Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1882-01-05
CORRUPTION IN HIGH PLACES.


1t is becoming more and more appar-
ent every day that John Sherman's ad
ministration of the treasury department
was the most corrupt and venal in the his
tory of the government. There seems to
have been nothing spared which money
could buy, necessary to make his home a
palace and his political movements sue
cessful, that was not promptly obtained
at government expense. The magnificent
carriages with which his dissolute and
well paid political strikers packed the
caucuses in his interest, his gold plated
turnout, and the profuse coin trappings
which adorned the harness worn by the
blooded steeds, behind which the senator
aired himself during his administration of
the treasury department; the abstraction
of material from the government print
ing Office, with which to
run a carpet-bag newspaper in the
South to advocate his nomination
oithe presidency; the pilfering of small
sums from the various funds at his dis
posal as a public official and defraying
his personal political expenses with the
same; and, last but not least, obtaining
through the corrupt coterie of political
knaves with which he surrounded him
self, elegant designs for furniture at the
governments expense, and having the
same manufactured by artisans receiving
their salary from the public treasury-all
go to make up record of personal dis
honesty and official malfeasance as start
ling as it is discreditable to a nation that
will tolerate it with impunity. And to
add insult to injury, his return from a
political canvass, made successful and
magnificent by the use of money plum
dered from the funds entrusted to his
care, was made the occasion of a jollifica-
ton, enlivened by the strains of brass
band, paid out of the public money, and
charged to the waste paper fund of the
treasury department
Mr.. Sherman's position as an adviser
of the executive branch of the govern
ment and as the head of its financial de-
partment, add additional Importance to
the developments now going on before
the congressional committee charged
with the duty of investigating these
frauds on the government.
If the charges are proven true-and
there seems to be no room to doubt that
they have been-neither his position nor
political affiliations should shield him
from being held to answer for the ruth
less manner in which he has
set aside the laws which he
was bound, under the solemn
obligations of an oath, to see faithfully
executed. The banefui influence which
the corrupt example of one so high in
the public service exerts on the civil SER
vice and morals of the country, demands,
asa warning to others and in furtherance
of good government, that the laws be en-
forced with vigor and strict impartiality.
There is no Disgusting the fact that un
less some select spirit rises superior to
party and directs public attention to the
necessity of an administration Of the
government in the interest of the people,
the future of the country must be gloomy
indeed. There is ne necessity for scour-
ing the plains and mountains of the west
to secure the benefciaTies of the petty
stealings which have made the star
route cases notorious, as long as
a cabinet officer is permitted to
enjoy with impunity the plumber and
honors which have resulted from be-
travail on his part of public trust. The
public service needs purifying, and the
best way to commence is to enforce the
law, without mercy against the authors
of such high-handed and fragrant viola
tions of public trusts and morals, as have
been charged and proven against Senator
Sherman. It cannot be claimed that ne