The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-01-05
GRANTS POLITICAL IAG0.

for the South. the individual who disgracei
the Department of Justice in Washington, At
torney General Williams, pours ever into thu
ears of the President and the Cabinet thu
most palpable falsehoods, and instigates then
to acts of such conspicuous unfairness ani
severity that the people of all parts of thu
country stand aghast and wonder to wha
length these men will go in the attempts tt
fasten upon an unwilling and gallant people
government that has not one Of the essen
tial requisites of democracy.
Scarcely has the partisan and illegal Re.
turning Board closed its labors and announced
to the world result SO false as to excite the
amazement of even the Republicans them
selves, and long before full statement OF its
findings and the reasons therefor could have
reached Washington, Mr.. Williams goes into
the Cabinet and declares that the act Of the
board is perfectly justi6able, legal and bind
ing, and that it must be sustained by the
Government
When Mr.. Beck, upon the floor of the
House of Representatives. declared that Will
liams was equally responsible with Durell and
Kellogg for the Louisiana usurpation, and for
all the outrages committed here, and boldly
denounced the department presided over by
Williams as the Department Of Injustice, "
he spoke whereof he was fully advised, and
it would not be very difficult, we imagine, to
prove that no important step has been taken
in the conspiracy against our people which
has not been either Endorsed or suggested by
Williams.
It is we'll known that the mouth-piece and
oracle of the Attorney General in this State
is Packard, U. S. Marshal. Packard, with
Williams at his back, has been always, since
the reign of Warmoth the power behind the
throne. Strange as it may appear, and pecu-
liar as it is, Packard and Williams have been
stronger and welded more absolute sway in
Louisiana than Casey and President Grant.
It is unquestionable that whenever Casey and
Packard have clashed, Packard has won, and
his victory was achieved every time by reason
of his superior influence at Washington. In
other words, the influence of the brother-in-
law has been subordinate to the influence of
Williams.
What the mysterious power is that Williams
exercises over the President it is quite impos-
Eible for us to say. There are various theories
in regard to it, but they are only theories
Whatever the secret reason may be we know
not of surety, but this we do know, it is bale
full and injurious, and to the unquenchable
hatred of that one man, Williams, Louisiana
may attribute much if not all her later woes and
injuries.
objectionable wrongs, to utter and circulate,
officially, the most injurious statements; he
has assumed powers never delegated to him;
has instigated the violation of the law; has
treated with scorn and contumely respectable
citizens who, with all proper Difference and re-
spect, petitioned for redress of their intoler-
able grievances, and has, in disregard of every
rule of courtesy, grossly insulted gentlemen
from the South, while with dishonest carpet
bag officials and Radical knaves he has ever
and always been hail fellow well met.
To delegation of the best citizens from
New Orleans he telegraphs: ''The Presidents
mind is made up. Your visit will be useless"
or words, if possible, more curt and insult |
ing and in the Cabinet with no evidence |
before him, upon mere partisan dispatches,
he has the brazen effrontery to declare that
the finding Of the Returning Board, partisan
Is it was, illegal as it was, is Just and proper,
and must be maintained. Free from the bale
full influence Of this bold, shameless and I'M
principled man, we believe the Presidents
course toward the South would have been
much more just, much more lenient and con-
ci)iatory, and, therefore, much more wise.
We believe that when he uttered the words
'tLet us have peace, that he meant what he
aid and hoped to make his administration
one of which the people of the whole country
might be proud. Once or twice we have had
glimpses of the President in his better moods,
and then he has shewn immeasulably above
The shallow-brained, vindictive and malignant
men who have surrounded and obscured him,
and who have, unfortunately for the South, ,
succeeded in preventing him from following
The dictates Of his own conscience. Once !,
when he had drawn up message to Congress
the McEnery Government and
vas about to send it to the Senate, he was !
prevented by Senator Morton, who, in :
stormy interview, threatened the President
With the vengeance of the "party," and up =
braided him with desertion from line of
policy which had been mutually agreed upon.
Had Grants better nature and common sense
been permitted full play then. what magical
,hange would have been wrought in our con-
1ition and in the condition of the South | Z
Confidence would have been restored at once,
and the Southern people. quick to appreciate 8
kindness and justice, as they are sudden /
IN resentng wrongs, would have accepted the /
act as graceful recognition of their rights and =
have We'd in bringing about that era of good t
fellowship and cordially which has been SO L
long postponed by the maintenance of bad 8
nontc H.,