New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1874-03-04
A PdRTY QUESTION.

We regret to observe disposition in vaIi-
GUS quarters to treat the revolt of the mer-
chants against the CustOm-hOuse abuses as an
attack upon the administration. Ours would
no n danIorohIa state nf nnhlir affhirs indnnd
if unjust laws and unwarrantable practices
could not be attacked, and confessed wrongs
could not be reformed, without covering with
discredit the party which Glanced to be in
power. But the truth is the same outrageous
exactions which are now so bitterly com
planned of were denounced seven years ago
by Republican investigating committee In
language quite as strong as we have ventured
to use. The present system of Selling books
and papers originated in the act Of 1868,
and in tho course of three or four
years crystallizedn to quote the Ian
guage of an official report, into legalized
" extOrtion," so that the House of Represent
atves in the Winter of 1867 authorized the
Committee on Public Expenditures to inyesti-
gate the operations Of the bureau in cOnnec
ton with the Custom house at Newly
The subcommittee to which the inquiry was
ntrusted consisted Of Calvin II. Hulburd of
New-York, j. NJ. Broomall Of Pennsylvania,
and L. IL. Rollins of New Hampshire-all of
them good Republicans. Their report was
unanimous, but very little regard was paid
to it, and the practices of which they spoke
with such severity have gone on ever since
increasing in fragrant wickedDess. Intended
"nO doubt, as its title purpOrts," say the Com
mittee, respecting the Seizure Bureau, "'to
"'prevent and punish frauds, it has been not
unfreQuently perverted into a medium and
instrument Of oppression and fragrant injus-
90 ynla ha nf
exactly as it is practiced now, except that they
do not seem to have comprehended the full
measure of the spies and infOrmers' infamies,
and they urge that the law, being "bad in
principle and bad in practice" should at
once be repealed, or greatly modified The
abuses perpetrated under it are multiplying
81 and intensifying and may ultimate in some
"baleful outbreak in vindicatiOn of the in
alienable rights of the citizen and the man."
They draw a picture of the merchant whose
store, goods. and papers have been seized-a
picture which might have been sketched for a
newspaper of the present day:
ale knows that his credit injured 1t is known
in Wall Street that he is in difficulty with the Custom
house he knows too that If the report Of such im
broglio gets abroad his foreign credit impaired IL
destroyed he knows too that without the possession Of
hs store he cannot sell his goods and meet his paper
he knows too that without his books and papers he
not arrange his balances make his collections. In
this garrotng grip therefore often 1t is simply ques
ton with him. Shall give up part and save some
thing or stand and contend not with the barpie Of the
law not with the minions Of Office, but with the
rnyrmidOns Of the Government itself Is 1t wonder
then that though scous OF wrong OF perfect rect
tude OF intention, when brought into the dssectng-
OF the Seizure Bureau, he surceases opposition,
allows the flesh pounds blood and ALL to be taken. and
goes out, perchance not malcontent, but with new
views of the laws aud justice of his country"
The committee cite one case, included in
their report of testimony, in which the reve-
nue. officers seized merchants will and the
letters of his wife, and remark that such an
invasion of the sanctities Of the household and
the most sacred private rights has not been
attempted in the last two hundred years else
" wherein any age or land where the En-
" glish language has been or is the birth
tongue of the people"
The law was slightly modified in 1867, but
the changes afforded no substantial relief and
the abuses have gone on increasing ever since,
fraud being added to oppression, and agents
and informers growing more and more adroit
and INSCRIPTIONS with long practice. Reform
in tho Custom house management cannot be
made party question now, for tho honest