National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1879-03-26
RETURN or THE pLUNDEnERs.


OF the Republicans.
RETURN OF THE PLUNDEI,EBS.
Having been for some eighteen years in
the minority, without any responsibility or
care for the public good, is it strange that
the Democratic party on attaining to
power should betrny an awltwardness and
a recklessness ON laying their hands to pub
affairs? 1t seems TO he difficult for its
votaries to divest themselves of the idea
that they are still in pursuit of something
they have not yet attained, and hence, in
stead of taking hold of the governmental
ship and steering her onward from the
present era in the direction of future great
ness they are for laying to and overhaul
ing her. She is not what she was when
they were sent overheard for having NIT
TIMED and attempted to scuttle her She
was then freighted with slavery, while now
she is free from such national pestilence.
Then the slave-drivers lash was among our
American institutions. Now it is not. Then
revolver, r,bowie-knife, and cudgel were among
the parapherualia ola Senator and dRepresen-
tative's outfit in Congress. Now they are
not Then violence and bloodshed were
the agencies for adjusting differences of
opinion among statesmen. Now, reason,
argument, and gentlemanly discussion are
the recognized means Of parliamentary
consideration and action,
1t is not surprising that party which
cannot understand that the world moves
should feel and act strangely under the ad-
vancemcnt which eighteen years has
brought TO this nation of progress. Now
because they do not find everything on
board the ship of state just as they left it
when they were banished from its decks as
mutinccrs and freebooters, they conclude
that something must be wrong aud that it
is their mission to put everything back as it
was when they were summarily driven out
rs unworthy of public confidence and
trust.
They therefore make haste TO take up
their role where they laid it down. They
then robbed the Treasury, the arsenals, and
the depots of arms and munitions, and for
these outrages became outcasts from gov
ernment. They now return with the rul-
| ing passion for depreciation and plunder
whetted by eighteen years of hungering alb
stinence. A horde of plunderers have gath
cred at the National Capital like sharks
around ship at sea, anxiOusy waiting for
prey During the last two years the worst
adventures in the country have gathered
in our very midst in the hope that All op-
| portunity for plumber might ensue. They
have formed rings and combinations that
are anxiously seeking for the spoils OF
place aud contracts at the expense of the
public Treasury. The spoils of Office, SO
far as they have captured Them are
theirs by the right of conquest but
these in no degree answer their rapacity.
Bureaus Of the Government that have been
organized in the interests of convenience and
economy are ruthlessly assailed for the
purpose of Oyerturning them, that rich
contracts aud valuable grabs may be flshed
out Of their rnins. The first dash was made
at the Government Printing Office in one o
the boldest and must INSCRIPTIONS efforts
at theft and plumber that has ever marked
our history, and that crusade is not yet
ended. The sharks still hover around the
ship, waiting an opportunity to depredat,
upon the national substance Other schemes
of less prominence, perhaps, are also oil
the tapis, waiting far public plunder, a.
Democratic Congress may offer occasion
and aid to their neiarious purposes. Thes,
plunderers and schemers are insolent il
their boldness and rapacity. They scrupl
at nothing, no matter how obnoxious to tn
public sense or good, that offers the slghtes
chance for success TO their plots and counter
plots. They are endangered, and the Ma
tional Treasury must contribute 10 thei
greed in some way or the chief end Of thei
existence will go unanswered. A Demo
cratic Congress must become coparceners i
their schemes or they will fail. The coun
try has its eye upon Congress, and it canno
complcate itself in these proposed plumber
ings of the National Treasury without bein
held TO fearful accountability. Wisdom
will counsel that il shall be content wit
the spoils of captured Offices without furthC
attempts to rob the Treasury for person'
aggrandizement.