New-York tribune., 1873-05-09
remember tho pitiful story Of greed and false
hood in which he bore 80 prominent part.
THE POWER or THE POLITICIANS.

they and all their p0lltlcM prNh0e
business interests lie to-day before the rins VI
politicians who not merely plunder nunio,-
pahty or run State, but whose clutcn' vo'-
yety enough upon OCCASION but with aina%'ns
nossihilities in IL of cruelty and extortlon' Is
at the throat of the government VI 1,-
nept. THE TRIBUNE showed 1eW VEGAS
since the tremendous power heid ny 'n0 ~
retary of the Treasury under MS own 0on
struction of law, by which he can play q ueao-
onen-and. shut upon the currency, contracting
or Expanding it at will, making men rich OF
Door at his pleasure. Grant that ne uoes ho' w
it 4; that he only claims the power, pu' uUo1 nv
exercise it. What difference does that ni"ho' 10
TYRANNY so much less dangerous OF so mucn
more tolerable as a condition OF government
beca1se your despot refrains from the oasu
podo or the knout when he happens to 1eel
omiable9 The events Of the past few months
in Jouisiana have demonstrated the fact that
against an Administration bent on personal
,orornmont and determined to keep its re-
tainers in and its opponents out OF state aS
well as Federal Offices, the people Oh otate
have no rights whatever. Shameless usurPa-
ton by drunken and corrupt Federal Juugo
NAV be backed up by Federal bayonets, the
reeular and lawful count of votes overruled
by Federal authority, and the whole govern
ment of State usurped and possessed by the
minions of the Federal Administration "hat
has been done in Louisiana may be done In
any other State. ,
We take these things very calmly. why
shouldn't WEI Secretary Richardson does not
use the power he claims, and when he does IL
will only be a minority of the people who Will
feel the immediate pinch and be bankrupted
while q smaller minority will increase their
gains. We are content to wait the movement
of speculation and take the chances OF Delng
in the lucky little circle that profits by u.
For we are getting to be nation OF gam
blers. And as for Louisiana, 1t s great way
off. and so long as our own rights ore not in
yaded, we cannot afford to get excited over
distractions or waste time protesting against
Federal usurpatiOns and the INVASION OIL the
rights of States. 1t is not strange perhaps, as
human nature is constituted, that these things
do not move us.
Will anythingf
Here is case nearer home-under our very
eyes-a case that illustrates the helplessness OF
the people and the subsection of our commercial
and business interests to the despOtic power OF
as bad gang of politicians as ever prostituted
the scales of Justice to dividing loot. A great
commercial house, one of the first in the
country. with an established character and un-
sulied reputation, of large wealth and most
extensive business relations throughout the
world, was taken by the throat and robbed OF
over a quarter of a million of dollars. Robbery
is hard word Were the names of all the
men who shared in the proceeds of this trans
action published, it would seem still harder, for
they are dainty gentlemen, with nothing of the
Robin Hood or Friar Tuck about them;
scholarly persons, who pluck by precedents and
pinch for penalties who only seek to vindlcate
law and save the Government from loss; who
handle currency with glOved finger-tips, and
if they divide with spies and informers, do it
with lofty grace and enough of indrectness
to deodorize the plunder. But robbery is the
name for it, whoever carried away the i'll
gotten profits OF by whatever process 1t was
divided. Look moment at the facts. Not
the er parte statements of the victims, but
the facts admitted by the informers and their
partners, and published as an angry answer to
the explanation offered by the firm. In five
years this firm had imported goods to the
value of forty millions of dollars. Upon those
imports they had paid the United States Gov
ernment eight million dollars in duties. BY
system of espionage which would be disgrace
to any country it was discovered that upon
these five years. impOrtatons of forty
millions there had been overvaluations
of some and undervaluations of other
articles,-the latter to the amount of S6,6SO,
upon which there was due the Govern
ment the sum of $1,000 Zone thousand six
hundred and sixty dOlars). And the prose-
cutting officer of the Government says publicly
that he does not believe the idea of defraud-
ing the Government had ever entered the
mind of any member of the firm. What does
an Administration that has pardoned more
defaulters, compromised at a loss to Govern
ment more frauds and embezzements and
thefts than any three of its predecessors, whose
habit of appointing rogues to office Is only
less fixed and pronounced than that of pardon
ing them when caught and convicted of
crime-an Administration of a party whose
proudest boast is that it has survived u deluge
of investigations, and whose shame it is that it
had to pack the committees that made them
what does such an Administration, reeking
with the stencil of offenses that run up and
down the scale from bribery to perjury, do
with this case, in which by an innocent
mistake the Government has lost the
paltry sum of sixteen hundred dollars in trans
actions covering forty millions What did it
doi WELL what should it doP What would
you expect such an Administration to doi 1t
reached out and took Phelps, Dodge g. Co. by
the throat as it might take any other firm or
any other man, and held them till they dis
gorged S140,5OO to a ring of politicians and
11 90 800 To the Gnvernmenf. and thn chnrnn-