Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1875-12-10
THE NATIONS DISGRACE

From the st. Louis Times
At last. A sudden flash and the
White sHouse stands revealed in a
light of shameful corruption and pol
luton. To read the revelations in the
Avery trial and to be shocked is inc
vitabie. It is not alone Gen. Babcock
who is disgraced in the eyes
of the whole nation, it is not
alone the most intimate persona! aud
political friend of the head of the gov
ern nent, the executive of the exec;t--
tive !; it is not alone the White House
and its occupants, nor the political
party that elevated Gen. Grant to the
presidency, and made Babcock what
he Is ; but every citizen, whatever his
party bias or the extent of his partiz m
ship, must feel grieved and ashamed
whenever he turns his eyes or his
thoughts in contemplation of the sad
spectacle. After all we are Americans
| before we are Democrats, and we can
not suppress a feeling of indignant
humiliation at the shameless greed of
the present incumbents of the White
House whereby the honor of the whole
nation is prosrituted in the eyes of the
| whole world
It was no longer surnise, suspicion
or SANDER, it is lamentable fact es-
tablished by legal evidence that the
powerful motor from which was COM
municated all the power to the most
colossal combination of robbers of the
national treasury and defamers of the
national honor was located next door
to the treasury building in Washing
ton-the White House. It is IN evil
dence that General BabcocK, the pres
ident's private secretary, his right
| hand in fact, was secretly i'll league
with the most honorless as well as the
| most active of the scoundrels in the
ring: that he frequently received from
and forwarded kilograms to Joyce con-
veying the vital information ipdespen-
| sable to carry out the systematized
robbery OF the government; that he
used his influence with President
! Grant and Commissioner Douglass to
| bring about the revocation Of Bris-
tow's order transferring the supervi-
sors from one district to another,
which intended ana undoubtedly
would have affected the overthrow of
the ring; that while under double oath,
honor and Jay, frat, as the confiden-
tial private secretary of the executive,
and next as general OF the army of
the United States, he violated oath
and houor, and disgraced trust and
station, by regularly sharing with
known aud to him notorious thieves
any pltrjurers, the spoils of their joint
infamy.
A sad picture indeed, yet there is
one more painful still. One step from
Gen. Babcock's Office, which has be-
come the arcanum of our national dis
grace, and we are in the private Office
of the president of the United States.
To-day the eyes of the whole nation
|
proach. There he sits-st Did, sord.d
sullen. 1t is possible to believe Gen.
Henderson's solemn assurance of faith
in Grants entire innocence? There
is but one ground npon which it can
be presumed, and that is his utter i'm
becility. Until that is proven, and
until it is denied that from the very
first day of his inauguration. up to the
present hour, Grant has invariably as
sociated with the most corrupt scoun-
drels and has never appointed an hon.
est official ''where it could be avid
ed" until his intimacy with Casey,
with Tom Murphy, with Leet. with
Corbin, with Boss Shepherd, with
Babcock, Joyce and Mcdonald is ex
planned; until his appointment of near
ly all of these to high places OF power
and profit can be justified-until hi
has recalled Cramer from Copenhagen
2 aud Emma Nine Scheuck from til,
court OF St. James until he remove
: Brotber-in-law Jim. Casey from rob
bling the revenue in New Orleans, with
D draws his brother Orvllie from the La
dian ring, and ANONYMOUSLY kicks Bah
cock out of the White House-we shall
not believe him free from the knowl
!, edge of what his most intimate conf
n dents daily practice before his eyes
and largely, if not entirely. by the US
a of his name and power. There are con
/, stitutional governments in which min
II i,ters resign the very moment they los
the confidence of the people. On
: hundreth part of the disgrace of thi
d whiskey ring would instantly drive tn
r cabinet of any constitutional govern
ment from power. Ii Gen. Grant ia
a spark of sill me or honor left, let hi
show it by vacating the White Hous
~ which he has so long dishonored. LIZ
1T him resign?