New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1874-05-01
Av TNCOHPRENT Party.

| when a few days ago lie accused the Admin
istration and the Republican majority III Con-
gress of having no definite policy OF mutual
understanding. The spectacle presented by
| the recent debate on the currency question
and by the sensation created in the Capitol
by the veto which fell upon Congress out OF
the clouds at the other end of the avenue,
gave especial point to the taunt OF the ONO
Senator. The whole session has been practl-
cally wasted, because the Administration, hav-
ing no financial views whatever, has permitted
the ignorance and dishonesty of the worst
class of Congressman to usurp the rcins OF
leadership, and after an endless debate which
has kept the country agitated with expectation,
TO force through both houses a formless and
void contrivance like the Senate Imitation
bill, which was fit for nothing but
to be knocked on tire head by the
President. We have bad bad enough Cabinet
Ministers before this, but we have never suf-
fered the infiction of q Secretary of the Treas
ury so insignificant and so powerless IN his
department and out of it, that the majority OF
the party in Congress to which he belonged
should not think it worth while even to learn
his opinion in regard to vital questions OF
finance before the country. We do not think that
the President was to blame, after the debate
began, in reserving the expression Of his senti-
ments and his intentions in regard to the par
ticular measures under discussion. We do not
even choose TO consider whether he changed
his opinions once or twice or not at all during
the progress of the bill through the Houses of
Congress- II was his right and perhaps his
duty to await the action Of the legislative de-
partment in silence after the matter had
attained that stage, and the bullying attempt
of Mr.. Butler to fix the Presidents position
before the House was as laundering as it was
impertinent. But it was after all, discredita-
bic to the Administration and to its party sup
pOrters that Il matter of such vital importance
should not have been the subject of careful
preliminary study and conference which would
have prevented the undsciplined rush OF mere
ignorance to the front, its temporary success
in the passage of the bill, and the final
decentralization which necessarily followed the
veto.
1t will not be enough to reply, as Mr.. Ed
munds did, by referring to the innate intclli-
gence and independence of the individual
members of the Republican party. We have
unfortunately seen too much of the power OF
the Administration in matters in which 1T
cares to interfere, to credit the picture which
Mr.. Edmunds draws of the indomitable spirit
of freedom and dissent in the party. We have
seen how heavy its hand can be made in New
York, in New Orleans, and in South Carolina.
There is no sign of rebellion or protest in the
Senate when the Administration party desires
to strengthen itself in the Massachusetts Gus
tom-house. The President never has any
10 HI
in any act Of small partisanship. The case of
Mr.. Summers dismissal from his Committee
came up III an instant as fiagrant example
of the readiness of the Senate tn do the bid
ding of the Administration when it cost
nothing but honor But in matter of such
momentous consequence as that of the finances,
there was no understanding, no organization of
what knowledge of the subject existed among
the majority, no preliminary attempt to ascer-
tain what were the possibilities Of the case.
Two or three men who knew nothing but the
grosser forms Of politics, seized the question
and dragged it through the debate by mere
brute force leaving almost every intelligent
| man, on both sides of Congress, in fruitless
opposition, talking eloquently to deaf ears, and
wasting logic and common sense on voters
who could not be convinced. So far as Mr..
Richardson had any views he was opposed to
the in1ationists. The President has been
against them from the beginning, and showed
that he renamed so until the end. But the
debate was allowed to begin with no lntima-
ton of any policy from the Executive Depart
ment and to end in vote which no one in
Washington could call victory or defeat
of the Government.
We cannot but think Mr.. Thurman weakened
his rebuke by referring to what he considers
the better days of Andrew Jackson. We pre-
sumo no thinking people wish to bring back
such King StOrk as that willful and capri
clous Tennesseean into our political life. His
influence was bad in his time, and would be
far worse IN ours. Neither are references to
the Lngllsh system quite fortunate. Our Adj
mlnlstration cannot plant itself upon measure,
to stand or fall by it, as the Ministry of the
Sovereign in Great Britain are bound TO do. The
Generalization and incoherence of tbe Repub-
lican party and the Administration do not arise
from defects in our political system, nor from
any lack of personal energy in General Grant
They are the result of that gradual and fatal
lowering of moral tone which comes In n
party from long success when those who
founded and made it great are falling by the
way, and new recruits and camp followers
come to power, The tendency is of course