New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1873-03-25
END OF THE CALDWELL CASE.

Mr.. Alexander Caldwell has resigned the
seat which he purchased in the United States
Senate, and is now calculating, we suppose,
how much he has lost by his rather rash in
Vestment. He seems to have been a nov
ice in the business. He disregarded the
conventional subterfuges by which shrewder
operators buy up Legislatures. He never
offered Counsel fee" in return for inhu-
ence he had no valuable stock to place where
it would do most good he did not even pro-
pose to join anybody in starting national
bank Wanting votes, he just went into the
State House and bought them in open market
He paid his principal competitor large sum
of money to get out of the way. He offered
this man a thousand dollars He promised
that man a saddle horse. He made a bid for
the whole delegation of Oneicounty in lump.
And when the honorable gentlemen heard that
Caldwell was buying they hurried up to
sell themselves with the cheerfullest alacrity.
Of course Mr.. Cadwell's transactions were
soon known to all the world. IL we said that
they were found out we should convey o false
impression, for they never were secret. The
United States Senate could not help taking
notice of them, and a good deal of surprise
has been expressed that Mr.. Caldwell should
have expected to retain q seat procured by
such unblushing bribery.
And yet Mr.. Caldwell's blind confidence was
not so remarkable after all. He was brought
up in rude school of rascality which never
sought DISCUSSES He grew rich in the midst
of community accustomed to cheating and
venality in their most Obtrusive forms. He
saw money achieve great many remarkable
things in politics, and he knew no reason why
it should not place him in a position of eclat
and opportunities, if he only spent enough of
it, Personally he was no worse than many
Others who had prospered in public life. Every
body in Kansas, for instance, knew 5. G.. P0me-
10Y; but Mr.. Pomeroy at Washington seemed
to be accepted as an eminently respectable
statesman-charman of two committees and
in good Odor at the White House. Mr.. Cald-
well no doubt drew parallel between
himself and his colleague, and was not too
modest to imagine that one was about as
good as the other. And what had the Senate
done to make him think that an adventurer
of his stamp would be out of place in it 7
What class of men had it tolerated from some
of the reconstructed States What anxiety
had it shown either to keep its own halls
Ocdu VI W puIllJ VI Inc
public service The only qualification which
this partisan body seemed to demand, either
from its own members or from any officer of
the Government, was jealous, undiscriminat-
ing support of the Republican Administration;
and Mr.. Caldwell was az fierce an Adminstra-
ton man as the best of them. There was
time when vulgar rogue, who bought coun-
try politicians as one buys pigs, would not
have ventured TO aspire to seat in the
United States Senate If the popular appre-
citation of the dignity and purity of that body
has fallen, the Senate has only itself to blame.
1t is rather to be regretted that Mr. Cald-
well has chosen to take himself out of the
way at last by resignation. His legislative
career deserved more dramatic ending, and
the Senate was very much in need of an OPP
portunity to patch its damaged reputation by
a show of virtuous severity. 1t has shut its
eyes to the Credit Mobilier iniquity. 1t has
refused to expel Patterson. 1t has excused
Pomeroy. IL has done nothing with Clayton.
1t has confirmed Casey. Mr.. Caldwell was lts
last hope, and now he has fled. The result is
that professional politicians have settled upon
the conclusion that no offense Is black enough