Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1876-06-02
Better or Worse.


The Republicans have been In power
sixteen years. They took demoralized
Government when the country was on the
verge Of one OF the greatest civil wars the
world has ever known. They raised Inn
mense armies for the defense OF the Union,
created all the requisite machinery for car
rying on Bigthtic war, obtained the
necessary money on fair conditions, con
ouefed the rebellion, emancipated 3,000,-
600 slaves, reconstructed dozen rebel
liOus States, enfranchised the freedmen,
built q railroad to the Pacific, and put the
Nation in n condition TO celebrate its Cen
tenEial with sentiments of patriotic ana
iraternal pride. During these sixteen
years they have raised and expended bill
ions of dollars, for different purposes, and
oftentmes by machinery that had to be
extemporized to meet pressing exlgency.
Yet in all this there have been but few
serious losses and blunders. 1t Is quite
surprising, when the peculiar and unpre-
cedented circumstances OF the case are
taken into the account, that so little money
has been lost or misapplied, that there
have been so few frauds and defalcations,
and that so few officers have proved dere-
lict They discovered and exposed the
Credit Mobiler scandal, and expelled
| from public life the men implicated in it.
| They have shown q creditable desire to
discover malieasance in Office and cor
rect abuses. And the Democratic House
of Representatives, with its thirty eight
investigating committees in full blast,
each anxious to discover something dis
creditable to the party in power, has
found scarcely anything it can justly con-
demn the Republicans for. Belknap's
case was one that the Republicans are in
no way responsible for, and might have
occurred Just as easily under Democratic
regime. The public printing has cost too
much, and the State ship is barnacled
with adventures and hangers on, Just as
all administrations are. 1t is an old prov
erb that where the carcass is the vultures
always gather. Really, considering the
immense sums of money the Republicans
have raised and handled, the trying cir.
cumstances in which they have been
placed, and the large number of men they
have been forced TO call into the public
service, it is surprising that they have
made so few bad blundGrs, and that they
can show so clean and clear record. The
Democrats held office in this city dozen
years, and the country knows the conse.
ouences. The history of the Tammany
! TtUtNtC is a NullOudl NlSGluCt. hd
Democratic organization and its members
and retainers robbed the city of at least 6
hundred millions, and entailed Jobs anC
contracts covering some twenty millions
more 1t corrupted the politics of the
State, 30 that the Legislature has not ye
recovered from the Generalization. Ii
comparison with the frauds ard vilenes:
Of the Tammany rule in this city, the Re
4 publican Administrations of the last six
teen years are above praise.
1t is easy to launch thHnderbolts of in
dignation at corrupt practices, and grow
eloquent in dcnouncing the degeneracy o.
the times. There are plenty of abuse:
that should be corrected. There i!
abundant scope aud reason for reform il
both our National and Municipal Govern
ments. We must bear in mind that a grea
era in our history is just drawing to ,
close. We have hardly yet recovered
from the effects of the greatest war o
modern times, and the emancipation OF
5000, 600 slaves, with the consequen
change of the entire industrial system o
half the Nation. The Generalization anC
speculation we complain of so loudly arr
very largely the results of the vast revolu
ton the country has gone through and il
only just emerging from. They ART
neither Republican nor Democratic, bu
the results of circumstances for whicl
neither party is entirely responsible. Ant
instead of giving way to the eXtravaganc,
which eharacterizes so many of the par
tisan attacks on the Republicans, W,
should take these circumstances into th'
account and compare what they hav,
done with wsat other parties have done
What other party in history, placed undel
circumstances of so much embarrass
ment, has done so much and so well
Impartial history will record that Will,
no other has ever done better many hav
done worse.-A. Y. Graphic.