The daily gazette., 1881-10-06
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 9. 1851.

men in office constitute the main re-
lance of the Republican party-or,
what may be more properly styled the
spoils party. 1t was to keep the
spells the men in Office, from General
Grant down to the thief who did the
dirtiest work in New Orleans in 1876,
stole the Presidency and made Hayes
Chief Magistrate although they knew
better than any other persons the fact
that Mr.. Tilden was elected, both by
the majority of electors and by a quar-.
ter of a million majority in the popu-
lar vote. The "visiting statesmen"
stole the Presidency for the spolls.
They were successful in their wicked
work, and Hayes did not dare to in
terfere to prevent such frauds as were
practiced by General Brady and
his gang of Star Route thieves, by
which millions were lost to the tax
payers of the country or by such
villainous rogues as Howgate, who has
been allowed to steal about half the
money that passed through his hands.
None knew the truth about these
things better than Roscoe Conkling.
The spoils was what they were after,
and they are still after them. The
scheme of "Civil Service Reform" is
only another mode by which the men
in office desired to keep the spoils.
Itwas battle for the spoils that caused
the party to split into factions in New
York and in Pennsylvania. The
Stalwarts had the spoils and wanted
to keep the greater share of them ;
the Half breeds saw an opportunity |
to get portion of the government
spoIls and went in for them, at which |
the great Tykoon of the Radicals got
himself into a rage and thought to
break up the opposition faction in hiS
own State, and he would have done
so, had not Garfield been drawn
into the fight. And finally Conkling
sought, with the aid of Grant, to de-
stroy the power of the Administra-
tion in New York-to effect this he
resigned his seat in the Senate, ex.
pecting to be sent back at once, and
thus show that in his personal infiu.
ence he had more weight with the
people than Garfield with all the gov
ernment offices in his hands. lie
failed, and the Stalwart spoils men
were being turned out of office. And
then Guiteau, another spoils hunter,
came to the rescue. Tho Stawart
bullet entered the President 8 flesh.
Still The fight for the spoils continued.
The victim OF Guiteau died and now
Conkling We are told is to be made
Secretary of the Treasury. With some
show Of resistance he continued the
fight for the control of the New York
convention, but we are suddenly told
that, having the assurance of Arthur
that he is TO be handed the keys of
the National Treasury in December.
There is lull in the fight and we hear
it said that Conkling abstained from
going to the New York Convention
and "sulks in his tent" Having been
promised the control of the spoils,
over the contest for which the puIest
and best man of the party became a
martyr, Conkling is content to allow
the Half-breeds to have, for a brief
period, the crumbs that f3ll from Gar
fields table. But the fight will con.
tinue to 60 on until the spoils party are
turned out Of office and more honest
men put in the control Of the goyern-
ment. The best the Democrats can
do is to demand that the administers
tion of Arthur be ran as economically
as possible aud resist with wlat power
they may have in Congress the waste
and extravaganza that the Stalwarts
are known to have favored for eight
or ten years.