New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1877-02-01
"UF STOOD BY HIS FRIENDS"

"HE STOOD BY HIS FRIENDS"
When President Grants eight years OF civil
administration come to be summed up Ills
chief merritt it be merlt-aS Executive
the most marked feature at any rate OF his OIL
fetal career, will be the manner III which ne
stood by his friends. No man in high place
ever had such friends, and no man ever
stood by them at such cost 1t has nap
pcned to but few men in the course Oh
history to come into pubic lie I'M
der such favorable auspices and with such
fine prospects for achieving great
civic success as the crown of a remarkably
brilliant military career. Indeed he had little
to do but exercise the same sagacity IN the
choice of Cabinet advisers and political conn-
sellers that the country had credited HIM with
in choosing his military subordinate', ana then
be governed by their advice. lie had the
prestige of military success, the admiration
and the confidence of the country, the support
of a great party, and the good wishes OF the
whole people. With all this he had the
advantage of Andrew JOhnson's unsuc-
cessful administration as background
the universal feeling of relief with
which the country hailed the change, and a
general disposition to give the new admins
tration the advantage of contrast with It's pre-
decessor Eight years have effected most re-
markable change in these conditions. Begin
ming with his first Cabinet nominations,
including that of A. T. Stewart az Secretary
of the Treasury. which he accompanied with
the cool and deliberate request for the repeal
of the law which made Mr.. Stewart ineligible,
and coming down to the latest prryerscncss
exhibited in pardoning the whisky thieves and
standing by Murtagh, the diSreputabie
Police Commissioner, his whole administration
has been a disappointment to his best friends
and grief and modification to all
Republicans who took pride in their party and
all patriots who hOnOred their country. If
men were saying eight years ago, when An
drew johnson was about turning his back on
public life aud the bad failure he had made in
the Executive office, Any change must be an
Improvement" they are saying so now with
fourfold emphasis. And this i'll spite of the
fact that they have desired to approve Presi-
dent Grants civil administration because of
their gratitude for bis military services and
their admiration of him as n commander of
our armies. The explanation of it is in the
fact that he has administered the Government
as a personal cm0lumcnt and made it his chief
business to take care of and stand by his
friends.
1t is unfortunate indeed thai in the last two
months OF his two Presidential terms, when
people were trying hard to forget his
mistakes and give him charitable and
gentle Judgment remembering his mill
tary successes rather than his civic blum
dcrs, he should give new occasion for Just and
reasonable complaint. There was no need of
his driving Congress and his own political and
personal friends in it to the extremity of
passing bill over his veto for the
purpose of Kidding the District of Column
bia of an obnoxious officer, and relicv-
ing the whole country OF IA national scan
dial. But this he has done, with that stub
born pcrycrseness of disposition which permits
no consideration Of the public welfare or Orli-
nary propricty and no regard for consequences
to stand between him and his devotion to his
personal friends. His conduct with reference
to the District Police Commissioners is all the
more strange from the fact that it only hight
ems the scandal and decpcns the disgrace with
out doing his friends any service, for it Is very
certain that Congress will not be restrained by
the Executive veto from putting an end to
the corruptions of the District Police manage
ment
In the case of the pardOns granted the
whisky thieves, there seems also to have been
the same disregard of consequences to his own
fame, as well as Indifference to law and social
morals. President Grant had already, in his
treatment of Secretary Bristow and the officials
who brought the whisky thieves to justice,
done so much to show his sympathy for the
convicted voators of law, and his disapproval
of the prosecution, that his famous order,
" Let 10 guilty man escape" had fairly passed
into proycrb of irony and sarcasm but pco-
pie were willing to pass all that over and
cover it with the mantle of charity. But
he must needs in the last days of his exercise
Of the pardoning power revive the memories of
the whole transaction by intcrpo5ing Executive
clemency between the convicted fclOns and the
laws they had violated. For eight years now,
the partiality of his friend not always unself-
ish, perhaps, has excused such acts as these
up0n the ground of his devotion to hrs friends
All complaints have been answered with,
"Wcl he stands by his friends" And the
party which elected him has, in the
exercise of that large charity which was
never given to any Of his prede-
cessors or any other Official accepted the ex-
PLANTATION and gone on defending and sup
porting him. The logical result of il is seen
in the change in the relation of parties which
gives us Presidential election SO close as to
be disputed, Senate nearly evenly balanced