New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-03-19
THE PRESIDENTS PENSIONERS.

THE PRESIDENTS PENSIONERS.
Some time or other, the Senators who DO not
believe in perpetuating Gen. Grant in tha
Presidency, who do not share his notions OF
law or of expedicncy, and who deprecate his
political management as injudicious and inju-
rious to the welfare of the Republican party,
Will be forced to say for themselves what they
think about these matters 1t is hard for men
who have won their places by the favor OF
caucuscs to mutiny against these redOubia-
BILE bodies. II seems to them like the end OF
the world to fall into such relations with the
President as shall induce him to turn out all
their friends from Office in their States, and
put in the friends Of some more loyal states
man who will vex them sorely Ill the next
elections. But they ought to begin to see
that sooner or later this must take place, and
they are gaining very little by putting Off the
evil day. Every hour of suD5erv;ency to the
President, on the part of men who do not aD-
prove his direction Of the party, strengthens his
hold upon it and encourages his INSCRIPTIONS
adherents in the campaign for next year, now
fairly under way. 1t is useless to talk Of the
necessity of harmony The honest and intel
ljgent men who sec where the President IL
driving them have no sincere hope of ever
borrnonizing the differences which divide them
from the personal adherents of Gen. Grant.
They know that some time there must be
calling of between the two sides, just rs there
was to some extent, in the House of Repre-
sentatives, in the vote on the Arkansas qucS-
ton. where the overwhelming exigcney made
a sufficient number Of Republicans vote against
the President to defeat the most amazing
- 10, tpI
to an American Congress. Probably, if they
were forced to it, a half dozen timidly VIZ.
tuous men in the Senate wonld rather vote
| against the President than follow him in any
especially fragrant act. But as long as they can
| dodge making an issue they seem inclined to
| do so. 1t is difficult to make them see what
they are losing in holding 80 desperately to
their share of the Offices. They kept, perhaps,
q few postmaster5 and collectors in place by
yielding to the trick which prevented the re-
lection of Pinchback, but they lost at the same
| time the good will and confidence of great
many who were out of Office.
There was another chance thrown away when
| the President unloadod into the Senate the
heap of nominations picked up from among
| the rubbish of the last House of Representa-
| tives. The appointment of the dozen pOiti-
| clans who clung TO the President and his inner
| circle of advisers through all the dirty roads
| they have lately chosen to traverse, was an
| affrOnt to the sentiment of the country and the
best portion of the Republican party. What
ever doubts or scruples other men may have had,
these men had none. They only waited upon
the Presidents pleasure. They had most of
them, been repudiated by their constituents
| and they looked to the President to save them
| from the disgrace of returning to private life
| Some of them got safe places of exile abroad
where they will have nothing to do but to be
lonesome and wish they had not come But
others have been rewarded for their devotion
| to the personal interests of the President by
nominations to places at home where they can
still be troubesOme-whe their unscrupu-
lousness, their servility, their disregard for
law as law, may still do great damage Sheats
of Alabama is to be Sixth Auditor place re-
quiring more ability and integrity than he has
ever yet displayed. White, his colleague, has
had an Office created for him to enable
him to stir up strife and turmoil in the
Southern States. GOoch gets Pension
| Agency in Massachusetts,, to help control the
politics of that State. Lowe comes to WASH
| ington as Commissioner of Pensions, to give
Postmaster Edmunds what aid he may need in
rejecting Administration Senators. Parker
! goes to Utah, to show us whether anybody can
do worse than Mexican. Brooks of Arkansas,
who, though not a Congressman himself, was
the tombstone whereby the President deter
mined how many Congressman belonged to
him body and soul, is sent back to Little Rock
az Postmaster, and it is not hard to imagine
with what instructions and in what spirit he
goes out there to do all he can in his own
name and in that of the President to keep the
wounds of Arkansas open and bleeding
Does anybody have the hardiLood to claim
that such appointments as these. to reward
such services, are decent and becomingf Is
there any possible reason why these men
should have these places, except because the