The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1876-03-11
Comments of the Press.


SECRETARY BELKNAP's FALL.-There
is something in the fall Of Secretary Bel
KNAPP, which Notwithstanding onr unhappy
familiarity with such disclosures seems alb
solutely to stun the public sense. For this
man had not been distrusted. In an Ad-
ministration which seemed fated TO sur
round itself with an atmosphere ofscandal,
and at a time when almost every depart
ment Of the Government was under a
greater or less cloud of suspicion, his bu-
reau had escaped. Secretary Robeson's
administration Of the navy had been sub
jectcd to severe criticism, and inyestiga-
tion of his management had disclosed at
least very strange system or lack Of sys-
tenn in it which, so far from allaying the
public disquiet, tended only to prepare
people for worse things than had been
discovered. Attorney. General Williams
had carried on the Department of Public
Justice in such way as to draw down
upon his head popular censure aud serious
ly damage the party responsible for his
appointment. Secretary Delano had made
the Department Of the Interior byword
and reproach to honest citizens by the ex-
tensive system Of fraud and corruption
which under his management ramifed
through every branch of the public service
of which his department was the head.
Postmaster-Gen Creswell had not es-
capped suspicion on account Of loose ad-
ministration and an accumulation of
fraudulent contracts. The Treasury De-
partment under Richardson and Sawyer
had fostered the Sanborn contracts, winked
at Custom.house corruption and Internal
Revenue robberies, and allowed q vast
network Of fraud to be organized and eff.
fectively worked under it; and in almost
every department there had been so much
corruption unearthed and so much more
hidden deviltry suspected that the public
had ceased to be surprised at exposures Of
official venality, and had settled itself to
receive with calmness each new discovery
in the line Of peculation and robbery.
The public sense was deadened to it all.
Grants administration had discounted
discovery. 1t seemed as though there
was nothing left to complete our ma
tional shame; nothing to be uncovered
that could add to our disgrace. And yet
this man Belknap was not suspected of
anything more than the prevailing weak
ness which it was Presidnt Grants habit
to call to his counsels.
And so there was shock of surprise
when it came out that this man had been
prostituting his Office and selling the places
at his disposal. And yet it was not such
a shock as such discovery would have
brought six or eight years ago. For-let
us confess it-President Grant has dropped
US by easy stages to these depths of shame.
He has parenthesized in history eight
years which will be marked hereafter as
eight years Of such official corruption and
dishonesty, such selfshness and shame
lessness, such low aims and base purposes,
such grasping avarice and eager over
reaching, such speculatiug in official in
formation, such bribery and such barter
and sale of offices, and such degradation
of all things which the nation has held to
be high and holy and worthy an honest
pride, that to-day the country hangs its
head and holds its nose and waits for this
Administration to pass. That Belknap
has been discovered trading in offices does
shock US. And yet why should it2-
Should not Delano and Williams and
Schenck and Boss Shepherd and the sud-
denly-enriched Babcock, in fact all the
surroundings Of the President, the chanc-
ter Of his intimacies, his associations, his
friendships, his gravitations, have prepar-
ed US for it? 1t is personal government
that generates rottenness; the miserable
folly of rewarding man for doing well
the work he was fit for by giving him an
office for which he has no fitness whatever.
He takes it as his pay; not as trust to
discharge, an Office to fill; but only as q
place whose honors and profits are his
reward. He takes it in the spirit in which
it is given, and in the same spirit admin
listers it. And he infects the whole Gov
ernment with his own views. They spec,
ulate and peculate; they buy and sell and
barter and trade and make the most Of
their opportunities. The taint runs down
through the whole public service, and
everybody is, "on the make" And so
Secretary Belknap fell into it, and was
found out. 1t is said there was woman
in the case. The same was said in the
case of another Cabinet officer who went
out under a cloud, and the same too is
whispered Of one who remains. Well, the
nation would like to be sorry for Mr.. Bel
KNAPP, but it cannot spare the time from
being sorry and ashamed for itself, and
from wondering If the end has been reach
ed or if there are still other shameful ex-
posures in store.-N. T. Tribune.
The SILENT MAN.-The Great Silent
Man has used the vast power which graf
itude and popularity gave him to the utter
debauchment of everything respectable
and sacred in government. He and his
creatures have trampled upon the rights
of States by military force, and robbed
them by judicial frauds.
He has disgraced Diplomacy by his
Schencks and Sickles, his Cabinet by ac-
cepting swindler's resignation, Law by
his Williams and Pierrepont, Finance by
his Boutwells and Richardson's, Commerce
by his Fisks, Goulds, Jay Cooke, Henry
Clews and Corbins, the Criminal proceed
ure by his interference in the Babcock
and Harrington trials, the Indian Service
by his brother 0rville Grant and DelaDo,
the Army by refusing to accept Babcocks
resignation, and thus holding him out as
an officer and gentleman, the Internal
Revenue by his McDonalds, Joyces and
Ayerys, the Civil Service by filling the
officers with his relatives, personal friends,
and by his special and unfailing prefer
ence for blackguards and knayes. Every
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