Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1876-04-28
THE PRESI0ENT,S GUILT.

We refer again with deep NORTH
cation to the damning evidences that
President Grant used the Secret Ser
vice moneys as an election corruption
fund for his party's benefit and his own
reelection. The New York Worfd
saws of this disgraceful affair:
The most melancholy news which it
has ever fallen to our lot to lay before
the public, hardly excepting the sssas-
sination of President Lincoln, Is that
which we publish this morning reclt-
ing the political and moral suicide OF
President Grant in his use of the Sc
cret Service moneys as an election corr
ruption fund for his party's benefit
and his own reelection. His agent
was the notorious John I. Davenport.
The moneys were spent in defrauding
the New York city Democracy Of their
Just weight at the ballot-box. The
proofs exist in Davenport's individual
receipts, not his receipts as All officer.
The witness is ex-Attorney General
Williams.
Not Belknap's crime envelopes the
administration and the Republican
party in SO black an infamy.
What course will be taken by the
House of Representatives upon this
terrible exposure we will not now pre-
sumo to suggest or say. Were the
term of the President but beginning
instead of drawing to close. his i'm
parchment for high crime and mis-
demeanor would be an imperative
duty. AS it is, perhaps sounder
| Judgment will be that for the sake OF
his former services to the State he be
spared that public pillory, and, like
| Give. his name be suffered to pass
into history with its brightness and
its blots, to attest the temperance OF
Democratic politics and the magnan-
unity of Republic. -
The New York Herald also says:
Scarce day passes in these times OF
Investigation that some reputation hon
ored in the sight of the nation does
not fall down In loathsome ashes at the
merest touch. In all the scandals IN
earthed since the Belknap infamy
burst upon the country, and, indeed
long before it, the vultures of corrup
ton have been seen lowering and cir
cling close about the President. Ye
large majority have charitably hoped
and believed that, near as the faint o
evil came to him. he at least Nigh
come out unsmirched. It is to be fear
ed that this hope viii prove fallacious
The revelations made before the Com
mittee of the House Investigating ex
ponditures, in the Department of Jus
tice show the President to have beel
tie author of raid upon the Treasury
whose understandable shamelessnes
even ex- Attorney Gen. Williams has no
the courage to defend. It seems tina
thirty thousand dollars was paid fror
the Secret Service fund at Presiden
Cranes order by ex-Attorney Genera
Williams to John I. Davenport, of thi
city, as head imp of the Republica
camp followers here under the titles c
. United States Commissioner an
, Supervisor of Elections. This col
- ruption fund was forwarded mainly 6
: the time of the Presidential election
1872, and no voucher for its expend
ture exists at the Department Of Jus
4 tice, care especially being taken that
g should not appear in connection wit
name which would at once reve,
the purposes for which it was uset
This is great blow to the Presiden
G | AS to Williams and Davenport, the
- have no characters to lose that the
!, would be likely to grieve over, or an
4 one else for them; but to the Pres
dent, who surely counts on respecte
Il memory, this discovery must be a
/ great shock as it will prove to til
@ country at large.