The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1876-11-02
Decline OF 0fiiciaI integrity.

are the oubsp0ken W6rus OF an 1nf1uen-
tial journal, prompted by indignation
and written before a campaign policy
rendered it necessary to muzzle Just
wrath. What was true of St. Louis was
also true of the Whisky Ring in New
Orleans, Milwaukee, Cincinnati, Indian
apolis, Chicago and many other places:
"The revelations in the revenue cases
in st. Louis have become positively sick
ening. They have weakened confidence
in human integrity. They throw a
doubt over all professions of honor, re-
ligion and morality. Merchants who
have for lifetime held high commercial
rank-who, as respectable and moral
citizens, have been social examplars and
leaders in all the political, moral, and
religious movements to arrest crime and
lead men to better ives-are found to
have been participants in these frauds
and shares of the spoils of plundered
treasury. The scope of these frauds is
appalling. They were not the mere
vulgar offense of defrauding the revenue
by secreting lace in petticoat, or dia-
monds in necktie, in order to escape
the payment of petty charge for duty.
1t was something more than this. To
carry on these frauds required, on the
part of the distillers and rectifers, false
bookkeeping, forgery of returns, nom
payment of taxes, and the introduction
oftheir whole working force to system
of falsehood, fraud, and swindling. On
the part of the gaugers and other officers
of the revenue it required violations gen.
orally of their official oaths, and a
special act of perjury each time they
made an official report; it involved the
acceptance of special and general bribes
by all the officials involved, from the
highest to the lowest, and guilty knowl-
edged of the criminal conduct of all the
accomplices-principals and subordi-
mates. 1t in cludes the actual COM
mission or the criminal participation in
the crimes of official and unofficial per-
jury, forgery, false bookkeeping, bribery,
and robbing of the revenue. And ali
this for the meanest and most degraded
of all motives-mOaey.
Had any man gone before the Cham
Der of Commerce of st. Louis and proved
that twenty or thirty of the most re-
spected merchants Of that city had been
engaged for four years in systematic
robbery of their fellow-merchants; and
had resorted to perjury, forgery, and
bribery to accomplish their ends, and
had actually obtained three millions of
money dishonesty, how long would the
guilty have been permitted to continue
as members of the Chamber9 How long
would these men be tolerated as mer-
chants, or as members of society :?
Would they not properly fall to the plane
of all the confidence men and swindlers
who put forged notes or checks upon the
market, and swear to falsehoods for a
price per oath?
Is the ofense of cheating less criminal
when committed against the Govern
ment than when some citizen is the vic
timl Is perjury free from turpitude
when its object is to get money dis
honestly from the public treasury, and
when it would be Infamous in the ex-
treme had the perjury been to obtain
money from bank? Is the bribery of
the revenue officers of the Government
to keep their books falsely, that men
may swindle the National Treasury, less
criminal than the bribery of bank
cashier to falsify his books that some one
may swindle the institution of which he
is an officer? Are bribery, forgery, and
perjury less criminal in the man who,
while not committing either act himself,
divides the proceeds of these crimes with
other men who actually commit them
Where does society find authority for
drawing line OF distinction between
crimes against the Government and
crimes against individuals? Where does
mercantile honor find its warrant in
treating the forgery of bank note or
check as an act of turpitude, aud the
forgery of stamps, or their second or
third use, an act emitting the perpetra-
tor to the sympathy of the public, and
the undiminished confidence and respect
of society?
One of the greatest calamities disclose l
by these exposures is the universally of
the corruption of the Federal officers.
From the gauger earning histew dollars a
day to the confidential officers of the
Revenue Department, all have proved
false, all have had an itching palm, all
have sacrificed personal and official
honor and oaths to share with the Grim
inals the plunder of the Treasury. The
disclosures show how officer after officer
yielded TO the temptation of money
how they betrayed their employers; and
how they actually sought out the men
who were involved in crime, hat thei1
official silence might be purchased. Is
official integrity no longer a fact, and
does our civil service attest the truth OF
the English Minister s sweeping assertion
that every man has his price? For this
decay in morals, for this decline in
official integrity, for this degradation in
official life, society is largely responsible
The country is largely supplied with mer
who have become rich by questionable
means. Wealth seems to b., recognized
as mantle amply sufficient to cover al
dishonesty in the manner of its acqui
sition. The man W. gets rich, no mat
ter by what means, is respected. The
corrupt offceholder assumes that hi;
accumulations will enable him to pur
chase social positions without regard tc
the manner of his obtaining them
Hence office is now sought not for it.
honors, or its legitimate salary, but 70,
its opportunities. The country has re
joiced at the exposure and conviction O.
Tweed and his associates. But the st
Louis conspirators are even guilty o
greater crimes than the New York Ring
They have committed series of distinc
crimes of the most infamous character
They have robbed the Government @
millions. The corrupting influences Q
their crime have had wide extent
reaching into other cities, where lik
offenses have been committed. VIII
should not these men and their crime
meet with the same general condem
ne ton and punishment? Why shoul
not these criminals be held up to tn
gaze of the world SIS examples of infam.
as well as the New York Ring, who's
members have become fugitives and ou
casts?
The Gigantic Radical Scheme of PlUl