Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1876-04-13
DEMOCRATIC PROFESSION.
AND PRACTICE


was animated by high and holy pur-
pose to cleanse and purify the Govern
ment in ali its official places. And how
they condemn partisaHship too. Par.
tisanship! They would have none OF
it. Let Us have good government and
honest administration, they said,
though parties perish from the earth.
Rise above Partyn' was their eXhor.
tation to honest Republicans who were
feeling the disgrace which bad leader
ship had brought upon their organiza.
ton. 'Rise above party! Rebuke the
men who are doing all this mischief.'
They wanted all the bad men turned
out of Office at once. Not that they
had any desire for the Offices them.
selves-perish the thought-but simply
that the honor of the nation might not
be tarnished and its good name de.
stroyed by dishonest and incompetent
administration. And if if it happened
that when bad Republican went out
good Democrat went in, why that
was nothing; it would be the merest
partisanship in the world to object to
| the change on that account. "Sink
partisanship they said Put these
fellows out, and"-insinuating
Us in" We've been doing it. In a
tentative experimental way we've
| trusted them. They seemed so earnest
about it; they promised so fairly they
were so scandaliZed by the eXcesses,
1.-THE reckIessnesS, and the cOrruptions OF
the party in power so fOrgetful of self,
so catholic anu broad in their views :;
and we were all SO tired of the mis-
management and corruption of the
Republicans, of their speculatiOns and
heir Rings, their extravaganza and
waste, their intolerance and their
greed, that we said, with many mis-
giviHgs and in a sCrt of despair, swell
let US give these virtuOus people a
chance TO show what they can do in
the way of reform" /"
They've been trying it. And what
mess they have made of it. Reform
Heaven help u.s. Imagine the reform
the lOcusts brought to Egypt after the
frogs, or the lice after the locusts. Why
these fellows hadn't virtue enough to
last them through the cloak rooms and
on to the floor OF Congress. The last
vote that gave them majority in one
branch of Congress had not been counr-
ed before the van of as hungry and dis
reputable an army of office-hunters as
ever sacked d treasury entered Wash
ington, and began discounting their
chances wherever they could blk a
landlord or bamboOzle a barkeeper.
The country stood aghast at the irrup-
tiOn. 1t seemed, not as though the sea
had given up its dead-for these men
bore no sign of having been in contact
with water, or of ever having known
its uses-but it did seem as though the
crossroads taVerns of a continent had
been lifted up and spilled upon the
capital. To make places for this hungry
horde, the Congressman who had been
so clamOrouS for reform and so urgent
that partisanship should be laid aside,
and who had got into Congress thereby,
deliberately turned out competent and
honest officers, against whom no COM
plant had ever been uttered. Did it
without so much as an apology or an
explanation. They spared nobody.
They considered nothing, except that
these fellows wanted places. So out
went everybody, regardless Of age, eX-
perience, faithful service, integrity,
ability or fitness, and in came the cross
roads and the sIums. 1t is a dreadful
stomach-full for the American People,
and the country is very, very sick of it.
But it's the way this party sinks par
tisanship and gives us reform. The
L,
enough to restrain them from grabbing
the first thing they can reach, though.
they know that by waiting little
they can bag cart-loads OF plunder.
They can't get by the hat-rack in the
hall. Sink partisanship indeed Why,
they make no preteDse of doing it,
while they are talking most loudly
about it.
And as for their sincerity in dcnounc-
ing bad appointments--looil at that
vote in the Senate on the confirmation
of Mr.. Dana. 1t was one of the best
appointments ever sent into the Senate
by President Grant. Confessedly so.
And what did Democratic Senators
who have been so loud in their denun-
Citations of the bad appointments of the
Administration, and so clamOrOus in
their demand for better class of men
i'm office, do? Do? They voted against
it, ever mothers son of tLem. They
could not afford to have the Republi-
can party strengthened by the moral
effect of one good appointment, and so
they went over to the Butler side, and
voted with Cameron Morton, and the
rest against it. And Mr.. Eaton of Con-
necticut, who in the next campaign
will howl himself hOaTse over the out
rageOuS conduct Of a Republican Senate
in defeating such a nomination, was
absent, as was his colleague, Mr.. En-
glish, who in letter To President
WOolsey, as we hear, promised to do
all he could for Dana's. There's pref
ty picture for the people to look at
Every Democratic Senator voting
against an appointment for the rejec-
ton for which they will hold the Re-
publican majority responsible in the
hOTe of making political capital out of
il. 1t is more barefacef than the trick
played in the back-pay grab,- when
Democrats enough voted for the bill to
carry 1t through, and the whole party
Immediately joined in howl against
lit as a Republican measure. Some
Democrats did vote against that, but
not one voted for Mr.. Dana's contirma-
ton. Some of these reforming states
men will be talking upon the stump by
and by about the bad character OF
Grants appointments. We beg the
people to remember then that when
Grant made q good appointment every
Democratic Senator from Bayard down
voted against it, ". Y. Tribune.