New-York tribune., 1876-03-13
ppJHd pECUNh.

The takers of great bribes and OF little ones,
all over the country, are III trouble, except,
indeed. in New-Hampshire, where the venders
of votes are in no danger of exposure, because
they affect no concealment. The most mean-
choly instance of low self-valuation has Oc-
curred in Boston, where one Councilman Shaw
has been detected in selling his vote in favor
of wharf for only 5000. As the great
Grantors and Grantees do on a big scale, 30
the small peddlers of their brief authority do
ON little one. Heaven knows where the
probing of this slough of corruption will reach
the hardpan of virtue! We should at
preSent descend to the investigation of the
morals of hog reeves with many appTehen-
si0ns; for we might find them no purer than
the hog reeves of Rome in the days of Roman
decadence Honesty just now ought to be in
demand and at Il premium-Only confidence in
the quality of all goods in that market is 50
much impaired. The worst of these awful dis
closures is the universal distrust which they
breed and nurture. Who is to be trusted
Whose hands are clean? Having lighted our
lantern, in what corner shall we look for an
honest mani He would be novelty. The
thievery is getting to be mOnOtonous.
couraping words in times of public disaster;
and we would speak them now just as we did
when the armies of rebellion had invaded
PENNSYLVANIA, and New-York was menaced by
q disloyal mob. 1t is true that no calamity OF
the war was more terrible than the recent dis
coyeries of enormous public dishonesty. Ii the
uncovermg of the evil brings with it no rem
edy. it would have been better if the Repub-
lie had received its coup dc grace
at Gettysburg. A wounded and bleed
ing Republic may be restored, but
not rotten one. A State finds the first stages OF
public corruption very tolerable. 1t even brings
with it kind of factitiOus prosperity. The
national treasure stolen by its unfaithful GUS
todians flows through thousand illegitlmate
channels; small thieves share i'll the punder
organized by great ones; and the moral result
is the same, whether pecUllati II springs from
luxurious vice or is Occasoned by it. Nor Is
it casy TO make men comprehend what sue
cession of Belknaps in the Treasury would
bring us to, OF how chronic bribery Of pub
lie officers must end in private misery.
We live from hand to mouth, and
from day to day. We forget that institutions,
after all our constitutions making, are only
men. A pestilence is easily ineligible, and so
is great fire, "a murrain of herds, blight of
crops; but cancer of the body polite is
usually mistaken for an ornament and a sign
of high health as its roots stealthily stretch
toward the nobler parts. Many nations have
withstOod for centuries the cncrOachments OF
foes without, only to fall at last by the hands
of their own children. The Republic to-day is
riotously glad in its strength, and fancics
that it holds its blessings in fee for
ever; hut greater nation than ours
was destroyed long ago by its infidelity TO that
by which nations live. Disintcgration will be
easy when Washington has ceased to be con-
yenence. Other centers of corruption will he
established, if, indeed they have not been al
ready Greed is the mother of violence, as the
miserable condition of several Southern States
has in our own day demonstrated and the
time may come when the recent history of
South Carolina may be repeated in New-llamp-
shire, or in Illinois. or in any other Common
wealth. Make our politics a mere scramble for
the chance of stealing, and the hungry will
soon become careless of forms and betake
themselves to the old formula of :" Stand and
"deiyerr
We put our trust in the virtue of the people.
Because it has saved us thus far, we fancy that
we may rely upon it forever; and so we might
if forever We could preserve IT. But the more
corrupt public affairs become, the more habit
ualy do men of sterling integrity decline to
have anything TO do with them; while major
tiles easily bought or miscd become at last
the slaves of their purchasers. If every hon
est man who at the last election did not vote
at all had joined either one party or the other
and SO contributed to swell the total Of up
rightness and patriotism in political life, we
might have escaped the current modification.
But the satraps and tetrarchs, the Dalgetties
and the Sallusts, the pOstmasters and the tax
gatherers the robbers in purple and
the robbers in regimentalS, captured the noble
Republican party. and thousands of honest
voters Still others, too honest for this, quietly
staid in their pleasant homes, and permitted
the most impudent plunder of power which
this Republic has ever witnessed to go OH,
free from any protest of theirs, from even the
easy protest of their vote. Such elections have
borne their legitimate fruits, and every hour
has brought fresh and plenary demonstration
of their wretcbed folly. That has happened
which the people were told would happen
and at this moment the safety of the nation
must depend upon the prevalence of that
political sanity which goes behind parties to
principles, and refuses TO vote for the corrupt
merely because they may happen to be candi-
dates.
MR.. BASSS SETTLEMENT.
When Mr. Bass informs the House of Rep