New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1873-04-23
THE LESSONS OF INVESTIGATIONS

THE LESSONS OF INVESTIGATIONS
1t was not without good cause that The
TRIBUNE said, more than o year ago, that
the Republican party had become corrupt
and its power as then administered, dan
gerous to the cause of honesty and mo-
raity. 1t was no hasty utterance or care
less inference from facts half known and half
suspected nor was it said in the spirit of
partisanship or passion. 1t was the statement
of an opinion deliberately formed, and with
sufficient knowledge of the facts to warrant
the conclusion. That THE TRIBUNE was cor
rect in its judgment of the party, in so far as
its administration of national affairs Is con-
cerned, has been most amply demonstrated.
Credit MObilier Investigations, bribery in cleo
tons, purchase and sale of seats i'll The Senate,
usurpatiOn by one drunken Federal Judge,
shameful prostitution of justice by another,
and dlsgraceful and dishonest lobbying by
anotheT,-wrigglng in falsehOod and perjury
by Senators and high officials, Senators bribed
by general retaineTS from great corporations,
and Congressman bought by distribution of
stock,-repeaters pardOned, distinct and specific
promises repudiated, salaries doubled, and a
million and half stolen Outright,-all these
things and sickened country holding its nose
at the dreadful stencil of the uncovered
corruption, testify abundanty to the correct
ness of the conclusions of THE TRIBUNE and
the Justice of its views.
What THE TRIBUNE said of the party in the
nation it said also of it in the State. Root and
branch it was corrupt and needed prompt re-
form, or the discipline of defeat. Bad men con-
trolled and directed its councils in the State dis
Io1 &c nd Win a1
its power. Lack of opportunity was the only
limit to the rapacity of the scheming and in
triguing gang of politicians who, without
principle and with little knowledge of politics,
save in the dirty, money and offce-g getting way,
held absolute sway over the party, directing
it's policy and appOrtioning its rewards. In
corrupt and treacherous alliance with the
great rOgues of the opposition they played
wear in and year out the see-saw game of
municipal thieves, and, whichever party
was UP or whichever down, plundered
the public with equal impartiality and
constancy. That THE TRIBUNE was right in
its estimate of the character and purposes of
the leaders in the State has been Enthusiastically
shown in the course of recent legislation, by
exposures of canal frauds, by the trickery and
lobbying over the Charter, by the attempt to
cheat the people who supposed they had
initiated municipal reform into taking the
city treasury out of the hands of one ring of
thieves only to put it into those of another,
and by the amazing developments in the in
vestigatiOn of the management of the Erie
road. Whatever faith the people had left in
the Administration leaders in the State, what
ever hope of rescue from the clutches of
public robbers, has all been diSsipated by
these disclosures.
Especially sickening are the revelations in
Erie. Here was a great reform or revolution
in the management of corporation that for
years had been most cOrruptly handled and
shamelessly robbed. The overthrow of the
bad men who had so long been intrenched in
it was reckoned triumph of morality and
virtue. and classed with the political revolu-
ton that hurried the Tammany thieves out of
| power. But investigation shows that the re-
! form itself was the result of dishonest in
trigues and betrayal of trusts, and that the
change of direction was accomplished by
means as INSCRIPTIONS as any the Ring in
possession had ever used to maintain their
ascendency. And the worst feature of it is
| the connection with these dsroputable trans
actions of high official Of the Government
a Minister to foreign court-who left his
post of duty with the consent Of the Execu-
tive to do the dirty work in this affair 1t
appears that Minister Sckles, upon his repre-
sensations to the President that the change in
| the Erie direction would inure to the benefit
| of the Administration party, was per-
| mitted leave of absence from his post,
| and that while drawing pay from Government
| for his services at Madrid he was drawing
much larger fees from his employers in En-
gland and New-York for buying up board of
directors and bribing them to betrayal of
trust Il is a sad evidence of the condition of
tbe nublic service that the President of tho
| limited States consents to such conduct in an
oGcjal.-it is still sadder that wo have officials