New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1874-06-29
erations of raising money for endowments and
building funds.
FFFFCTIVE CRITICISM.

continual criticism of public men. One OF our
great poets the other day wrote in melOdiOus
verse the impression of WEAKNESS and shame
which the perusal of an American paper made
upon him in Italy. We cannot help feeling
some sympathy for these delicate and fastidi-
Gus souls. TO persons who are conscious OF
weak muscles and Enthusiastically nerves, the
spectacle of a policeman clubbing a murderous
ruflian, or even of car conductor ejecting q
noisy drunkard, is excessively unpleasant. These
things must be done, they admit, but they
ought not be done in public, or at least
the men might wait until these shrinking
gentlefOlks get out of the way. We repeat
that we admit the unpleasantness of such pro-
ceedings. We know it is shock to their
nerves to have any chastisement applied i'll
their presence by schoOlmaster, or policeman,
or newspaper. But, if they were not selfish,
as these sensitive natures generally are, they
would reflect that it is much more unpleasant
to take wrong dOer by the collar, than to see
it done. The policeman risks his life when no
marches q rufiian off to Jail; and a cOnscien-
tOus writer suffers more than the most fastidi-
GUS of his critics when he feels himself COM
PEELED to take a moral invalid in his hands
and apply the needed surgery.
In the recent general clearing out of the
Treasury Department, does any one imagine
it was pleasant work to convince Congress
and the country that Mr. Richardson and Mr..
Sawyer ought to be dismissed from their posi-
tons 7 Mr.. Richardson was an amable and,
according to his lights, honest gentleman or
limited capacity, and it seemed to us some
thing like cruelty to demonstrate to the coun-
try his utter and ludcrOus untitness to be Sec
rotary of the Treasury. Sawyer was too small
person to mention, if his removal had not
been necessary to the public good. But
it was not possible to stir these COM
placent and incompetent persons, ex-
cept by making their retention public
scandal. General Grant would never have
touched them until, even to his dull percep-
ton, they appeared injurious and dangerous
to his administration. More than a year ago
THE TRIBUNE proved the Incompetence OF
Mr.. Richardson, proved that he did not know
the state of his own accounts, that he had
no idea of the condition or prospects of his
own edgers. This had no effect on General
Grant or the Republican party. They had
to be shown through long succession OF
arguments, rdicule, and denunciation, begun
in The TRIBUNE and gradually taken up by
other journals, that there was ruin and dis
grace in retaining such people in high and re-
sponsible positions. The case was the same with
Shepherd and the District Ring. They would
have been disposlng to-day of the District or
Columbia, feared and fawned upon by all the
needy, the venal and the Indifferent. If the
press had not over and over shown their cor
rupt practices, until even Congress could no
longer protect them from publicity. They had
gained q certain sort of popularity among
decent people. Just as you heard feeble folk
saw of Tweed and his friends, before their
ruin that they were good fellows after all,
and were taking excellent care of the parks,
and had voted handsome sums to this hos
pitaI and that museum and the other dis
pensary, so of late you would begin
to hear good people, virtuOus people,
perhaps in extreme cases Boston people, say,
shepherd has done great things for Wash
"ington" If it had not been for the press
constantly hammering at him, he never could
have been detached from the hold he had in
his possession of power the tenacious friend
ship of the President, and the venal support
of half the boarding house population of
Washington.
"A ROOu MANY congressman picVCHu w "'oio
gard the voice of public opinion, as expressed in
reputable newspapers But it is merely affect
alton. This is proved by both the instances to
which we have referred Spurred on by press
to which they would not acknowledge their
obligations, Congress put Richardson out of the
Treasury, and abolished the District Govern
ment. The President still affected, or APP
peared, to think that Shepherd had suffered
nothing from the newspapers, and therefore
sent his name in to the Senate to continue the
work in which he had suffered such searching
notice. But even the Senate had read the
news and believed enough of it to astonish
the President and his friend beyond measure.
There has never been a session in which the
tyranny of public opinion has been so evident
in Washington, and in which it has
kept the practical work Of legislation
so free from corruption. The reason is
that large and very important portion of the
press having declared its independence of party
dictation, has devoted itself with unusual
energy and persistence to attacking abuses in
government and demanding from legislators
more attention to matters of honest administra-
ton than to partisan combinations. In spite of
the nervous terrors of the feeble hearted, and
the more anxious clamOrs of the impenitent
sufferers, the press has done good seasons
work and will Ontinue to succeed on this line
as long as it deserves to.