American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1874-04-04

A recent editorial in Harper's Weekly
contains the following suggestive para
graph:
The public disgust and wrath with corrup-
tion Of every kind are quite as remarkable at
this moment as the corruption itself. The
country is dividing into those who believe in
political honesty and who mean to secure it,
and those who laugh 1t to scOrn as impractical
ask, and do not receive, is some unmistakabIe
sign frcm Washington that their Administra-
ton Is with the former and not with the latter.
They do not see that sign in the appointment
Of Gov. Shepherd, in the Sanborn contracts,
IN the aomination to the Boston Collectorship,
- they did not see 1t in the approval of the
salary-grab," in the retention of Mr.. Casey,
In the tendency to initiate the currency, and in
however, will not be relaxed An attempt in
the White House to Johnsonize the Republ-
can party failed, and an effort to Butlerize it
will be equally useless.
Coming, Is it does, from the pen of Mr..
George William Curtis, the above extract
misunderstood. It shows that the men
who have hitherto furnished the brains
of the Republican party, who have stood
by that party through evil as well as good
report, and never found anything in its
Pfecepts or practice too strong for their
political stomachs, are, at last, becoming
diagusted with the present management
and are ready to inaugurate a change.
This is certainty healthy sign, but does
it not come little too late? The Repub-
ican party would be in no danger of be-
ing "Butlerized If it were not already
thoroughly Grantized. The President is
undoubtedly firm friend of Butler, but
it is because the member from Massachu-
sets understands and sympathizes with
him, and is always prompt to 60 his bid
ding. That Butler cOmpels the President
10 do what he does not want to do is
simply ridiculous; he only encourages
and contrives to keep himself in harmony
with it. If Butler died tomorrow the
Administration would 60 on precisely as
it has done for the last five years; if the
President died, there might be some hope
OF q revolution toward honesty and de-
cency. In other words, the dangerous in
duences now at work emanate, not from
Butler, but from . higher source-and
that source, we fear, is beyond the reach
of present or prospective publication.
What we blame Mr.. Curtis, and those
whom he represents, for, is the obstinate
shutting of their eyes against the evils
they now lament, at time when the cause
of these evils might have been put aside.
Six months after the first Inauguration of
President Grant the leading features of
his future policy were as clearly developed
rs tney are now. never was there an
Executive who held his own" better than
the present incumbent He commenced
wrong, and has maintained perfect con.
sistency in wrong-doing ever since. He
il NO worse in 1874 than he was in 1870
and it would be impossible to show any
official act of his second term which has
not its counterpart in his first, so far as
the moral tendency of that act is con
cerned. Yet when President Grant stood
forward At the close of his first term
with all his imperfections full-blown and
fragrant, with no apologies for past mis-
conduct and no promises offuture amend
ment, Mr.. Curtis and the would-be reform
ers of to-day nominated and elected
him the second time. Knowing what he
was, they deliberately renewed his lease
Of power, and even claimed that renewal
as great Republican victory!"
We submit, then, that these gentlemen
now on the point of revolt, are only gath
ering the harvest whose seed was planted
by themselves. They cannot make
scape-goat for Presidential sins out o
Butler, for Butler is but the lively shadow
of an unyielding substance. If they ar,
~ sincere and manly as their utterance
are painfully true, they will cease bella
boring the subordinate and strike at tn
chief-but the chief can defy them fo
three years longer.-St. Louie Republican