The weekly echo. [volume] (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 1868-1876, 1876-03-23
Lifting the Curtain.
From The View York suu.

IfdHG 55CEGtaEF Oh at GoI-
fesses that he las used his Office
as a means Of selling profitable
placas; that, among other things,
the sum of $4,000 year was paid
to Mrs. BeIknap, lis wife, By
post trader at Fort Sill, appointed
by her husband, as long as be re-
mained post trader. This confess
sion was extorted from him not by
any voluntary repentance on his
part, but By showing him the evi-
dence proving the fact. of course,
this is not the only transaction OF
the kind in which Mr.. Belknap has
been engaged it is merely a
specimen. single product Of
system which has borne multifa-
rious and continual fruit.
This man, detected and crushed,
is driven ont, resigns, is i'm
pcacbed, aud either escapes or en-
dures the punishment of his
crimes. The people are shocked
by the revelation-by Che positive
| proof oil What has SO long been
suspected and believed. 1t. is in
deed a shocking, a revolving exhi-
bition. In the Centennial year OF
the Republic, our great enterprise
| of free popular government results
| in the sale of offices by one of our
very highest functionaries, and In
the payment of bribes to the wife
os this rotten official. III such is
our condition at the end OF the
| first century, what will it be at the
end of the second? We may well
hang our heads with shame before
other nations when the very high
est executive officers, those iu-
trusted with the chief power and
the largest honors, turn out to be
bribe takers, thieves, robbers,
pickpockets, mere ordinary scoun-
drels. ..
But these natural sentiments
and reflections must promptly be
set aside for the sterner purpose
of thoroughly understanding the
disease which threatens to destroy
US, and applying remedy that
shall be thorough, effective, and
adequate. The first necessity is
to know the whole truth: and for
the possibility of this we must b.
grateful to the democratic major
ity in the House of Representa-
tives. But for the prepondarance
there of that party, such discoV-
cries would be impossible. The
country remembers that when,
four years ago, we took the re-
sponsibility of charging upon
George MI. Robson, Secretary oi
the Navy--a man far more yenal,
gross, and thievish than Belknap
the fact that he had illegally aud
lin direct contravention of law,
t ken from the Treasury the SUN
of $4,000 and paid it over to one
Secor, the republican House d
Representatives appointed a com
mittee, not to discover, but to sap-
press and whitowash Robeson' :
official acts; and although we
proved the fact of this public rob
berry, before this packed commit
tee, Senators like Frelinghuysen
and Conkling Joined in glorifying
the public plunderer, ard all the
republican party newspapers IN
the country, the soft aud senti-
mental as we'll as the bold and
truculent, set up one chorus of de
maneiaticn because the Sun had
presumed 50 far; just as few
months later they denounced rs
for tie Credit Mobilier revelation
Now, however, il different state oi
things prevails, and the real facts
| in all their hideousness are to be
brought to light.
1t must not be supposed thai
Belknap il any worse than the
others because he gets justice first,
He has done nothing but what
they have done before him, In its
essential character there il no diff
| ference between his act and that
Of Gen. Grant IN appointing mer
to the Cabiuet because they had
given him presents, There II DC
essential difference between Mr.