National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1876-03-14
HE PHARIsEEs OF LocoFocoIsH-TAE.
Macy AND THE SOUTH. ESPECIALLY

The exposure of official corruption in the
administration of the War Department Of
the Government has stimulated the Peck
shifts who control the Democratic press
throughout the country to the very excess
of folly in their efforts to fasten the indi-
yidual guilt of the ex-SecretarY on the Re-
publican party. If the party, of which
these papers are the recognized organs,
was guiltless itself of political corruption,
the injustice of attempting to hold a great
political organization to accountability for
the unwarrantable acts of its individual
members, even when those members hold
positions of trust and responsibility, is
transparent, especially when it is remem-
bered that the Republican party has never
failed, not only to eject from its folds the
vildoers who crept into its ranks-the
most of them, too, from the Democratic
ranks-but to inflict upon such Of them as
have been exposed and convicted the most
summary and condign punishment. They
present, in this aspect of the case, a marked
contrast to the Democracy, who esteem
corruption in Office, if not as virtue, Ger
tainly as no crime deserving personal pun
ishment. 1t is unnecessary to go very far
back in the history of the Democracy to
sustain the truthfulness of this allegation.
The details of the stealings Of the Tam
msny ring in New York are familiar to
the minds of the youngest of the news
paper readers of the present day. The
acts of the organized band Of pluaderers
who have rendered the name of Tammany
the simple acts of individuals, for they
were for years backed by all of the power
of the Democratic party of the State; and
although their systematic system of rob-
berry was well known for years, it was still
winked at and permitted by the State and
city governments, as administered by the
Democracy. until the result of the stealings
became burden too great to be borne by
the honest taxpayer, when the party that
had been dominant in the councils of the
State were overthTown and stop put to
the villainies of Tweed and his associates.
Under the Democratic rule that prevails in
the city of New York, it might be peril
nent TO ask who of the numerous leaders
of that party implicated in the plumber of
millions of the funds Of the city were pun
ished? Where is Tweed and Sweeney and
Genet and Connolly and Conan and many
others of the iIlustrious Democrats who
succeeded in depicting the treasury of that
city? The answer comes, "They have all
escaped" and with much of their i'll gotten
gains. Contrast the ease with which these
criminals were permitted, under Demo
cratic regime, 10 escape the penalty due
their nefarious acts with that of Repub-
licsn Administration which discovered,
convicted and punished a Mcdonald, a
Joyce, and host of greater and smaller
yiolators of the law, melting out to them
that stern and inflexible justice that is one
of the cardinal principles of the party they
had tried to dishonor. That all parties and
associations of men are afflicted with bad
and vicious characters within their organ
izations is most true. Even the Church,
with all its pure and holy associations, is
not exempt from the intrusion of the hypo-
critic and the villain. This being, then, an
acknowledged fact, it is patent to all that
the political party which deserves most of
the esteem of mankind is that one which,
when the Criminal within its organization
is arraIgned and cony icted, shall inflict the
most summary punishment By this rale,
tbcs, let the record in the two cases we
have cited be examined, and it will be seen
how utterly idle are the vsuntings of the
Pharisees of the Democratic press.
We need not, however, confine ourselves
TO the case Of Tammapy to illustrate the
ease with which the Democracy compound
felony and compromise with corruption.
The exposure of Belknap itself has brought
to light the fact that one member of the
Star Chamber inQuisition, which held ses-
sioDs and heard testimony without the
presence Of their associates on the commit
Zee of the opposite party, and that sue
ceeded in unearthing Bclknap by means of
Democratic witness, who was also par
ticipant with him, was himself once ar
raigDed and confessed having received
twenty dollars while a member of the
North Carolina Senate for his influence in
contested election case. So far from
having rendered Robbins an unfit associate
for reputable men, his act seems TO have
commended him as an object of special
consideration to the Democracy of N nth
Carolina, who strsightvay proceed to
elevate him from the position he disgraced
in the Senate of that State to a seat in the
United States Congress, where, by reason
| of some supposed special fitness, or it may
be on the old theory of "setting a rogue to
catch a rogue, he was placed on "nos-
ing" committee to ferret out fraud and
corruption, and then, when he and his
committee had succeeded in disgracing a
Cabinet officer, by means of a Democratic
informer, conniving at the escape of the
witness to a foreign country, lest his evil
dence in .he trial of the recusant official
should inplicate certain leading members
of the Democratic household. A worthy
instrument, fifty chosen, Of the incorrupti-
BILE @ Democracy.
While the whole country is being re-
galed with the changes that are being rung
on the personal act Of Belknap, against the
commission of which no mere party dis
cipline could provide, the Democratic press
fail 10 breathe one word against the foul
murders that have been committed on
political opponents at the South, at the
instigation of their party leaders and for
the benefit of the Democratic organization.
No voice among them is manly enough to
raise a note against the outrages that have
been perpetrated in Mississippi, by which a
people, largely Republican in sentiment,
have been Systematically defrauded of their
rights under the Constitution, and the State
handed over, by means of murder, in
timidation and fraud, to the merciless
grasp of party who were dishonest enough
to repudiate debt honestly acquired, an
act that for years rendered the name Of
Mississippi one of ill.repute. These are the
illomened birds that are raising their hands
in affectation Of holy horror at what they
are pleased to term the "rottenness of the
Republican party" party that has not,