New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-05-18
THE SCHOOL FOB SCANDAL.

tenders. We defy investigation of charges
against Republicans. Why? Because if
an individual deceive the appointing
power and defraud the people ne is no
Republican. He is of the same material
with the great six million dollar thief Of the
century, and is of no party, since he can
have no principle. Do we object to the
exposure and conviction of such men?
The Republican administration has done
and is doing the same thing. It has pur-
sued Republican gaugers and inspectors,
and it is prosecuting Democrats upon the
same charge of conspiracy with the Re-
publican officials in the shameful offense
of robbing the treasury, from the outside,
by cutting of its receipts.
Let the Democracy, then. abandon the
business of the country. Let them refuse
Louisiana a Pacific railroad, admit free
sugar from Hawaii, suppress our Mint
and deny our ievees. An investigation
which shall establish the dishonesty of
official underlings will be esteemed suf-
ficient equivalent for this deprivation OF
millions. Customhouse committees, if
made, will go into the issues of the cam
paign. If the Democracy should be sue
cessful the leading politicians of Louis
lana would be installed in the places of
the 'evicted offenders The people Of
Louisiana will say whether a foreign mis-
sion, or collectorship, with the assured
subsistence of gang Of relations, will be
sufficient indemnity for the loss of the
great works which Republicans had in
stituted, and which under continued Re-
publican supremacy would have been
completed.
When, however, the people Of Louisi-
ana geo that the Investigations are ex
parte, that they are only intended to
bring the Republican party into disrepute,
leaving the inference that the Democracy
is therefore proper to succeed them, it be-
comes the interest of the people to inves-
tigate the Democracy. Has any one been
so bold as to say that because man calls
himself q Democrat he has thereby o
patent of integrity? Can any one affirm
that because men call themselves Repub-
icans they thereby admit themselves to
be knaves? The first proposition would
be contradicted by the Democratic GEN.
tennial thief, end the second by the fact
that majority of the nation can not be
thieves. Assuming, however, that the
Democracy are all honest, there is
no proposition to throw any guards
around official dereliction, still less
to check the abuse of party patron
age We have no civil service bill with
it's restrictions against abuse. No candi-
date of the Democratic party has pledged
himself to bestow Office upon none except
the most competent nominations. There
is no pledge that the Democratic practice
of using the peoples patronage as the
means of acquiring an Office will be re-
nounced. On the contrary, the Democ-
racy is playing for the national pa
tronage precisely as it did for that
of our own State. It captured the pa
tronage in the hands of the incumbent,
Governor Kellogg, and preceded to its
distribution. Mr.. McEnery had dupli-
Gated every appointment which the sue
cessful competitor had conferred. The
national policy is the same. Its method
is different. Here the Democracy as
sailed the incumbents Of Office by force Of
arms. The national Democracy has no
idea of attacking Republican soldiers in
that manner. It would be war which
could not be conducted by substitutes,
nor could the veterans of Vicksburg and
Appomattox be driven from the polls as
the unarmed and timid voters Of the
South.
The policy Of scandal and SANDER is,
then, the safest and, among the honest
people to whom the appeal is made, the
most efectual system. Congress has been
opened as school for scandal. It invites
all informers to come forward and they
shall be heard. 1t sits as secret inquisi-
ton. The probable charges against Re-
publicans are published with every pulsa-
ton of the press. Those which incident
ally implicate Democrat are palliated or
not pursued. To pretend to knowledge
injurious to Republican is free ticket
and subsistence at Washington city. 1t
was the trick Of an impecunious court
fool to procure transportation. He la
belled one package "poison for the
King" and another ''poison for the
Queen" The swift loyalty of the period
secured his arrest as State criminal.
He was conveyed in great style to Lon
don, where he indicated his innocence by
swallowing the contents of both packages
in the presence of their imperiled maj
esties and the whole court. Many of
the Democratic volunteer witnesses have
played the same game with similar re-
suit.
This ex parte and indiscriminate accu-
mutation of charges has wearied the pub
lie patience, and extinguished the public
credulity. The wanton expression OF
malice and greed Of Office before the as
sembled world, has made men ashamed
of a party, which for the chances of polit-
ical success, would involve in a wholesale,