Year: 1870




A fearful squabbe has been raised among
the republican spoilsmen over the appoint
ment by General Grant of Mr.. Thomas
Murphy as Collector of this port in place
of Mr.. Grinnell, transferred to the easier
post of Naval Officer, in place Of General
Merritt. The Fenton clique, including the
Senator and all his followers, regard these
changes as great outrage. They have no
objections to the retirement or removal Of Mr..
Grinnell from the Custom House, but they
declare. in high indignation, that the appoint
ment of Thomas Murphy as Collector will
smash the republican party into flinders In the
Empire State. and that the displacement Of
General Merritt is an insult to the General and
his friends which admits of no excuse.


Who Is this Thomas Murphy And what
has he done that he is so extremely objec-
tionable to the Fenton clique? As his name
implies, he is an Irishman, and he is a Roman
Catholic, and there is no love lost between
him and Fenton. He belongs to this city; he
is a man of means, and liberal man with his
money in support of his party He was an
old line whig; he is republican, and he is an
intelligent and capable man. But the Fenton
clique say he belongs to the New York school
Of Andy Johnson-Thurlow Weed conserva-
tive republicans; that as political speculator
in jobs he is follower and stipendiary Of
William NJ. Tweed that he is a bigoted Papist,
and that his confirmation as Collector will be
making the. Custom House political tender to
Tammany Hall that Murphy, in short, has
nothing to commend him to the national ad-
ministration but his personal attentions to
General Grant in driving him aro und behind
pair Of fast horses at Long Branch, &C., &c.
On these charges Senator Fenton and his
clique demand the head of Murphy. They
don't like his appointment, and they won't
stand 1t. No question is raised as to his capa-
blities to discharge satisfactorily the official
duties Of Collector; but with these Fenton
radicals he is not of the orthodox party stripe,
and so be must be made by the Senate to
mount the guillotine and have his head rolled
off into the radical basket.


Meantime this nomination hangs fire in the
Senate, and we don't know exactly what they
viii do with it. Murphy's party record, they
say, must be overhauled, and if the Fentonites
can prove that he went with the New York
Andy johnson movement Of 1865 they will
perhaps fatten him out. But here, it may
be properly asked, is not something
due to the President in this business?
We think that as the recognized head
Of the republican party, as It's recognized
candidate for the succession, and that as the
platform and only bond of cohesion of the
party is the policy of his administration, a
great deal ia due from the party and from
the Senate to General Grant. We think, too,
that his policy, as the recognized head Of the
party, is the policy of General jackson, the
policy Of exercising the authority which be-
longs to his position. It would be folly on his
part. we think, to attempt to please this man
and that man. or this clique and that clique in
his appointments and in his quiet way he ia
acting as If entertaining the same opinion.
Let him boldly pursue this course. He Is
surely entitled to choice in his executive
subordinates of all descriptions, and this has
been admitted to considerable extent in the
modification Of the Tenure of Office law and in
the combinations of the Senate.