The daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1873-1877, 1876-03-09
Belknap's Fall and the Republican
Party.

Rslhnap's Fall and the Republican
Party.
The New York Herald says General
Grant is responsible for the condition of
affairs which bears fruit in the downfall Of
his minister. We can trace the whole
tree of corruption back to his idea that the
presidency was personal possession and
not trust. The theory of representative
government in England and in the United
States until the time of Grant was that
the cabinet should be council of states
men representing the party, men exper-
fenced in the duties of administration who
possessed the confidence of the people, and
whose accession to Office would satisfy the
demands of the party. By this means
the government was kept near the people.
Cabinet officers felt that their promotion
in the party and their chances of advance
ment before the country depended upon
their devotion to the public welfare. 1t
was not merely chief they served, but
party and the country. The president
brought into his Office the dangerous and
extraordinary idea that he was to COM
mand the country as he commanded the
army. 1t was a personal Office. Bepubli-
canism became Grantism. The function
of the Republican party ceased when it
elected him president, just as in Bona
parties times the function of the French
people ceased when they voted plebis'
citum. He gave offices to supporters as
Napoleon was won't to give his crosses of
honor to reward personal services. Hav-
ing laid down this pernicious principle he
fret called to his cabinet men who had
been his cronies and who had made a
pleasant personal impression upon him.
Then he quartered his relatives and Aatter-
ers upon the public treasury wherever he
could find room for them-from Kremer,
who was made a minister, down to the
Dent who, we believe, still owns q swind-
ling trade store in New Mexico. Having
done this, and to strengthen himself with
the only power he had to fear, the senate,
he began at once to debauch it with pa
tronage. Senators were shamefully brib-
ed, until the whole Republican majority
was debauched with power and place.
Every Republican senator became a
creature of the president. Wherever we
look in the country we find the federal
Offices filled with the friends and fatterers
of senators. The roll call in New York is
little more than the roll call of the friends
of Mr.. Conkllng. In Pennsylvania we have
no one in Office who cannot swear allegi
ance to the tribe of Cameron. So down
the whole blue book we have list of the
Offices which have been used by despotic
and arbitrary president to degrade the
senate.
This degraded Republican senate, and
every senator has the presidents patron
age in his pocket like a bride, became
the coarse, dumb, accomplishing registe
of his will. 1t is only worthy to b,
ranked with the senates of the late
Roman Empire. When the president a
the outset of his administration asked tn
senate to allow him to violate Law
to oblige a friend, there was only on
senator, the lamented and illustrious Sum
ner, who dared 10 say in his place that tn
dignity Of law was even higher than tn
whim of president of the United States
The example was soon forgotten. Ever
creature Grant sent into the senate wa
confirmed. The only time when indeper
dence was shown was when the presiden
forgot to oblige some senator like tn
carpet-bagger West Then the senate il
terfered and claimed that ''the claims
states should be recognized" Even Graz
was not allowed to name officers in sue
states as Alabama or Louisiana, for il
stance, who were not acceptable to We
and Spencer. So from step to step tt
whole patronage of the government W;
used for two purposes-na to aggral
die Ulysses s. Grant and to keep ii
senate subservient to his will. We hay
now, as we have since the accession
G mt to power, government as persons
as that of Louis Napoleon. 1t bears i
fruits in the Belknaps, the Babcocks al
the Shepherds, even al. the imperial go
eminent bore its fruits in the De MornyI
the Persignys, the st. Arnauds. The en-
in France only came when France, blee'
ing, torn, humiliated, stripped, her fell
in desolation, her cities in flames, her Sol
at the mercy of the foe, saw the emper
aprisoner atsSedan and the empire owe
whelmed with shame and disaster. Whe
will the end be with us? 1t was only ii
other day that the Herald printed an alb
and elaborate article from one high in a
thority in Washington advocating the mol
ination of the president for third teri
We called attention to it as the culmin
ton of the third term movement, as Il
official declaration that party with i
bauched senate in power, with retin1
of fatterers, jobbers and adventure
swarming about it, with thieving rings
whiskey, in real estate, in mining share
in post stores, proposed to use this pow
to perpetuate the dynasty which now rul
the country and which bids fair to go 10
history as the worst administration we ev
had.
We repeat that Belknap is sympto
of the disease, not sporadic case of pt