Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1885-04-23
TBoston Advertiser (Ind.)1
The Administration Blunder1ne

The Administration BIunOerlnS
The appointments of internal revenue col
Iectors for Massachusetts and Maine made by
the President yesterday are as bad as they
could be, unless he bad chosen men convict
ed of crime. Eben F. Plllsbury and Charles
n. Chase are the two men who, more than
others. are responsible for the monstrous
conspiracy Of political fraud BY which the
G ,alition of democrats and greenbackers at
tempted TO held the State government OF
Maine after the party was defeated az the
polls. Pillsbury was among the most siru-
lent and ugly Of the anti-war democrats, VINO
were not inappropriately called copperheads'
for whom every soldier who fought for the
Union has an instructive antipafhy.
For the men who risked their lives on the
field of battle. or served the rebel cause open
ly and manfully within its lines, 1t l. possible
TO have degree of respect, however wrong
or mistaken we may deem them; but FOR
tbeir Northern friends who spent their time
nursing disaffection, opposing every necessa-
nv measure for the salvation of the nation,
Encouraging enlistments, assailing the adj
ministration of Lincoln, there is only the SEN
timent which good men have for the false and
unworthy. In Maine and in Massachusetts
there are hundreds of brave democrats who
served the Union with patriotic ardor and mag
unanimous sacrifice of partisansbip in the crisis
of the nations life. How comes it that Sec
retarv Manning and the President have over
looked all these, aud searched out to particu-
larly honor one, if not two, especially obnox'
ious to the devoted Union men of all parties
in New England?
Pilsbury's record of consistent antagonism
to the efforts to suppress the rebellion, and
the notorious participation OF both In the
scheme BY which it was attempted TO steal An
election, are not the whole of their dsquali-
ication for service under an administration
which processes a motive of progress and re
form. Neither of them, IN his political
career, has been so much as named in con-
nection with any action which look
ed to better and more honest methods
in politics. They are devotees of
the old spoils spstem, and are held in such
disesteem. that neither of them in the State
where both are best known could command
the full vote of his party for any Office. They
have been useful in such waystthat it would
be extremely unwise to expose either of
them to the fierce light of popular cleo
ton. Their selection for honor by the demo-
cratic administration is q bluuder Of large
proportions, significant Of an essential weak
ness.
1t is not alone that such selections are un-
wise in party sense, q recognition of the
confirmed bourbon and reactionary faction
which disappoints the progressive element.
That Is a matter for democrats to consider.
If they can stand it, republicans, regarding
the matter in its effect on parties, certainly
will not complain on that score. But the
fact is. that such appointments must be re-
garded as intrinsicallv bad, at war with the
general sense of what is fit and right, incon-
sistent with sound principles of reform, and,
in manner, a wanton, because a needless,
humiliation to the communities interested.