Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1880-12-06
la,lcaster flltelltge1lrer.
MONDAY EVENING, DEC. 9, 1880.
Heavy Reading.

MONDAY EVENING. DEC. 9. 1880.
Heavy Reading.
There will be a great deal of heavy
reading in the newspapers for a few days
now, the most of which the judicious
reader will skip. Mr.. Hayes and his
will have a great deal to say,
since it is their last chance to say any
thing from their places. No doubt they
think that they have done well and they
will do their best to show it. They will
not have a very difficult task, for they
have not done ill. Fortune has favored
them in that the country has been
on the upgrade of prosperity and
the administration riders needed but
to sit still and let the ship quietly
move along on the calm ocean before the
favoring winds. Secretary Sherman
considers that he is entitled to great
praise because:.the debt has been largely
funded at four per cent. But he could
not have avoided it if he would. The
stupidest man in the treasury would
have done as much and one of superior
sagacity would have reduced the inter-
est to three per cent. We all know now
that this could have been done and that
the country is burthened with the pay
ment for many years of one-third more
interest than it would have had to pay if
its financial minister had been wise
enough to see only two or three years
ahead and to have known that then the
United States could borrow on as good
terms as England.
Mr.. Hayes, in his last dying speech,
would do well to say little and to leave
the people with the impression they are
generally under, that he has not done
much harm if he has not been very illus
trious in his deeds. Considering the way
in which he was thrust into his place, we
have reason to congratulate ourselves on
the way in which we have got through
with him. He las not been rascal or
thief, nor shown any great leaning to
these classes after he got through with
rewarding with public offices the many
who had helped to do the dirty work that
seated him. We have learned to know that
Hayes was not the author of that work,
being neither smart nor wicked enough
for it. His wickedness was just of that
degree that did not forbid him to take
advantage of the crimes of others done
in his behalf. He was bad enough to be
a receiver Of stolen goods, but not bold
enough to steal them. Weakness has
been his strongest characteristic. He
has been weak in virtue and vice in
wisdom and purpose: in word and deed.
He has been strong enough, often, to
look straight ahead, but he could not at
the same time walk the course. The
eyes and the legs could not both go
straight ut once. lie has been afflicted
with moral st. VituS' dance, which has
made him exhibit a ludicrous inconsist-
ency between his promise and perform
ance and most notably in the matter
of civil service reform, which had in him
4 most ardent advocate but most coward
ly soldier.
He couldn't help it, poor devil the
Lord made him SO for some wise purpose,
which is hard to guess, unless it was to
put him into sympathy with the Repub-
lican party, and into the hands of its
leaders: for all hands in that concern
seem to naturally avert their hearts from
all honest, courageous, Straightforward
man, who does what he says and says
what is right. The fearfully lame ducks
which their party has chosen to the
presidency, in Grant Hayes and Garfield y,
shows how fond it is Of moral crook
edness: and we have occasion to feel
thankful that in putting Hayes in they
gave US a man who is only mega
lively vile and not positively good. He
has been Il decenter president than Grant.
There has been no charge Of corruption
made against him OF any member of his
household nor against any public officer
whom he has befriended. He is accused
of being close in his expenditures
and mean in his entertainments :;
and to have laid away a good
deal more than half of his salary :;
all of which we can endure and
be content to hear. 1t satisfies us that
he will not in the future he continually
parading before the country with 4 beg
gins hat in his hand. Grant rs a gift
taker and the consort of thieves in the
presidency, and IS begggar when retired
from it, has brought. the Office and him.
self even more into contempt than has
Mr.. Hayes. And it is doubtful whether
Garfield can do much more to degrade
it. But perhaps when he is through
with four years shutting Of it, it will be
too dirty for anyone else to want to fill.
It is nearly in that condition now.