The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1875-02-26
UNLOADING.

UNLOADING.
IFrom tho n. y. Tribunc.l
Following the election of 1878 the
President was delivered ola Delphic
utterancc in Interpretation of the re-
suits; and the men hestened to give it
to the country. He said it was "time
for the party to unload.' Unload
what? Unload whom: To any clear
sightad person the Administration de-
feat was attributable to the corruptions
which the Administration itself had
fostered, and the dishonesty of its pro-
| LESSONS with reference to the Civil
Service Reform to the Credit Mobilier
transactions and the Back-Pay Grab.
Most prominent, undoubtedly, of these
| was the Bacl<Pay Grab, which put
| 800, 200 into Gen. Grants pocket, and
appropriated a small individual "stea1"
to each member Of Congress. 1t never
occurred to him that popular dissatis-
faction with his share in that transaction
was possible, neither at that time nor
afterward, when the SHINING Congress
men sideled up to the Treasury and
restored their share of the ill-gotten
plumber. He only saw in the election
results signs of discontent-not with
the party; and he remembered that
some of the party had differed with
him of late. His conclusion was swift.
The people had said it was time to
unload. Whom: Why, the persons
who differed with the President, of
course.
Since that time there has been much
unloading. Not, by any means, Of con-
spicuous persons who hold offices.
Not, SO far as we can learn, of any
Cabinet officers, Senators, of Represen-
tatives. Some of them are changing"
as Mr.. Andrew johnson used to say,
con the verge" of the load, but for
the most part they cling. The unload
ing has been of the people who do the
voting, rather than OF the men who do
the governing and office-holding.
They have been unloaded by the thou
sands and tens of thousands and hun
dreds of thousands. They have been
unloaded in eveay State in the Union
in a most wholesale, sweeping fashion.
And this unloading from the party has
also unloaded both Houses of Congress
of various prominent persons who had
no desire to step down. Mr.. Butler
leads out a motley following of them
from the House, and Mr.. Carpenter
and Mr.. Cha ndler, with locked arms,
precedc Il charming little procession
from the other end Of the capitol. And
still, we presume, the President con-
tinues in the belief that what the party
needs is to "unload." That seems to
be his fixed policy. Never was Il party
so rapidly and successfully unloaded
as the party of the Administration
during the past two years, and never
in the history OF the party was there
such a discharge of voters and rctcn
ton of officc-hOldcrs. Let us give the
Administration Senators and Repre-
SentutiVcS credit at least for loyalty,
unwavcring aud un1uestioning loyal
ty, to their chief. In whatever dircc-
ton he points they go. Forward and
back ,zigzag and crossleggcd whichever
way he takes they follow. with hardly
Il protest against the wild tanglc OF
paths in which he leads them. Ills
first public act as Executive was to ask
the repeal Of an express statute to
crafty his personal wish in the sclcc-
ton ola Cabinet; his last, up to the
time of this writing, was to inform
Congress that unless Il law is passed
permitting him to override the Consti
tuition and set upa Government to his
own liking in the State Of Arkansas he
will do it of his own motion and with
out authority. Between these two
public acts there has been not much
that was inconsistent with either.
The unloading goes on. President
Grant, under his own construction of
the Constitution and the laws, is the
State. And he bids fair to unload
everything else.
Twenty years ago yesterday, on Sat
urday, February 10, 1855, Vice Presi-
dent Wilson took his seat in the United
States Senate as the successor of Edward
Everett. The Senate then occupied the
old chamber, now the United States
Supreme Court room. Ofthc sixty one
other gentlemen who occupied seats in
the Senate at that time, thirty-seven
have passed away, and of the twenty