The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1876-03-10
From the ". Y. Tribune.
Secretary Belknap's Fall.

seems absolutely to stun the public sense
For this man had not been dstrusted.-
In an administration which seemed fate(
to surround itself with an atmosphere O
scandal, and at time when almost ever,
department of the Government was unde
a greater or less cloud of suspicion, hi
bureau had escaped. Secretary Robeson'
administration of the navy had been sub
jected to severe criticism, and investiga
ton of his management had disclosed a
least very strange system or lack of sys
tenn in it which, so far from allaying tn,
public disquiet, tended only to prepare
people for worse things than had been dis
covered. Attorney General Williams hat
carried on the Department of Public Jus
tlce In such way as to draw down upor
his head popular censure and seriously
damage the party responsible for his ap,
pointment. Secretary Delano had made
the Department of the Interior a byword
and reproach to honest citizens by the ex.
tensive system of fraud and corruption
which under his management ramified
through every branch of the public service
OF which his department was the head
Postmaster General Creswell had not es.
capped suspicion on account of loose adj
ministration and an accumulation offraud-
ulent contracts The Treasury Department
under Richardson and Sawyer had foster
ed the Sanborn contracts, winked at Gus
tom-house corruption and Internal Reven-
ue robbcries, and allowed vast network
of fraud to be organized and effectively
worked under it; and in almost every de-
| partmcnt there had been so much corruption
unearthed and so much more hidden devil
try suspected that the public had ceased
to be surprised at exposures of official ven
ality, and had settled itself to receive with
calmness each new discovery in the line OF
pcculation and robbery. The public sense
was deadened to it all. Grants admins
tration had discounted discovery. 1t seem.
ed rs though there was nothing left to COM
| plete our national shame nothing to be
uncovered that could add to our disgrace.
And yet this man Belknap had gone on so
well, there was so little talk about him
and his department., indeed so little OPP
| portunity for fraud and theft, that he was
not suspected of anything more than the
prevailing weakness which it was
President Grants habit to call to his coun-
sells. He was not great, but we long ago
came to be satisfied with any appointment
| of President Grants which was merely
weak and was not absolutely and positive
ly disgraceful.
And so there was shock of surprise
| when it came out that this man, Cabinet
Minister, adviser Of the executive, head of
bureau whose subordinates are proverbi-
ally careful of their honor and integrity,
and proverbially sensitive to anything like
a stain of the sort that he has covered
himself all over witll-that this man had
! been prostituting his office and selling the
places at his disposal. And yet it was not
such II shock as such discovery would
have brought five or six or eight years ago
For let us confess it with shame Presi-
dent Grant has dropped us by easy stages
to these depths of shame. He has parcn-
thcsized in history eight years which will
be marked hereafter as the era of personal
government and the period ofgrecd eight
years of such official corruption and dis
honesty, such seltishness and shamelessness,
such low aims and base purposes, such
grasping avarice and eager ovcrreaching,
such specializing in official information,
such bribery and such barter and sale of
offices, and such degradation of all things
which the nation has held to be high and
holy and worthy an honest pride, that to-
day the country hangs its head and holds
its nose and waits for this Administration
to pass. That Belknap has been discover
ed trading in offices does shock us. And
vet why should it? Should not Delano
and Williams and Schenck and Boss Shep-
herd and the suddenly enriched Babcock
in fact all the surroundings Of the Presi-
dent. the character of his intimacies, his
associations, his friendships, his gravita-
tions, have prepared us for it I? Was there
no meaning in that strange comment upon
Chambers appointment to the Interior De-
partment which went through all the
press of the country with the various
changes rung upon it-"Well, hes hon
est" swell, he won't steal" and swell,
with all old lacks faults, lie is not thief
at any rate" etc, ETC., always with the
accent upon she" as though he was an ex-
ception, and always with sort of tone of
CONGRATULATIONS though the chances
were in favor of worse appointment, and
We had great reason to be satisfied with a
Secretary who did not have the reputation
of being personally dishonest Or did
these comments coming from the Admin
istration press disclose a deeper knowledge
of the tendencies of the Administration
than these friendly journalists cared to ex-
press
And yet we are told by the gentlemen
who lecture the Independent press upon
its duties that it is the press which is do
ing all the mischief by teaching the young
men of the country that all our public men
arc dishonest. Nonsense; it is your per-
sonal government that generates rotten
ness; your miserable folly of rewarding n
man for doing well the work he was fit for
by giving him an Office for which he has
no fitness whatever. He takes it rs his
nav not as trust to discharge, an Office
to fill but only as place whose honors
and profits are his reward. He takes it in
the spirit in which it is given, and in the
same spirit administers it. And he infects
the whole Government with his own views
They speculate and pecuate; they buy
and sell and barter and trade and make
the most of their opportunities. The faint
runs down through the whole public SER
street, ION the make" And so Secretary
Belknap fell into it, and was found out
it is said there was woman in the case
The same was said in the case of another
Cabinet officer who went out under cloud
and the same too, is whispered Of one who
remains.
Well, the nation would like to be sorry
for Mr.. Belknap, but it cannot spare thu
time from being sorry and ashamed for it
self, and from wondering if the end ha
been reached or if there are still othe
shameful exposures in store.
, "A French paper tells the following
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