The Osceola times., 1876-05-06
CURRENT OPINION.

DARpNh 10 stiii ~" puohS he
dent Grant, and you are responsible for
Patsburgh Com. { Rep.
THE republican papers are as quiet as
sleeping mice over the election OF Mudd
10 the Maryland senate.
THIS country may be said to be suffer-
ing Just now from triple combination
of fdisorders-Belknapery, Grantism, and
Babcockypop.
WE should think the president would
get tired Of having his blunders defended
on the ground Of his ignorance. Yet
this Is the staple argument OF his apollo
gists.--ABany Argns.
IT appears that the radical managers
spent $4,000 of public money to elect
their candidates in New York in 1872.
they call such an election "free ex-
preston Of the popular will"
DENoUNcING the rotten secret service,
the New York Express declares that the
Democratic representatives of the people
owe TO themselves and their constituents
the extirpation of this foul blot on the
good name of the country.
New YORK TRIBUNE: Perhaps it will
not hurt Mr.. Blaine any, but there is a
growing suspicion that he is working a
little too hard for nomination. There
are good many people who believe he
ought at least to allow the office to meet
him half way.
THE manner in which the notorious
Billings recently obtained his appoint
ment as United States district j. lge Of
Louisiana is to be investigated. It is
charged that he PAID $4,000 for "inHu-
ence," and a goodly portion of the money
went into Babcock's pocket.
The beginning of true reform is with
the people themselves. When they prac-
tice as rule the sale of legislative and
judicial offices to the highest bidder
those rich enough and base enough to
pay the most-they must reasonably ex-
pect that their representatives will in
turn sell them.-Sdn Francisco Post.
HAD Thomas Jefferson or John Adams
applied thousands of dollars of secret
service fund, appropriated to aid the ad-
ministrstion of justice, TO control elec.
tions in which they were candidates for
reelection TO the presidency, they would
have been impeached, deposed, and gone
into history as Philadelphia
Times.
WHEN Grant speaks of a salary of $780,
900 being little enough for the respon-
sibility and dignity Of the position" of
president, he naturally provokes the re-
hection that his immediate predecessors
maintained the responsibility and dignity
of the position much better than he has
done, although neither received but $685.
600 year in a time when the cost of
living was much higher than it has been
since.
The snub administered by Grant to
the republican senate, in his veto of the
salary bill, must amuse that body very
much. He tells the senators, point blank,
that he knows better than they do the
wishes and judgment of the great major.
ity of those who indirectly pay all the
salaries and other expenses of the gov
ernment." Perhaps he does but he has
certainly given very few indications of
such knowledge in the past.
UPoN testimony which it is imp,ssi-
BILE to discredit, and which it would
seem to be equally impossible to impcach,
Gen. Grant has been squarely convicted
of robbing the peoples treasury to cor
rupt the people with their stolen money
"a heinous Ofense in morals and high
crime against the laws, of which, as chief
magistrate of great nation of people, he
took the highest of human obligations to
obey, execute and defend. - Omaha
Herald.
HOWEVER the United States senate
may finally determine the question of its
jurisdiction in the Belknap impeach-
ment trial, it was ill-advised for Mr..
Belknap to plead lack of jurisdiction.
He is disgraced before his own people
now, and, if innocent, the only opportu.
nifty afforded him for vindication is in
this very impeachment trial against
which he has so foolishly protested
Chicago Tribune.
The organs of the other side are in
high glee ever the fact that seven of the
appointees of the present house have
been discharged for cause. This is taken
as a sign of great corruption in the
democracy. II is the opposite. Under
democratic authority bad men are made
to retire as fast as they are found out.
Under republican sway they are kept in
Office in defiance of public sentiment and
petted until the very last, and are then
dismissed with friendly pats on their
shoulders, with letters of vindication in
their pockets.-Troy Press
IT is a commendable caution that
Grant displays when he speaks of those
who "indirectly pay the salaries and
other expenses Of the government II
is "indirectly" that the people pay, and
il is fortunate for Grant and his admin
istration they do. Had they been called
upon to pay directly during the first
four years of Grants administration they
would have had so clear conception Of
the extravagance and corruption going
on that there would have been quite as
violent objection to second term as
there has been to third.
The ex-attorney general is in fair way
to come to grief in more ways than one.
Evidence has been given before one of
the house committees that, while United
States attorney-general, Mr.. Williams
aided in procuring a surveying contract
worth $4,000 for q party who had stip-
ulated to pay former law partner of Mr..
Williams the sum of $4,000. Mr.. Will
liams appears to have been party to the
contract, and personally present when it
was made. The money was paid then in
part. In other words, the attorney-gen-
eral of the United States helped to have
surveying contract awarded not upon
merit, but in consideration of the pay