Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1873-08-09
THE INAUGURATION BILL.

dtUUS
THE INAUGURATION BILL.
At the last Inauguration of Gen.
Grant an effort was made by the cab
met and others in authority to invest
that occasion with exceptional inter-
est, and to organize pageant after
the monarchical pattern Official prop
ertyand usage were recklessly castaside
in order to make the parade imposing,
and to familiarize the spectators with
an idea of the price and pomp of per-
sonal government. The cadets from
West Point and the midshipmen from
Annapolis werefor the first time taken
away from their studies, and used to
make figure in the unseemly show.
As that innovation upon the princi-
pal and practice of those institutions
was not possible without positive Or
ders from the highestsources, the pres
ident could not have been ignorant of
the action of the secretaries of war
and the navy, if indeed his consent
was not necessary for so subversive
precedent. So that the presidents
own official household exerted the
most unusual powers to make this dis
play for their chief, just as if no deli
cacy or decency was involved in such
a departure from the simplicity and
republican dignity that had always
been associated with a presidential in
auguration.
Had this homage not been agreeable
to Gen. Grant, it never would have
been ventured. Those most active in
promoting it were too near his person
and too well informed as to his tastes
not to know that the incense was
grateful to his senses. Courtiers are
not apt to make a mistake when en-
gagged in fattering ambition or mag
nifying merit. If the presidents in
clinatious were once plain, in keeping
with his humble fortune and limited
change for indulgence, they are now
radically changed and for the worse;
for never before has any incumbent of
the white house affected so much
pomp, or permitted hunkyism to dis
figure its propriety with such vulgar
externals.
The Washington ring, who owe
their places and power to the presi-
dent, and who surround him with their
sinister influences, were mainly instru-
mental in getting up the spectacle for
the 4th of March. Having possession
of the local government, all its ma
chinery was employed in every posi-
BILE way to give it eclat, and to that
end the military were pressed into SER
vice from various cities, so as to make
that feature superceds the civic char
acter of the occasion.
But their great browning achieve
ment was to be the Inauguration ball.
Not content with the decorous custom
which good taste had long established
for this closing ceremony, the coarse
crew who assumed control of it must
splurge upon a grand scale. They
erected an enormous building, levied
contributions on the oficeholders, and
issued circulars to the faithful far and
wide. The tickets were put at high
price, and the ball was advertised as
something which every loyal friend of
the administration was expected to
patroniZe.
In spite of all these appliances and
the fact that there are six thousand
public employees in Washington, the
ball was humiliating and disastrous
failure. 1t became known that the
colored element was to be represented,
and so society was shocked and would
not attend on any terms. That excuse,
at least, was found for refusing to as
sOciate with the ring crowd. The CO.
creed officials and the ring had the af-
fair pretty much to themselves. As
the night was intensely cold, the effect
produced by a mixture Of cloaks, furs,
Overcoats, heavy shawls, and the like,
can be well imagined, while the ma
rine band were discoursing their best
bad music. And as if to consult the
eternal fitness of things, one of the
presidents police commissioners, a
"Granl Democrat" who had occupied
casemate at Fort Lafayette for dis
loyalty, was chosen to conduct Mrs.
Grant in the ballroom in presence of
the diplomatic corps, and while sena-
tors and others were figuring on the
committee of arrangements
And now comes the disgraceful
sequel to this part of the business
Notwithstanding the millions which
the ring have stolen from the people
of Washington, and from the money
voted by congress, the cost of that ball
is still unpaid, four months after it
was given. Those who furnished it
have been swindled, while those who
projected it have been strengthened at
the White House. Bad as Tweed and
his set were, they never INDUCED in
this sort ofmean rascality. And when
the late Mr.. Fisk entertained the pres
ident, he at least footed the bills of
his gorgeous hospitality; indeed, he
sometimes went further and footed
those of the president also.
Nor is this the worst. The legisla-
ture which the ring owns and runs in
the district of Columbia has recently
adjourned, and its acts are now coming
TO light. Among the many Infamous
laws passed with and without legisla-
tive forms, was one in these words:
40 defray public and national ex-
penses incurred in behalf of the dis
trict of Columbia at the Inauguration
of the president of the United States,
March 1, 1873, to be expended under
the approval of the committee here
tofore appointed by the governor of
the district of Columbia at a public
meeting of the citizens of the district
-Sl5.0O0.
No bill for this scandalous purpose
was ever introduced, no such PROPOSE
ton was ever discussed or ever heard
of, except among the rogues who per-
petrated the outrage, until the legisla-
ture adjourned. 1t is deliberate
fraud, prompted by the ring who rule
and ruin the district, devised to extin-
guish a part of the cost of Inaugural
ting the president by robbing the tax
payers who had no connection with
the ball And yet General Grant pro-
tects the thieves who offer him feasts
on such conditions.
The Changers are refreshingly plain