet in the show. For what sort
of CivilService Reform is that which
reappoints Casey to the New Orleans Col
lcctorship; which appoints Holden, the
impeached Governor of North Carolina,
Postmaster at Raleigh; which appoints
L. S. Marshal Sharpe to the Naval Office
at New York, right under Mr.. Curtis nose,
and in wanton disregard of the regulations
which Mr.. Curtis was selected to enforce;
and which sets these regulations aside in
every case when they come between the
Presidents friends and Il coveted offices.
Still, we thank Mr. Curtis for his brief
note to the President, of the 18th of March.
1t is Il stronger dose Of truth than the
President is in the habit of having admin
istered to him, and although it will not do
the distinguished patient Il particle of
good, that is not Mr. Curtis fault He has
tardily recognized what he might have
discerned six months ago, and though the
admission comes too late for the canvass
of 1872, it may have its effect in that of
1874, when we elect Il new Congress. and
thai of 1876 when we elect new Presi-
dent.-Uissouri Republican,.