New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1874-05-14
1yOTUER CASE or MEDICATION.

The country is getting u little inpatient to
know what is to be the result of the Sanborn
inquiry. The Committee on Ways and Means
devoted a great deal of valuable time to the
matter, made many curious discoveries, and
presented q report in which the three prnci-
pal officers of the Treasury Department were
censured in very severe terms. But surely the
case is not to stop here Investigations are
troublesome and expensive things, and if moth
ing is to come of them except the collection of
materials for the history of government they
may as well be dispensed with for the future.
The work of fcrrcting out obscure facts can
be more appropriately performed by the news
papers than by Committees of Congress unless
the Government means to use the facts LOT
some practical purpose. 1t surely was not
necessary to spend weeks III the examination
of witnesses in order to find out that the
Sanborn contracts ought TO be reScinded; that
much was evident from the start. The pur-
pose Of the investigation was to discover
whether any public officer was at fault and
to open the way for such remedies and such
penalties as the facts might suggest.
The President, however, who might be sup
posed to feel some concern i'll the conclusions
the report than if it had been verdict in the
Ticbborne case He is understood to declare
that nothing has occurred to shake his conf
dence in Mr. Richardson, and that Mr.. Rich
ardson shall remain at the head of the Treas
ury as long as he chooses TO stay there We
do not know that we ought to be surprised
at this. An official confidence that survived
tho ilver-resumptiOn scheme is doubtless
proof against any disclosures of incapacity.
Gen. Grant looks upon Mr.. Richardson, not as a
public functionary who has lost the public conf
dence, but as a personal adherent who has
claim upon his protection. Mr.. Richardson is
an honest man, who does as he is bid and makes
himself acceptable to his chief, "and so long
"as l am satisfied" says the President, Con-
"gress and the people have no right to COM
"plain; let them mind their own business
At the bottom of this stubborn resistance to
the unspoken demand for Mr.. Richardson's
removal, there is a chivalrOus feeling which
we cannot help admiring. But every one, ex-
cept the President, sees that it springs from
false and dangerous idea of the personal
nature of our Government,-an idea that the
Presidency is not public trust but private
dignity and privilege.
After ALL Gen. Grant is not to be blamed.
His party has encouraged him in these mis-
chievous tendencies, and applauded to the
echo some of their most remarkable manifes-
tations. 1t has gone quite as far as he has in
"vindicating" Leading Statesmen who hap
pened to be found out. If the President
indicated Tom Murphy with letter of
recommendation and Boss Shepherd with pro-
motion, the Senate promptly disposed of the
Carpenter scandal by electing the picturesque
Senator from Wisconsin its temporary presid-
ing officer. And now that Messrs. Richardson,
Sawyer, and Baniield have been examined by
committee of Congress and pronounced in
competent for the places they ill, Gen. Grant
only follows the established precedents of his
party when he "vindcates y them by resolving
that they shall not be removed.