The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1874-06-22

| profound impression upon the country. The
peculiar power Of the speaker was never so
strongly marked-his power for good as well
as for evil. So far as stringent, earnest, bitter
criticism is concerned this speech has been
surpassed by none in the present Congress.
1t shows quality that makes us regret that
destiny did not direct the Generals capacities
into profession which he does not love, and
which, as q general thing, loves him not-that
of journalism. What an editor he would
have made-not we mean, Of one
of our tranquil, well disciplined, sub
dued New York newspapers, whose editors
not only obey all revealed command
ments, but some new ones which, in the
excess OF fervent obedience, they have pro-
claimed unto themselves, but of the Chicago
Tribune, the Cincinnati Gazette ana Commercial,
our lively, energetic, combative contempo-
raries in the West, which, according to the pic
I ture papers, have preserved the lost art of
| Journalism, in its courage and capacity! The
oratorical virtues of General Buffers speech
might be expressively summed up as virtues
of Western journalism in their highest stage
of independent development.
The picture which he presents of the de-
generation and corruption of our whole Gus
toms service and our New York business life
is terrible one. 1t is in criticism of this
kind that General Butler excels. He recalls
the Hebrew fervor which said in its wrath
that all men were hars In these criticisms
| &c he Of ,,ifr c1v
crime. When once the work of destruction
begins no foresight can tell where it will end.
We half suspect, as we see what has
been done, the havoc that has been made, the
desolation, the loss of property and life and
reputation, that the spirit of wanton over
throw had something to do with it. General
Butler is capable of enjoying wanton over
throw. There was an exultant tone in his
speech that showed love of his ungracious
and repelling task Here was man who has
been assailed for ten years with persistent
and incessant severity, whose deeds have been
attributed to the darkest and basest motives,
who was proclaimed an outlaw by Jefferson
Davis and has been treated since like an out
law by every friend Of jefferson Davis, whose
very name has been made the symbol of corrupt
audacity in politics. who has welcomed and
defed censure by his cheerful recklessness in
accepting unpopular and at times indefensi-
BILE causes-impeachment, the payment of the
debt in currency, st. Domingo, Whittemore,
Cakes Ames, back pay, the repeal of civil
servlce-and naturally he longed to return the
war upon the men who made it. Whenever
there has been q question upon which the
moral sense of the country was united, which
might be said to have side that was respect
able and another that was not, we were sure
to find General Butler in opposition to the
moral sense and against respectable public
opinion. This has ended, as it could only
end, in the belief that any cause championed
by him was pretty sure to be wrong and any
measure he opposed was sure to be right.
Nor does General Butler himself seem to
have been insensible to the burden Of his
reputation. In his speech he took precau-
ton that seems unusual to one SO needless of
public opinion, in this generation or in gen.
erations to come, of appealing to his political
enemies when they become masters of the
House to sit in Judgment upon his life and
deeds. The spectacle of committee of demo-
Gratis investigating General Butler would not
be without its interesting features Our i'm
preston is that when we have o democratic
House it will have more entertaining employ
ment than to make diagnosis Of
his political and moral life. If the YER
dict were ever reached it would, We presume,
be like that Of the Old Bailie on Rob Roy,
that he was too good to be damned and too
bad to be blessed. General Butler will find
in the very speech which now absorbs
the attention of the country the
presence of those qualities which have
darkened his fame and limited his USE
fitness. The plan of his speech was bold and
brave. He meant to assail the most gigantic
system of corruption that ever oppressed
nation. He meant to show that our laws were
either SO imperfect in their conception or SO
corruptly inefficient in their administration,
that we lost millions of dollars year from
our public revenues that we did not col
lect more than one-third of our duties alone.
If these facts could be proved, if General
Butler could show us where this money
goes and how we could reach it, there would
be immense usefulness in his speech But upon
an analysis Of it we find that his theory about
the proportion Of revenue not collected is
based upon inference that his principal
instance Of wrong is in the case Of Phelps,
Dodge & Co., and that the main grievance
against this house is that it induced the Sec
rotary of the Treasury, Mr.. Chase, to make o
certain ruling on the subject of galvanized tin
plates which saved it large sum of money.
His remedy for these evils is to strengthen
the army of informers, spies and detectives
and to continue the system Of moieties.
In the foolish and angry speech of Mr.. Fos-