Year: 1875

decision. They show that he has fully
learned the lessons taught by the Opposition,
and that he has accepted them as sound
political truths. The idea that Governor
Fish, Judge Williams, and Mr.. Creswell,
are incompetent men, could proceed from
no other source. As his associates in the
Senate, they were all known to him as any
thing but "obscure men" while Governor
Boutwell,, then Secretary Of the Treasury,
and now his successor on the floor Of the
Senate, had made q record in Massachusetts,
and before the country at large of which
any citizen might justly be proud. But he
ignored these facts in his sweeping charac-
terization Of the Cabinet. Governor Fish,
whose long career as a public official has
been enriched with evidences of the highest
order of craftsmanship; Judge Williams.
whose services on the Senate Judiciary
Committee enabled him to affix his name
forever in history in connection with the
constitutional amendments and the recon
struction acts, and Mr.. Creswell, the sue
cessful advocate Of the repeal Of the Frank
ing Privilege, the negotistor of intricate
foreign postal treaties, and the leader who
virtually inaugurated most of the reforms
in behalf of cheap postage which are
in practice, are not less entitled to public
distinction than he is himself, while Mr..
Delano can probably maintain that at one
time Mr.. Wilson was in favor of elevating
the Commissionership of Internal Revenue
to the dignity of a Cabinet office, for the pur-
pose of rewarding him for faithful and eff
cient services. These gentlemen, with
their associates in the Cabinet, for whose
confirmation Mr.. Wilson voted while he
was yet Senator, have never before this
been assailed as he now sssails them, except
by the Opposition. To Messrs. Bristow,
Jewell and Pserrepon', he made no direct
allusion, but inasmuch as he failed to ad-
init that the President followed his advice
at any time after it was given, it is fair to
presume they are also ranked in his opinion
as "obscure men,"


The most startllngly inconsistent feature
of his new attitude, however, is to be found
in the fact that his new associates are all
pledged to oppose the completion of South
ern reconstruction on the basis contem-
plated by the Republican members of Con-
gress who were associated with Mr.. Will
son in preparing it. He will not dare to
assume that the work of reconstruction is
complete, for he has often declared that it
will not be until the last vestige of the
States rights rebellion is swept away, and
because at this very time the Southern
Democracy is engaged in efforts,-some of
them successful-to restore complete recog-
milton of the independence of the Southern
states Of all obligation or subordination
to the General Government The result
of the realization Of these pledges would
be the disfranchisement of the blacks and
the undoing of everything that the party
has done to accomplish the equal recogni-
ton of every class of citizens before the
law. The shackles Of slavery might not
be restored to their limbs; but, now that
they have enjoyed the ballot for brief
period, to take it from them, as the
Southern Democrats have done and are
trying to do with the powerful, even though
indirect, aid of theenemies of the Admin.
istration, with whom he isacting, would be
greater blow and not less crime.


But the humiliating aspect of the case is
that Mr.. Wilson talks with such wide and
gabbling indiscretion to every person with
whom he comes in contact. Even the hotel
walters do not escape him. Our private
advices from Saratoga are to the effect that
he discusses politics with the bell-boys, and
that the constant burden of his strain plainly
shows condition of mind, frequently re-
sulting from paralysis, bordering on de-
mentia. We hope most sincerely that these
accounts are exaggerated; but the inter-
view to which we have alluded will proba-
bly, be accepted as circumstantial evidence
of their correctness.