The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1878-06-17
THE INNOCENT HAYES.

| The Republican papers, with an aIacrity
aud unanimity that Is touching gdback on
Stanley Matthews, while but few Of them
yet cling to the belief that John Sherman Is
not villain, and still fewer attempt his de-
Tense. But there are any number which
protest the most absolute faith in Hayes
purity and his ignorance of the means that
were used to elevate him to the presidency
Even Mr.. Stephens and his sort of Democrats
take every occasion to soothe the wounded
sensibilities Of the country by assurances Of
their confidence In his stainless honor and
integrity.
We ask any honest and candid man. be he
Republican or Democrat, to run over the list
Of his appointments to the civil service and
tell us If he can conscientio,isly subscribe to
any such slush2 We are willing TO give
Hayes the benefit Of every doubt, but, so far
as we are able to see there Is not one upon
which favorable construction can be based.
Run over the list of his appointees- and 1t Is
only when they are considered In the aggre-
gate that the monstrous significance of what
Hayes call hia "civil service reform" can be at
all appreciated it is transparent that the
controlling motive, the supreme consideration
everywhere manifest in the disposition of the
presidential patronage, is acknowledgment OF
services rendered In connection with Louisi-
ana or Florida. Sherman, Stoughton, Kas-
son, Noyes, Mad. Wells, McLin, Tom Ander-
son, Stanley Matthews for he was elected
Senator avowedly by Hayes influence, and
as the spokesman of the administration in
the Senate-and so on to the end Of the list,
we find every man connected with the dirty
frauds In the South In some conspicuous po-
sition. Hayes must have known Of the par
ticular villainy Of each one of these individ-
uals, and their invariable preferment can be
accounted for upon no other hypothesis than
such knowledge. Without such knowledge
he must have skipped some of them. But all
are In. But, even II he did not
know, he should have known all
about them and their acts. There was cer-
tainly ground for suspicion upon which he
should have acted and il he was ignorant he
was designedly 50, and this is just as bad as
II he had done all he has done with full
knowledge of the facts. 1t Is absurd to as
sumo that Mr.. Hayes, the man most int
rested, was the only unsuspeeting innocent
In the country that he was duped and be-
trayed and bamboozled into the presidency.
This is stuff, and it only serves to make
Hayes oil the more contemplate and desplea-
bic In the eyes of honest men, or Of dishonest
ones who happen to have the one redeeming
trait of courage. It might as we'll be said that
FdDan was an innocent man, because he
had not personal knowledge of each one OF
the Artu Dodgers thefts, and could not
uxyaar ,,,,t yf xvboca v,nr.tiat1Iar ponlyat onph
handkerchief he brought in was distracted.
But Ben Butler told Jacob d. Cox the other
day that "this sort ofreformers had had their
day." and for once the admiring country lifts
up an admiring glance to that sturdy thief,
Ben Butler. Verify, the evil days are upon us
when this has come to pass.