New-York tribune., 1873-02-12


transaction itself. We are dealing with them
simply in their relations to the people who
trusted them as their truthful, honorable, and
faithful servants. Were there nothing dis
honorable or disgraceful in receiving this stock
under the circumstances in which it was dis
tributed-a position all the parties have
estopped themselves from taking by the haste
and earnestness of their denals-they stand be-
fore the country under the new arraignment
of having lied to and deceived the people
And Just here is the crying shame,
the disgrace of our politics, the peril OF pop
ular institutions Though trusted themselves
so implicitly that before Gordon of circum-
stances and an array of facts such as the life
of any private citizen would not be worth a
rush against, their eyasions or bare denials
we're held conclusive. These men did not
trust the people. And now the people waking
with sort of dulled and deadened moral
sense to something of the meaning of the ex-
posures--taking in the facts and turning them
over wistfully, as one waking to consciousness
from great shock fumbles in a dazed way
the club that felled him-begin to ask,
"Well, what about it ALI" They
these men whom they trusted and
believed In so entirely, in whose behalf they
had angrily denied the strange stories of the
campaign as falsehoods and ISLANDERS, in de-
fense of whose regulations and good names
they had Indignantly denounced all who
quoted or believed the current reports as
libelers and traducers-if these men were
after all dishonest and just what the campaign
ISLANDERS" said they were. And now they
know it-know that the men they most trusted
on the strength of whose unsupported word
they denounced their assailants as villains and
perjurerS-were unworthy of confdence-were
acting lie. And they are saying now in
weary way: What's to come of itH What
"sort of a crime is it, and what is TO be the
"penaltyT
Let us meet this question squarely. Con-
gress foOlng away time on the thin ice of
Investigations it has not moral vigor enough
to give any meaning to, lodging plain ques-
tons, evading, shuffling, pushed forward
against its will to do so much as'it has, will
botch the business inevitably. There is no
conscience in this inquiry; no shocked moral
sense nothing but limp and flabby recogni-
ton of possible responsibility to the people
by and by. So far from its having any back
bone of character, it has not gristle enough to
give it purpose or meaning. And so they are
talking now in foIcible- feeble way about
expelling-whOmf Why, Mr.. Oakes Ames and
Mr. James Brooks. What fort Mr.. Brooks
perhaps because he is a Democrat but why
Ames7 If no one has been bribed, Mr.. Ames
has bribed no one. If he was guilty of at
tempting to bribe those honest gentlemen, it is
a very poor time now for them to turn on
him; it would have had much more reason
able look to have denounced him when he
offered them the stock under circumstances
which could not be miscOnstrued.
No, no. There are too many concerned
in this disgrace for anybody to, be punished.
AS was said during the Rebellion and after
its close, you cannot punish a whole people
for treason, so it may now almost as well be
said you cannot punish whole Congress for
corrupt and disgraceful practices. They will
let each other go in the event. And then
whatP What becomes of our standards of
political morality if we let it be established
that Members of Congress may engage in
questionable transactions, quibble and lie and
perjure themselves and go not only unwhippcd
of Justice, but with no forfeiture of popular
confidencei Can the country afford such
precedentsi For all that Congress can or will
do we shall have them. There is no hope
there.
Where thenf In the good sense and the
honest instincts of the partyf Let us see.
Since these investigations began two States
have held Republican ConventiOns-what did
they do \ Quarreled for offices in a most dis
gusting way, and never uttered a word of
protest OF of modification at the infamies
which have been laid bare in the past few
months. The leaders go on without conscious
ness of responsibility or sense of shame, and
expect the masses to follow them. Will they I
That is the question of the hour. There is
only one hope-COngress will do nothing to
restore the public confidence in itself-the
party in power have apparently not recovered
sufficiently from the intOIication of victory to
suffer remorse or promise pentence-it rests
only with the people. In their ultimate good
sense and honesty we devoutly believe. Some
time they will rebuke the decevers-not,
perhaps, to-day, or at the end of the week,
but some time surely.