Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1876-04-12
From the New York Tribune.
tors.

IICE.
How earnest and sincere this Democratic party
is, to be sure, in its horror of bad appointments,
and its desire to pnrify and elevate the public
service. To hear their orators declam upon the
stump, or to read the feIvid essays Of their able
writers in the press. one would suppose that the
whole party was animated by high and holy pur-
pose to cleanse and purify the Government IN all
its official places. And how they condemn parti-
sanship too. Partsanship They would have
none of it. Let us have good government and
honest administration, they said, though parties
perish from the earth. "Rise above Party" was
their exhortation to honest Republicans who were
feeling the disgrace which bad leadership had
brought upon their organization. "Rise above
"party! Rebuke the men who are doing all this
"mischiefl' They wanted all the bad men tarned
out of office at once. Not that they had any de-
sire for the offices themselves-perish the thought
but simply that the honor Of the ma ton might
not be furnished and its good name destroyed by
dishonest and incompetent administration. And
if it; happened that when bad Republican went
out good Democrat went in, why that was moth
ing; it would be the merest partisanship in the
world to object to the change on that account.
"Sink partsanship!" they said; "Put these fellows
out, OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES us IN" We've
been doing it. In tentative experimental way
we've trusted them. They seemed so earnest
about it; they promised so fairly, they were so
scapdalzed by the excuses, the recklessness, and
the corruptions of the party In power; so forget
full of self, so catholic and broad in their views;
and we were all so tired of the mismanagemenl
and corruption of the Republicans, of their spec
ulations and their Rings, their extravaganza and
waste, their intolerance and their greed, that we
said, with many misgvings and in sort of des-
pair, "Well let us give these virtuous people
''chance to show what they can do in the way OF
"reform"
They've been trying it. And what a mess they
have made of it. Reform! Heaven help us I'm
agine the reform the locusts brought to Egypt af-
ter the frogs, or the lice after the locusts. Why
these fellows hadn't virtue enough to last them
through the cloak rooms and on to the floor oil
Congress. The last vote that gave them ma or
ity in one branch of Congress had not been
counted before the van of as hungry and disrepu-
table an army OF ofhce-hunters as ever sacked
treasury entered Washington, and began discount
ing their chances wherever they could blk a land
lord or bamboozle a barkeeper. The country
stood aghast at the Eruption 1t seemed, not as
though the sea had given up its dead-for these
men bore no sign Of having been in contact with
water. or Of ever having known its uses-but it
did seem as though the crossroads taverns of
continent had been lifted up and spilled upon the
capital To make places for this hungry horde,
the Congressman who had been so clamorous for
reform and so urgent that partisanship should be
laid aside and who had got into Congress thereby,
deliberately turned out competent and honest Of
ficers against whom no complaint had ever been ut
tered. Did it without SO much as an apology or
An explanation They considered nothing, except
that these fellows wanted places. So out went
everybody, regardless of age, experience, faithful
service, integrity ability or fitness, and in came
the crossroads and the slums 1t is dreadful
stomach-full for the American People, and the
country is very, very sick OF it. But it's the way
this party sinks partisanship and gives US reform.
The truth is they haven't even low cunning
enough to restrain them from grabbing the first
thing they can reach, though they know that by
waiting little. they can bag carloads of plumber
They can't get by the hat-racks in the hall. Sink
partisanship indeed! Why, they make no pretense
of doing it, while they are talking most loudly
about it.
And as for their sincerity in denouncing bad
experimentation at that vote in the Senate on
the confirmation of Mr.. Dana. 1t was one of the
best appointmentse ever sent in to the Senate by
President Grant. Confessedly so. And what did
Democratic Senators who have been SO loud in
their denuncations of the bad appointments OF
the Administration, aud so clamorous in their de-
mand for better class OF men in office! Do
They voted against it, every mothers son of them
They could not afford to have the Republican
party strengthened by the moral effect of one
good appointment and SO they went over to the
Butler side. and voted with Cameron, Morton, and
liC iSSt a'h9N AZ. Anu MI. Gatou VI 1OHucCll-
cut, who IN the next campaign will howl himself
hoarse over the outrageous conduct of a Republi-
can Senate in defeating such nomination, was
absent, as was his colleague. Mr.. English, who in
a letter to President Woolsey, as we hear, prom
ised to do all he could for Mr.. Dana's. confrma-
tion. There's a pretty picture for the people to
look at Every Democratic Senator voting
against an appointment for the rejection of which
they will hold the Republican majority RESPONSE
BILE in the hope OF making political capital out Of
it. 1t is more barefaced than the trick played in
the back-pay grab, when Democrats enough voted
for the bill to carry 1t through, and the whole par
ty Immediately Joined in howl against il as a
Republican measure Some Democrats did not
vote against that, but not one voted for Mr.. Da-
mas confirmation. Some of these reforming
slatesmen:will be talking upon the stump by and
by about the bad character Of Grants appoint
ments. We beg the people to remember then
that when Grant made a good appointment every
Democratic Senator from Bayard down voted
agaicst it.
POLITICAL.