New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1879-07-02
RETIVIyG STALE CHARGES.


other day, to name one Republican whom
their thirty-three investigating committees
which had cost the Government from
quarter to half a million dollars
had proved to have stolen Il dollar from the
National Treasury. 1t might have eXasperated
men in better temper than Democratic Sen
ators. exhausted and worn out with the long
and improbable labor of butting against bXec-
utive vetoeS. Much more amiable statesmen
than the impulsive Salisbury might well have
been provoked by il. For it did sound very
Ike taunt TO Democratic Senators upon
having spent large sums of Government
money in Intellectual efforts to make po-
Itical capital fol- themselves by heaplDG
disgrace and dishOnPr upon their oppo-
nents. 1t is not to he wondered at that SauiS-
bury threatened, Davis fumed, Beck wriggled,
and the whole party squirmed. 1t touched
them on the raw. For it will be remembered
though they have made so many and such
dismal plumbers on every conceivable ques-
ton since, that their starting point may nave
been almost lost sight of-that these gentle
men came into partial power few years ago
upon the strength, in large measure, OF the
tremendous cutlery they made concerning al
legged corruption and INSTRUMENTATION, ami
their boisterOus professions of reform. They
were going to set investigations on foot In
every direction, ferret out abuses, disclose
corruption, and establish purity and honesty
everywhere 1t cannot be claimed that they have
been obstructed in their search, that they have
lacked facilities for making it thorough, or
that they have failed in diligence OF i'll an
earnest and absorbing desire to discover some
thing upon which to substantiate their charges.
Thirty-three committees, armed with plenary
power, have been hard at work since they took
possession of the House of Representatives. to
show the unfitnes5 of their opponents, while
the whole party have been equally energetic
IN showing their own fitness to administer the
Government.
The results of these gigantic undertakings
are matters of record. How well they have
exhibited their own capacity hardly need be
told. Their ignominiOus backdOwn from
a contest which they organized and In
vited in the session just closed, tells
enough of that story; the fact that
they came together full of threats and de-
fance, and finally sneaked ont of the Issue
they had invited, so badly broken up and
demoralized that they had TO depend upon
Republican votes to give them quorum
with which to adjourn, is a sufficient comment
upon their boosted ability to run the Govern
ment. How much has come of their loudly
vaunted purpose to expose the corruption and
dishonesty Of their opponents is made apparent
bv Senator WINDOWS summing up OF the
achievements of their thirty-three committees.
1t is not strange though, that they continue to
cling to the loose and vague gencrallties of
their charges of corruption and robbery. They
have harped upon them so long, have made SO
much of them, and become so accustomed to
them as their most effective weapons in
political campaigns, that, though they
have fallen to the ground from lack of any evil
dence to support them, they cannot bear to
give them up. They will not cease ringing the
changes on them, even though when brought
TO book by Senator WINDOWS challenge to pro-
duce a single specification, they are unable to
respond. Senator Davis illustrated the weak
ness of their position when he fell back
upon the privilege of his committee in re-
fusng to make public the evidence upon
which he pretended to base his insnuations
against the integrity of the Treasury officials.
He exposed still further the desperate straits
TO which they are reduced, when he
brought forward an old report of See
rotary Boutwels showing uncollected bal
ances of $20,000,000, to sustain his
charge of fraud IN the department.
The single fact that this list of alleged
"defaultcrs" contained the name of so con-
spicuOus "a Democrat as General James b.
Steedman, of Ohio, as in default in the sum
of S614,754 90, of which $359,104 OF re-
NAMED unpaid in 1878, is sufficient to ndi-
cate the worth of that document as evidence
of Republican dishonesty.
The truth of the matter is, these gentlemen
are trying to revive stale charges for cam
paign purposes, 1t is too late. They have
been used and exhausted. No one denies, at
least THE TRIBUNE does not, that there was a
period dming President Grants administra-
ton when continued success, and protracted
possession of almost unrestricted power, had
come to have upon the Republican party their
inevitable and inyariable effect in drawing
mercenaIy sclf-scekers and camp followers
into its ranks at the same time that they in
duced careiessness and negligence on the part
of trusted leaders. That abuses crept in and
loose practices became alarmingly prevalent
cannot be denied. Republicans saw the
evil tendency, and first protested against
and rebuked it. Thousands emphasized
their protest by refusing to support the
men in power At this point we are free to
say the Democratic party was a boon. Re-
pubicans who never had the remotest thought
Of Joining 1t, but who thought they could not
conscientously act with their own party used
il as a reminder TO the latter of its respon-
sibility to the people. The Democratic
party answered then the best purpose
il had ever served. The withdrawal of so
many honest men from their party brought
Republican leaders 10 their senses. They