National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1876-05-09

in plain words, then by implication and
insinustien and innuendo, it has been
accusing the President and his advisers
of the highest crimes aud misdemean-
ors known to the law. 1t has improved
every possible opportunity to be-
smirch their names, both politically
and morally, by the publication and circu-
lation Of Stories ofwhich, if but the tenth
part were true, would proclaim this repub-
lican Government of ours the worst the
world ever saw. and the President and his
advisers only fit to occupy prominent places
in the penitentiary. 1t has spared no pains
to spread far and wide the most exagger-
ated rumors of corruption and malfessance
in office, which were derived from disap-
pointed and irresponsible Office or contract
seekers or brokers whose word would not
convict a negro thief in Southern police
court. And all this has been done with
such shameless persistency as to begin to
make some impression upon the minds of
the credulous, as continual droppings will
wear a stone, even in "this Centennial
year"
Foreign Ministers accredited TO this
Government have again and again felt
Obliged to meet these ISLANDERS of our own
Government and write home warning their
countrymen that they must not believe
anything theySee in our political newspa-
pers of sensational import during polit-
ical campaign. They have felt compelled
to explain that they did not eeldishonored
and degraded by their official relations with
the Government and social relations with
the families of the Government dignitaries
in 'this Centennial year." In doing this
they have explained that this is the year
for the Presidential election, involving
possible political revolution; that our way
of contesting these revolutionary elections
is with loud words, false accusations,
unlimited SANDER and the silent ballot
and this we call government.
They have assured their people that
there is no danger of a war; that
they may safely come to the Exposition
regardless of the newspaper Jan fdronade;;
that the lion and the lamb are to lie down
together 'this Centennial year." and that
the ex- Confederates and the ex- Union SOL
diers have buried the Ratchet" and
agreed to fight no more except side by side
for the Stars and Stripes from ''this Cen
tennial year" henceforward that the
President is really a respectable gentleman
who is conscientiously striving to perform
his difficult duties; who, secure and serene
in conscious innocence and rectitude, can
afford to smile at the vipers who guaw at
his reputation as they would at file, and
that his Cabinet are equally invulnerable
TO the arts of these maligners. As a fitting
reply to the ISLANDERS, charging corruption
and malfeasance, these foreign ministers
have simply directed the attention of their
Governments to few official figures from
Reports on the Finances, which settle the
whole question in the minds of statesmen
and candid men Of the world.
They show that since the surrender of
Lee at Appomattox, when Grant refused
triumphal entry into Richmond, the con-
quered capital, at the head of his victorious
army, but hurried to Washington to coun-
termand orders for supplies and cancel con-
tracts for munitions and order the sale of
perishable property no longer needed, in
order to tighten the burdens of the people
by the gradual reduction of taxes, there has
not been day nor an hour in which, either
as General of the Army or as President,
General Grant has not labored successfully
in the same direction down even to "this
Centennial year" These foreign repre-
sentatives may and do point with confidence
to his reduction of the army, to his appre-
citation of the public credit by q constant
reduction of the public debt, and to his re-
duction of the taxes, both internal and ex.
ternal, at the same time, thereby tighten
ing the burdens of the people. They de-
duce from these results also a large annual
decrease of the public expenditures, at the
same time that the natural growth and de-
velopment of the country have tendency
TO augment those expenses. They have
further pointed 10 the never.to- be forgotten
fact that the same Republican party which
maintained the integrity of the Govern
ment by force of arms, and afterwards
placed Grant at the head of it and sus-
tanned him there, has handla6, during its
fifteen years of nile, more than five times
the amount of revenue received and dis
bursed by all of its predecessors since the
foundation of the Government. But while
it has done this, and has done it in the
face of all the demoralzing effects and in
fluences of long civil war, it is able, in
the midst of the full tide of SANDER now
assailing it, to point to the fact that its
losses through corruption, malfeasancs
and defalcations are less than one tenth,
in ratio 10 the amounts handled, as great
as those of its predecessors.
These facts settle the question in the
minds of all sensible and honorable men of
cool reflection and calm judgment. Di-
vested of partisan hate and the heat of po-
litical passion, and viewed in the light
of statistical history, the career of the Re-
publican party in this country is grand
one, of which each individual member