New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1874-01-07

of Attorney General-with the brusque-
ness with which a gentleman OF clean
thought and honest purpose repels
solicitation to anything mean, dirty, or DIS
bonorable-he had answered the demands Of a
brazen gang of self-seeking Senator'S and Rep
rcsentatiyes for the offices and patronage at
bis disvosal. lie undertook to say to these
men that candidates for Office in his depart
ment must bring some other Recommendation
than partsan service His enforcement OF
rule which they had lied themselves into ONCE
by pretending to believe in, so enrased them
that when it was proposed to place him
in the judicial position he is so we'll fitted to
adorn. the Senate of the United States-highest
legislative body in the land-body represent
ing. or intended to represent, our best and
unrest. our most conservative, honorable, and
dignifed-this honorable Senate obstructed and
prevented it, because he was gentleman.
And this is the Senate that palters and hest
tates over one of the most unfit nominations
that ever passed its threshold. and does not
dare reject it. Ii did dare before the President
had become absolute, and the party had accepted
the dogma, "The President can do no wrong
when an appointment was personally
offensive to it, to demand and obtain Its
withdrawal. But this is offensive only to the
public sense, and there is not intellectual
spine or moral fiber enough in that distIn-
guished body to stand up against IN appoint
ment at which the gorge OF the whole country
rises. There is pretense of fitness i'm 1T.
There is not a Senator but knows that
in the Judgment of the ablest lawyers in
this country, without one single exception,
the appointment will be dscreditabe to Presi-
dent, Senate, Bench, party, and country Ana
yet we are told that because charges have been
made against Attorney General Wllliamss
official integrity, and it has been found upon
investigation that he has done no more than
other heads of departments in the picking and
stealing line, the Senate must "vindlcate
him. Not to confirm HIM now, we are told.
would be a gross wrong and outrage, because
it would be accepted by the public as an
Endorsement of these cruel and unjust charges
of supporting carriages, horses, servants, anu
establishment ont of the department c0ntln-
gent fund. And we are coolly told that the
opponents of Mr.. Williams have themselves to
thank for the result, they having driven the
Senate to confirm him by the grOundless anu
sweeping charges they brought against him.
And we may be permitted to suggest to the
Senate that it has already sufficiently dis
praced itself in that direction. Presiding over
that body to-day is similarly vindicatcd "
mana man known by the Senate itself to be
morally and socially stencil. 1t was Mr. Matt.
Carpenter, who having achieved preemlnence
of notOriety in Washington and made shame
less exhibition of his vices and Its associations
in the principal cities of the Union, having
swung himself loose from all the forms ana
appearances of propriety when visiting with
committee in an official capacity the City of
New Orleans having paraded himself In
New York in company and under circum-
stances 80 public as to demand rebuke ana
still so shameful as to escape comment; ana
having staggered iltO the company OF decent
men and women on the Long Branch boat
and at the West End Hotel, Haunting with
his companiOn such signs of lewdness IA pub
,iabsd their shame, with sense Uf its
shamefulness and having been expelled
from tho West End Hotel for this very rea-
son, and publicly rebuked by THE TRIBUNE
for his disgraceful cOnduct-it was this man,
sneerer at public virtue and corruption
of the public conscience, who makes
quarry, defender of Salary Grab and
MobiIier speculations. prohigate, spendthrift
and debauchee. publicly Guessing over the alb
straction of unearned money with the spend
Thrills plea of lavishness on his own vices and
cafelessness of the vices OF others, ana hlng-
ing himself, greasy and foul, at the puDllcs
head-tllis disgrace to his State and scandal TO
the nation, who came to the Senate and de-
manded to be indicated. "Vindcated,' IN
deed, His place for vindicatiOn was III
court of law and before a jury of his country
men, to which THE TRIBUNE invited. and the
almost unanimous voice of his own party press
urged him.
But he went TO the Senate, and though the
majority in that body stood committed by
all its party platforms to hostility to the
Salary Grab and Credit MObier swindles,
and had made capital out of the nomination
by the Democrats for Speaker of the House
of man who drew pay under the act which
Matt. Carpenter voted for and publicly de-
Tended, they, without so much as Bucking-
ham or a Frelnghuysen protesting, win
dictated" him by electing him to their
highest Office. And what sort of vindication
was it The TRIBUNE had rebuked him for
public scandal 1t had held at arms
length the whole affair, and in decent phrase
expressed the profound disgust of respectable
people at disgraceful spectacle which was
unfit for description and yet too brazen to go
unrebuked. The argument for his election to
be President pro tenn. of the Senate was that
he could in no other way be .vindcated from
the scandalous charges which the press of the
country had taken up and circulated. Did the