American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1880-05-01
Reform Played Ont.

The Developments in the 90 star +"
postal service are a beautiful Z com
mentary on this reform Administration.
The correspondent of the Advertise,
| is forced to admit that s'the case O.
the Post Office Department is as bad as
has ever been represented, and it il
clearer than ever before that some
vigorous reform work is needed there.r
| The law is shown to have been shame.
fully violated and it is clear that job
berry and plumber have been at the bot
| tom of it. When the maladministra-
ton of the Post-Office Department. has
been such as to extort such comics
| sion, the Republican party il shown tc
be bankrupt. When President Hayes
was nominated, new lease Of power
was asked on the express ground that
reform within the party" was
| necessity, and but for this Blaine would
have carried off the prize at Cincin-
natl. Grantism had become so. odious
as to nauscate everybody, and it was
dead and buried. The effort to revive
it is little less than an offense to the
moral sense of the community. The
attempt of the machine politicians to
restore it to life after it was confessedly
so putrid as to have called forth public
execrations from such men as Richard
H. Dana and James Freeman Clarke
at Cincinnati, is past comprehension.
ContempOraneously with this shameful
exhibition of Post-oflice management
comes in report from Senate Select
Committee, which scatters to the winds
all pretenses of the same party oil
honesty and sincerity upon the special
ty of Civil-Service reform. Ninety
three thousand dollars were levied
upon office-holders for campaign pur
poses right under the eye of President
Hayes and Secretary Schurz, in utter
defiance of law, and the statute on the
subject is pronounced, and shown to
have been, dead letter.
In the face of such disclosures the
people are again to be asked to con.
tinue the Republicans in power, and
upon the special pretense that the Dem
ocratic party cannot be trusted Under
all the circumstances, the force with
which the friends of Grant and Blaine
and Sherman are respectively. pushing
their claims to popular favor leads tG
the conclusion that there is. in their es.
timation now, no public virtue to be
considered, and all there is left worthy
to fight for is as to which clique shall
have freest access to the Treasury, and
get their hands deepest into it. The
dodge of the old cry of reform is con-
fessedly played out. The party is hope
lessly insolvent, and the game now is
to see who shall pocket the assets. So
stands the record as made up by itself:
The circular sent out from the Sherman
bureau adverse to Grant and Blaine,
openly confesses that the nomination OF
either would place the Republicans en-
tirely on the defensive. and yet these
are the two candidates from which the
selection is most likely to be made. So
far as the interests of the Democratic
party are concerned the more obnox-
ious these contestants are the better,
that is, the more easy it will be to de-
feat them. But something is due by all
parties 10 common respect and intelli-
gence, however opponents may profit
from Republican abuse of the one and
palpably ignoring the other,-Boston
Post.