Year: 1869




tho Responsibility


Much is said in the newspapers and more is


heard among the unfortunate spoils-hunting


politicians expressive of regret, surprise,


chagrin, contempt and disgust in reference 10
General Grants appointments to Office. They
tell US that he runs the party guillotine like a
butcher; that nobodies and nincompoops are
advanced to high places; that men of intelli-
gence, capacity and experience are displaced
to make room for backwoods ignoramuses; (;
that notorious drunkards are promoted by the
removal Of upright, sober and Trustworthy
men; that rogues and lobby jobbers find favor
with an administration pledged to honesty,
retrenchment and reform that, in a word we
have never had before this present demoral-
izing exhibition such remorseless and reck-
less turning out Of ofice-holders, nor such a
motley array of hungry oe-seekers-whites,
reds and blacks-taken into the government
service; that Grant in two months has done
more in chopping off heads to make places
for Tom, Dick and Harry than was ever done
in the first two months of any other five Presi-
dents put together, and that he has done it
with lOoseness which is not only ludicrous
and preposterous, but scandalous and alarm
ing.


Such is the indictment Of the displaced,
disappointed and disgusted politicians con-
corning General Grants appointments and
it is argued that with such q beginning it needs
no prophet to predict the ending of Grants
administration. But admitting that the party
guilotine has been run day and night as if by
q high pressure steam engine, that many good
men have been sacrificed and many unfit men
promoted to positions of honor and profit, and
that the spectacle is o scandal to the country,
where lies the responsibility? It does not rest
with General Grant He did not seek the
Presidency-he did not want it. Nor was he
wanted by the radical managers of the repub-
lican party. But they saw that his overtop-
ping services in the war had exalted him
head and shoulders over all other living men
in the hearts of the people, and as it was feared
that if passed over by the republican party he
might be taken up and elected by the demo-
cratic party, he was made the republican can
didate.


What next In accepting the Chicago
nomination, he said, 81 endorse your resolu-
tions'-that is, he signed the republican pro-
yramme. He reaffirmed 1t in his inaugural
address, and, having no desire to repeat the
Follies or to run the gauntlet of Andy Johnson,
he declared that whether he liked the laws of
Congress or not he should enforce them faith
fully, and that the best way to get rid of an
obnoxious law is to rigidly execute
it. He has followed this course. 1t has
been leading object with
him to cultivate harmony with the two houses
Of Congress and we see that he has adhered
to this purpose, Notwithstanding the discovery
that the powers and authority of the President,
as recognized and exercised down to the revo-
conflict with johnson, are powers
which exist no longer. Under the new order
of things, in fact, Congress has left the Presi-
dent very little to do, even in the distribution
of the spoils, beyond obedience to existing
laws or to the wishes Of the House or the
orders of the Senate. The government is not
what it was. The Presidential Office is not the
Office as it was under Lincoln. 1t was the
fountain of authority in the matter of appoint
ments; but it is go no longer. Grant has not
been restored to the status of Lincoln. Under
the general expansion of the powers of Con-
gress, even in the constitution ITSELF he is still
largely subject to the restraints and drawbacks
imposed upon johnson.


The responsibility, then, for this demoraliz-
ing scramble and divi sion of the spoils rests
with Congress. General Grant has made very
few appointments without authority from q
batch Of members Of the House or the Senate.
This distasteful business, no doubt, he desired
10 get off his hands as soon as possible; for
be saw in the outset that there would be no
peace and no other business until the ravenous
,ordes of office-beggars infesting the White
House and all its approaches were disposed of
md dispersed. If we assume, then, that from
lis ignorance Of the individual merits or
lemerits of the thousands of strangers recon-
nended by Congressman, asking for their
,arty rewards, General Grant, as the
hortest plan, decided upon his nomination by
he first name for this or that Office drawn
rom hat, we say he did as well as any man
,ould do under the circumstances not possess
ng the comprehensive wisdom Of King Solo
non. We say, too, that General Grant has
acted wisely in getting rid Of these trouble
,ome ofiice-beggars as fast as possible and
wisely even in his general clearing out of
ce-holders; so that nothing may be left for
members of Congress to wrangle about in the
White House, not even a petty village post
,ffice of hundred year.


The exhibition is truly shameful and demoral-
zing, but the responsibility belongs to Congress.
The President has industriously labored TO be
relieved Of this unpleasant job OF parcelling
out the spoils and plumber. Anxious to pro-