New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-02-04
THE RECEIVER NOT so BAD AS THE
THIEF,
A sub-organ of Democracy says:

!
A sub-organ of Democracy says:
1t is true that the whisky ring owed it,
origin to the necessities Of the Republican
party; it is true that 80 far the convicted
criminals have been uniformly Republicans
How the whisky ring ''owed its origin
to the necessities of the Republican party
is very singular subject Of inquiry. We
should suppose that when the distiller
and the dealers made profit, as in st.
Louis, of five or six millions of dollars,
less the comparatively small sum of halt
a million traced by the government into
the hands Of dishonest officials, the neces-
sites or dishonest greed Of the distillers
and merchants was more an impulse
to the fraud than even the rascality
of the official. Certainly, if a distil-
Ter or a dealer wished to pay his
revenue tax no official could refuse to re-
ceive it. If Republican officer, having
received sum of money, withheld it
from the treasury, he would be exclusively
guilty; but when Republican officer
combines with Democratic distiller or
dealer to defraud the government, then,
according to all save Democratic ethics,
the penalty Of this crime should, like its
profits, be equally divided between the
partners. 1t is, however, iutimated that
the whisky frauds were necessary to the
success Of the Republicans. This is a
particularly hard hit at the Democratic
distillers and dealers. 1t would impute
to such not merely the crime Of revenue
robbery, but the basest treachery to their
own party. 1t would be actually robbing
the treasury to aid their political oppo-
nents.
The second clause of the sentence is as
careless as the first. Has this accuser
polled the politics of the fifteen dealers
convicted in Indiana? AS We do not
affirm what we do not know, and as We
.do not consider this prosecution politi-
cal matter at all, we await the proof that
these convictions ''were uniformly Re-
publican" In our morality both the thief
and the receiver should be punished
equally. We have heretofore had the doc
trine set up here that the Democratic
holders Of the mammoth monopolies have
been justified in procuring these improper
G-c....to Iy TIE ,elailty Of the authorities
who sold them.
The paragraph quoted, however, con-
tains the highest compliment to the Re-
publican party. The convicted Grim
inals have been uniformly Republicans. !"
Then the Republican party has convicted
its own officials and the pretense of party
is no defense to dishonest Republican
official Such testimonials are alone
sufficient to justify the American people
in sustaining party which holds the
thief and the receiver equally criminal,
and will even by preference convict and
punish its own officials.
Ifany example exists of a Democratic ad
ministration of the federal government
having done the same thing, We will do the
justice to chronicle it. 1t is not polite to
talk about ropes in family of which a
member has been hanged; but we can not
refrain from delicate allusion to Tam
many Hall, whose record has been such
as to render renewal of its charter diff
cult, or to the Democratic Tweed, whose
presence or efigy in wax should be pre-
scented as the great centennial thief
Another sub assistant journal murmurs
at the dispensation of justice. 1t
thinks
Now, according to our ideas of justice,
these fellows are the ones who, from the
very nature of things, should be the first to
be caught in the tolls of the violated law.
Well, its compeer, sub organ No. 2 as
sures it that thus far ''these fellows
uniformly Republicans have been the
only ones.
Sub organ No. evidently thinks the
government should confne itself strictly
to the prosecution Of its own political
party. This would be decided amendment
on the bill authorizing plea of Democ-
racy in bar of any action, civil or criminal
It would confine indictments for indirect
stimulants to Republican defendants ex-
clusively.
The same organ repines at the law
because it places the receiver in the same
prison with the thief. There ''never could
have been crooked whisky" blubbers the
aggrieved sub, chad it not been for
crooked officials" Ever since that par
ticularly low-down common ancestor laid
the apple business on our much wronged