American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1874-05-09

The giant evils of corruption and ex-
travagance, of enlightenment and bri berry
in high places of the exercise of official
functions for private gain and wholesale
speculation with the peoples money, are
bad enough in their effects upon this
country. But they do not stop short with
outraging honest sentiment at home and
demoralizing the whole public service,
from top to bottom, throughouttheU Union.
Those who are struggling abroad for
the republican liberties of which the
United States are the shining exam
Pile find in the official corruptions of
the past two or three years counter
argument used by their antagonists for
which they are puzzled to obtain an
adequate reply. The English radical,
seeking to substitute democratic sim
plicity and economy for the complex
machinery and Onerous cost of royalty,
has hitherto triumphantly pointed to the
example of America. And until recent
times America was not only pertinent
example, but an irresistible argument IN
their favor The republican bubble did
not, after all, burst during the war; and
thus the radical was able to truly say
that II form of government which could
survive such a shock could not be less
stable than the monarchies of Europe.
The impulse given to the republican
Union and its entrance upon new ca
reer of power and prosperity was great
and formidable one; and only the dis
grace which has been attendant on the
career of the present Administration could
have weakened the force of the example.
1t has been the unenviable privilege of
the Grant regime to cast doubt, even
upon many earnest European republican
minds, whether such form is indeed the
best These do not reflect that Grantism
is not, happily, the normal or permanent
condition of American politics. It's lax
political morality and encouragement of
absolute corruption are not ouigrowths of
American democracy, but temporary in
cident; they are the ripening of a misstep
the misstep of confiding to unfit hands
the Executive power; the corrective still
lies in the hands of the people, who have
proved their political virtue over and over
again. The deliberate reputation of the
corruptions which now find their nucleus
at The White House must soon follow their
startling exposure. Yet it is worth
while for us to observe how
salary grabs, Credit Mobiliers, Sanborn
contracts and District swindles affect the
cause of republican liberty abroad, as
we'll as breeding host of evils at home
1t is reported from England that the
champions of the cause there are dis
heartened by these scandals. The Tories
exultingly point to the bribery of Con
gressmen and various transgressions and
rejoice over the low estate to which the
Presidential office has fallen. What can
the republicans reply? The general eff
feet is to discredit the system, while the
counteracting agencies are lost sight of.
Americans should take pride in showing
Europe, by example, the way to a better
national life; but unless the evils under
which we are suffering and the men who
have created and still foster them are re-
pudiated, and that speedily, the danger is
that we shall be rejected as guides and
held up rather as a warning than as an
example. -Boston Post.