New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1875-09-25
THE WHISKY AND INDIAN RINGS,

The administration of President Grant
is running heavy opposition to Reformer
Tilden, and has raised as great consterna-
ton among the distiller of indirect alco-
hol, and the contractors for gauzy blankets
aud carrion beef, as pervades the canal
ring of Lord & Co., or those fraudulent
contractors, Connolly & Co., of New York.
We applaud this pursuit of these un-
scrupulous rogues, who abuse the conf
dence and asperse the good name of the
Republican party. We will celebrate " ith
suitable head lines the capture and con-
demnation of these dishonest agents who
have enriched themselves and dishonored
the nation by imposing upon ignorant In
dams fraudulent articles in place of those
sound commodities which the nation had
promised and paid for. Do We defend or
palliate the acts of these knaves because
they claim to belong to the Republican
party? On the contrary we f el the
more indignation against them. They
have pretended to adopt principles which
they neither respect nor comprehend, and
for what? That they may abuse con-
idence obtained on false pretenses. If
we had servant who, in our name, de-
frauded our friends-if we had a hound
which answered to our horn and slaugh-
tered the sheep of our neighbor, would
we be called on to defend the one or pro-
tect the other? We would rather dis,
charge the servant and hang the hound
This would be due to justice. 1t would
be most emphatically due to our good
name, lest We be inculpated in the crime
of our dependent. The Republican ad-
ministration scts justly and wisely in
being the first to bring the Indian and
whisky thieves to trial and punishment.
This pursuit of criminals who have per-
petrated offenses in the name and on the
credit of the great Democratic and Re.
publican parties is likely to spread, like
any other epidemic, physical or moral.
1t can not be arrested or evaded, and
should there be any demand from any
quarter that the acts of any Repub-
lican agents shall be investigated, we
shall advocate the fullest and most
searching inquiry, confident that all
true Republicans will come out of the
crucible pure; but resolute, if aay be
found in default of duty, that the Repub-
lican party shall not be held responsible
for their shor comings.
Of the whisky and Indian rings, it may
be said thai. the offenders are of no par
ticular party, but combined from all par
ties, nor are the offenses of the present
day exclusively. Indian transactions were
more just when they We're conducted
under the exclusive supervision of army
officers, but still the fraudulent sales
of Indian beef and blankets are
as old as the Indian annuity sys-
tenn, while the premature sale of Indian
pine lands to private purchasers dates at
least as far back as the sale of Fort Shell
ing, under the Secretary of War of Presi-
dent Buchanan. That particular proper
ty, We have seen it stated, was sold on
terms of deferred purchase, rented out
again to the federal government, and in
one shape or other the government sold
the property to private parties and paid
for the property itself.
There is, then, nothing new in these Of
fetal iniquities. Let us hope the Amer
lean government is about. to inaugurate
something original in the pursuit and
punishment of the offenders.