The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1874-04-24
The Degradation OfThe Republican party.

The New York Tribune, once the ablest
champion of Radicaism, laments the degra-
dation and disgrace of the Republican party,
as exemplifed by the venality and corrup-
ton of its leaders all over the country, and
says:
DO we need to recapitulate how this has
been done? 1t has not been effected by any
single act. The repute of the party which
elected Lincoln twice was too healthy and
robust to suffer materially from any one error
or fault. Parties, like individuals, do not
grow suddenly infamous 1t has been a con-
slant, incessant series of illegal, dishonest,
sordid and vulgar offenses against the moral
sense OF the country, that have DESTROYED the
enViable prestige Of the Republican party, and
made It's management reproach and shame.
| We will say nothing Of the points of which
the opposition might complain. These col
umns have borne repeated witness of acts
which were not only disgraceful to the AID.
ministration, but which involved treason to
The best interests OF the Republican party. A
few conspicuous instances are:
l. The violation of law in ahettipg an
audacious conspiracy by which the State of
Louisiana was given over to q band of knaves
who had plundered the public treasury and
had been defeated in popular election;
2. The systematic debauching of the politics
OF several Southern States, by which they
have been rendered bankrupt, and the very
idea OF legislative government made odious
and contemptblc;
3. The creation and support of combina-
ton Tor plander in the District of Columbia
which las loaded the city of Washington
with an intolerable load of debt, enriched a
cabal OF politicians, and discredited the Cap
ital
a. The steady, persistent, and shameless
persecution of the merchants ofthis metropo-
lis by an army ofspies and eXtortioners, as
sisted by United States officers, who divide
with thieves and informers the price oftheir
degradation;
8. The recent unheard-of conspiracy be-
tween the Treasury Department and an OBJ
scure politicians, by which the latter was en-
abled to steal out of the public revenue some
hundreds of thousands of dollars, and the
Government were ordered to assist him in
these depredations;
u. A management of the national finances
so made up of dishonesty, ncompetency, and
gross carelessness that nothing like it has ever
been seen in history,-touching one day the
criminal and the next the burlesque, vibrating
between the Idiot Asylum and the Peniten-
tiary;
Z. A contempluous disregard of the solemn
pledges OF the Conventions of the party, in
reference to retrcnchment, honesty in dis
burscments, and the reform of the Civil Ser
vice;
8. And finally an open and cynical interfer-
ence with popular elections in every State
where the Republican party is divided, in
favor of the corrupt and immoral element,
and in bitter hostility to those who stand by
the ancient ways and desire to give to their
States capable, honest, and reputable adj
ministration.
We think no intelligent person can candid
ly deny that the Administration has been
| guilty of these acts, and that in most of them
it has had the support of the majority in
Congress. We hold that they cannot be ex-
cused or condoned. Ii passes our compre.
hension, therefore, how any Republican, ifhe
has conscience enough to take the trouble to
inform himself of the truth, can support such
an Administration in course which can
only lead to the gravest evils for the country
and the utter and shameful ruin of the Re
publican party.