The New Orleans Democrat. (New Orleans, La.) 1875-1876, 1876-03-02
TAKING SIDES WITH THE CORRUP.
X TIONISTS.
Where the Republican Leaders stand.
IEom the Boston Post Eeh %

Fom the Boston Post Feb. 22l I'D, .
A contemporary sneeringly inquiries
what advantage It has been to turn out
a Republican majority from the Nation
al House of Representatives, and put In
o Democratic one. 1t must, be excep
tionably Ubtuse not to comprehend il
the flrst place, that the mere independ
ent exercise OF the power Of sovereignty
by the people is the healthiest rebuke
that can be given to a corrupt admins
tration, whether that act results entirely
impulse or not and SO far us demand
ing OF an opposition branch OF
the National Legislature that it shall
on the instant say within three months
Of its assembling--d its way through
the heap OF faults and frauds that have
been accommodating for fifteen years
and emerge with a thoroughly reformed
system or administration, that shall
take effect Immediately in departments
of the Government still in full posses
sion Of the party accused-it is alto.
gether such an appropriation of inhdel
impudencc as will be found hard to par
allel in politics. The Democratic major
ity in the House are steadily pursuing
the course open to them, and will at
tempt no other; and OF the results their
advised for their own tranquility. But
to show the amount Of sincerity in these
calls of the party in power for results,
nothing more is needed than to point 10
the uniform opposition with which all
proposals to reduce the expenditures
are met by it's legislators and journals.
The Republicans are a unit in resisting
all attempts of the Democrats to inau-
gurate policy Of retrenchment.
They are SO eager, under Mr.. Blaine,
to make a 'recOrd" in another matter
that they fatally overlook the fault of
thus resisting the popular desire for
economy in the use Of the public money.
50 they call the cutting down of the
Military Academy expenses q very small
thing, and would like to make the peo-
rs much in that direction themselves rs
was proper. They opposed the reduced
Consular and Diplomatic appropria-
tions on similar ground, reiterating as
their reason for it that they have
long been practicing such rigid econol
my here, as to make further attemps
ridiculously parsimonious. Yet the
Democratic majority can readily find it
consistent and honorable to reduce the
for that branch of the
service by more than half a million. at
which the party In power cry out as u
very significant affair. There are other
plans to be developed, and the opposi-
tion to them Is already foreshadowed by
the administration supporters. They
are anti-retrenchn.ent,~ by instinct as
well as by long habit, and 1t ls perfectly
natural for them to decry we'll intended
efforts to save to the taxpayers OF the
country as many millions as possible.
IT is plain enough that there would have
been nothing said about r6trenthment
if the House had not been wrested from
the hands Of the administration party
by the people. When the latter see the
the public expenditures, by the Demo
Gratis, they will know to their satisfac-
ton what good the revolution of 1874
has accomplished, aud who are the
spendthrifts of their substance and who
the real economists.