The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1876-03-09
OUR WASHINGTON LETTER.
Washington, d. G., March 2, 1876.
BABCOCK-GRANT.

RlOlOuhR oOuoutlOA III pHO SaPllai hANAN
he is SO widely known, and where his re-
lations to the President have enabled
him to WELD such extended social and
political influence. All the dependents
of the administration, and the political
nondescripts who form the larger part of
this population-men who always swim
with the current, whichever way it may
run, in order that they may bask in the
smiles of power-took their cue from the
expressed convictions and desires OF the
President, whose smile or frown can
make or blast the career of every aspirant
for official preferment. Grant wanted
Babcock acquitted, and his satisfaction
at the verdict is reflected in the commu-
nifty. The grateful news was patiently
waited for at the telegraph office, and
triumphantly conveyed to the White
House, by their mutual friend, Boss
Shepherd, who owes Babcock good deal
for elastic measurements of street con-
tracts during the twelve-month in which
he rose from an insolvent practical
plumber to millionaire autocrat. 1t is
less wonderful that the author of the
"Sylph" dispatches should have been ac-
Quilted than that there should have been
so much real anxiety about his fate.
When it is remembered that the officer
who selected the jury, as we'll as the
prosecuting attorney, owes his position to
the President, and that there has been
no doubt as to the Presidents wishes in
the matter from the beginning, q convic-
ton would have been the thing to Won
der at. The prosecution terminated abb
ruptly, relying wholly upon dispatches
which, however morally convincing, were
but links in an incomplete chain of evi-
dcnce that needed connection to give
them legal force. Whether it could have
been made complete, or not, the prosecu-
tor alone knows; and the jury were right
in giving the prisoner the benefit of all
doubts. At any rate, "Sylph" has learn
ed lesson, and that is that no man is
too high in this country to be beyond the
reach of the law. And this lesson was
very necessary to others here, where the
':insolcnce of office" has been largely and
alarmingly on the increase during the
last past ten or more years, and sadly
needs curbing.
A distinguished jurist once said that
all the vast machinery of the Govern
ment of Great Britain was organized and
kept in motion to get twelve honest men
in the box; and as our Government re-
sembles that of Great Britain in that re-
spect, the time may yet come when twelve
honest men in n box will hold the destiny
of the republic in their hands. One of
these days President will be indicted
for his crimes and misdemeanors, and the
judicial system will have to test its
strength against the absorbing power of
the Executive, which has grown into
despotism greater than that of Napoleon
as First Consul, and may yet equal that
which he exercised as Emperor. We
have literally nothing but public opinion
to restrain the President in the exercise
of unconstitutional and arbitrary power.
impeachment is practically no remedy at
ALL AS joint possessors of the appoint
ing and confirming power, with patron
age distributed between them, the Presi-
dent and Senate are sort of official man
and wife; and it is not likely so strong
an opposition can ever again be secured
in the Senate as there was during An
drew Johnson's administration. The
jury trial of a president may therefore be
looked forward to as one of the probabili
ties of the future, and it will be fearful
strain upon our institutions.
BRIsTow.
Only short time ago there was
strong and growing disposition among
the best men of the Republican party to
make an organized effort to secure the
nomination by their party for the presi-
idency, of Secretary Bristow, whom they
then thought to be honest and incorrupti-
ble-a rara avis among prominent Re-
publicans But the testimony elected
during the Babcock trial has convinced
the quondan, admirers of Bristow that he
is not the man they took him to be.
Undoubtedly, he wished to break up the
Whiskey Ring in st. Louis. There
would have been political capital in the
act. But he also wished to keep his
place in the Cabinet, and had not the in
grain honesty and pluck to resign prompt
Iy when the President and Babcock in
terferede in behalf of their swindling
friends. If Bristow had resigned at
that time, he would have been formida-
BILE candidate for the Republicans to
nominate; which he sees now, and deep
ly regrets. But it is too late. He is as
dead as door nail. There is not now
left in the Republican party one man of
national reputation in whose honesty the
people have confidence. I mean that
kind of honesty that will not permit a
man to associate with thieves, though he
be no thief himself. Secretary Bristow
knows that Babcock is guilty, knows it
from evidence in his possession, which,
uuder the rules of evidence, could not be
made available on the trial, but which is
morally conclusive. Yet, he has seen the
entire machinery of the Government
used under the personal direction of the
President, aided by the Attorney General,
to secure Babcock's acquittal. He has
been openly defed and threatened with
dismissal from the Cabinet, and has per-
mitted District Attorney Dyer, acting
under his, the Secretary's, direction, to
be intimidated by the President himself,
without one word of manly protest. His
opportunity is gone, and hereafter he
stands among the number who detest
Grantism, but who wear the livery for
the wages.
prrp1Ic OPINION
I had a conversation, this morning,
with a gentleman, a keen observer of
men and things, who has travelled in
eighteen States during the last three
months, and under circumstances which
gave him unusual facilities for ascertain
Ing the opinions and wishes of the people.
MY informant found, everywhere, intelli-
gent Republicans, not professions! politi-
cians-that is, not dependent, in any
way, upon public employment-who