New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-04-29
.CTCH 4 PRESIDENT.

II il Notifying to think that such statesmen
as Alabama has of late years furnished the
councils of the nation and the lobby of its
Congress should have had the shameless i'm
pudence to ask the President of tho United
States-President in the Centennial Iear-to
remove Postmaster General Jewell because he
was iniuring the party by unearlhng and
uprooting corruption in his department.
The Postmastcr-Ccncral has been doing
good work, work for which all good
citizens will thank and praise him. He
has gone to it with the practical talent of a
business man, and has done it with an earnest
ness and energy that showed how hearty was
his dctcstation Of di honesty and trckery, and
bow sincerely he desires the reform OF which so
much has been said and for which 90 little has
been done. And it is not pleasant to think that, in
the face of this honest effort, men who are sup
poscd TO be in some degree in the confidence of
the President, and who must know what sort
of man he is, have the assurance to 60 to him
and say that this policy is hurting the party
and that the Postma stcr-Gencral ought TO be
removed. 1t does not sound well for the Pres
ident, for the party. or for tie country. But
there the fact is, and the men who did it are
still, and will continue 10 be, the representa-
tiyes Of their party for their State and section.
This is bad enough. But what shall be said
of President of the United States who, with
all the known history of benjamin F. Butler
before him. should calmly propose to his Cab
met, which contains at least two or three gen
tleincn. to make that person their associate
and his own law adviseri Mr.. Butler il a
man against whom the gorge of the nation has
risen continuously through all the pc
rod of his public life. His career has
been one persistent and uninterrupted
aflront to common honesty. common
decency and common sense. His own party
has rcpudiatcd him at last, and the President
of the United States has so little regard for
his own good name and for the reputation of
the party which has been always utterly and
absolutely loyal to himself, and so little sense
Of propriety, as to propose this nan for seat
in the Cabinet as Attorney General. The
wonder of il all il, not that it should
have so happened-n0t that The President
should have seriously proposed it, but
that the Republican party, made up, as it II,
of some of the best aad quest and most con-
scientious men in the country, should follow
so bindly and with snch unqocsi0ning per-
sonal allegiance n President who is forever
shocking their honest sense of what is proper
and decent
The statement that the President proposed
TO the Cabinet TO mako Mr.. Butler his Attor-
ney-Gcncral gives no one any surprise. There
is Of course 4 gimmcr OF satisfaction at the
fact-if it be true rs rcpoitcd-that two MEM
bcrs of the Cabinet protested against it, and
not content with protesting, threatened to re-
agn if the proposition Of tho President should
be carried ont. But the simple fact that
such thing should, under tho circumstances
familiar to every intelligent citizcn-bc dclb-
cra,ely proposed, is full OF unpleasant sigliG-
canoe. We havo reason 10 be thankful that
there were two or three gentlemen in the Cab
met who had the ninnlincss aud courage to