The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1876-06-03
pulitital Sfairs.
Why the Radical Party must be Destroyed.

eVuhu spOs III 0faul uuulnlslfdtlOn. In
every department aud branch of the pub
lie service rottenness is found whenever
the probe of investigation is applied; and
yet the discoveries thus far made are in q
great measure due to accident and to the
reckless habits of officials, who, from long
immunity aud consciousness of power, ex-
posed themselves to detection.
The late Secretary of War is impeach-
ed the Secretary of the Navy is likely to
experience the same inaiction; the Interior
Department is honeycombed with jobbery
in the Indian Bureau, the Land Office,
the Pension Office, and the Patent Office
the Post Office Department is stuffed with
straw bids and collusiye contracts; the
Treasury under Boutwell, and Richardson
was mass Of false entries, forced balances,
over-issues, and deceptive book keeping
the Department Of Justice has been a DO
litical machine for prosecuting opponents of
Grantism, swindling the Treasury, and en-
riehing the worst clnss of scoundrels that
ever disgraced the American name, and
the State Department has been used to
betray American policy and to furnish
enormous fees for the Secretary's son in.
law.
IL was quite natural with President
who worships the golden calf, and with a
Cabinet made up of subseryieut clerks,
who we're glad to register his edicts, that
rings should have been organized to con.
troll the political power of the admin istra-
tion. The Babcocks, Shepherds, Kill
bourns, McDonalds, Joyces, and that crew,
formed the Kitchen Cabinet, surrounded
Grant socially, and almost captured the
Government. They had access to all the
secrets, suppressed what they pleased, and
crushed out opposition. In Congress the
voice of the minority was stiaed by Blaine,
who as Speaper was despot. He had
two motives to guide him, first his own
success, and secondly the success Of the
party. Though the two were combined
be made the second always subservient to
the first. The Senate was governed by a
few leaders, whose rule of action was to
give clean bill of health to every infect
ed partisan like POmeroy, and to white
wash every subject of investigation like
the sale Of arms to France, or the Leet
and Stocking monopoly.
Thus the Government has been run as
a close corporation, in the exclusive in
terests of office-holders, rings, contractors,
and rascals. The greater the thief, the
more recognized his position. Grant set
the example of being guest of Boss
Shepherd, and drove through the streets
of the capitol with Mcdonald by his side,
who is now philosophizing over human
vanities in the cell of a penitentiary.
Grant knew him to be thief, for his
friend Ford had told him SO; but that fact
made no difference. As Mcdonald said,
''the goose hung altitudleum."
The chiefs who were highest in favor
with Grant and his Senate at Washington
planned the conspiracy by which the
Freedmen's Bank was plundered of nearly
all its deposits, and the poor negroes were
cheated out of their hard earnings. Henry
c. Cook, Gen. o. o. Howard, Hallett
Kilbourne, John o. Evans, Lewis Clep-
hane, Boss Shepherd, w. S. Huntingdon,
George W. Stickney, J. W. Alvord, and
other familiar Ring names, stripped this
institution Of millions, and left as ''securi-
ties" Seneca stone scrip and other trash,
in which Grant was large stockholder
without having paid dime for his shares
The conspiracy to rob the bank by these
knaves, fully illuminated by the Sun years
ago, is now plain to every eye, and every
one concerned in it ought to be indicted.
The books are mutilated, the accounts are
confused, and there is every
token of a deliberate plan to steal the
money, in which the officers and trustees
of the bank were implicated. 1t is wholly
impossible that there could have been any
honest supervision or any desire to protect
the unfortunate depositors. in presence of
the debris which is left as the proof Of
robbery.
The Government printing Office has
turned out to be nothing but the same
fraud which the Sun has ax-
posed repeatedly during the last three or
four years. Fraudulent books, suppressed
entries of sales, diversion of public money,
aud stealing on all sides, are but part of
the system which has long made that Office
a scandal and a shame, and cost the coun-
try millions of dollars. 1t has been main
tanned by corruption in Congress, and
would have continued undisturbed but for
the change in the House of Representa-
lives.
Yet with all these developments and
others which are sure to come. the surface
has been barely scratched. The bottom
facts cannot possibly be reached and the
whole truth known until this Administer.
ion is driven root and branch out Of
,ower. The two are inseparably connec-
ed together, in spite Of any personal
which may exist, or the in
lividual purity of some leaders and many
ollowers. Corruption has 80 spread through
he whole machinery of Governments that
'eform is impraeticable without new heads
ind new hands, The Republican party
must Be anihi7afed. There is no ofber