Year: 1876

In one view the sudden, overwhelming
and irretrieyable disgrace of Secretary Bel
knap is an occasion for profound regret and
sorrow; but sentiments of this kind are
merged and swallowed up in indignant alb
horrence of his crime and vigorous desire
to see it visited with just retribution. The
conjuncture is too grave for the indulgence
of weak, womanish pity at the spectacle of
blighted hopes and social ruin in
which others are involved besides the
detected and confessed criminal Even
the fact that wife whose beauty
and accomplishments have made her
the grace, the delight and one of the
brightest and most courted ornaments of
Washington society, shares the guilt and
disgrace of her fallen husband, cannot di-
vert or soften the public evaporation at this
eliminating proof of tho moral rottenness
of the administration. The honor of the
government land the purity of official life
are of such transcendent importance that no
pitying indulgence for the sufferings of
tempted weakness can be permitted to stand
between mn incensed public and tho objects
of its indignation. This stupendous shock
TO public feeling can be relieved and
suaged only by such swift and unrelenting
punishment as will serve as warning to
officers who may hereafter be tempted to
abuse their trusts.


If the case of Secretary Belknap were
solitary instance of criminal malversation a
generous and mngnanimous country would
hold the President guiltless and regard him
rs merely unfortunate in the choice of one
of his confidential advisers. But 30 indul-
gent and forbearing judgment is imposs-
bic when General Belknap is merely a sam
pie of tho men by whom President Grant
has been surrounded. The country has not
forgotten that other members of the Cabinet
have been forced into retirement by charges
against their honesty although the evidence
against them has not been 80 conclusive as
to extort confessions of guilt like that which
has been made by General Belknap. At
torney General Williams was compelled to
resign by unrefuted charges of spending the
public money for landaulets for the private
use of his wife and misapplying the funds
of his department for electioneering uses in





driven out of the Cabinet by unrefuted
charges of corruption in connection with the
Indian supplies. Secretary Richardson was
kept in the Treasury Department until pub
lie indignation forced him out and the
country was then scandalized by his ap-
pointment as one of the judges of the Court
of Claims, in spite of grave and
- L. L.
tegrity. Postmaster General Creswell !
resigned with reputation which was
far from clear, and Secretary Robson
remains, although the honesty of his admin
istration has been assailed on grounds which |
had as great color of probability as any
which have been heretofore alleged against
the Secretary of War. Even Mr.. Fish, whose
integrity no candid man doubts, has stood
by General Schenck, who has been the oc-
casion of the most unfortunate diplomatic
scandal which has ever tainted the reputa-
ton of the country. We need not refer to
the minor cases of Babcock, of Leet and
Stocking, of the Presidents brother Orville,
his brothers -in-law, Casey and Dent, and
the other brother-in-law, Corbin, who was
mixed up with the Black Friday specu-
lations, and other minor cases which
have brought doubt and discredit on
the purity of the administration. Some
of these attacks have been attributed
to reckless partisan violence, and their
force has been blunted by the supposed
malignity of their origin; but in the case
of Belknap the evidence is so decisive and
unanswerable that the culprit could make no
denial, and his confession of guilt strength
ems the presumption that other offenders
were not unjustly accused. In the cases of
Delano and Williams the facts have never
been successfully impugned, and the pre-
sumption of guilt is very strong in several
of the others. The fact that Belknap eluded
the vigilance ofthe President proves that his
supervision of the departments has been
inexcusably slack, and makes it credible
that he has been equally blind to the dis
honest transactions of other officers.


One Of the worst features of these multi
tudinous scandals is the infexible uni
formity with which the President has de-
Tended and protected the officers whose
regulations have been assailed. He has
turned q deaf ear to charges and proofs, and
has done his utmost to stifie and defeat every
searching investigation. He stood by
Williams and Richardson and Dclano until
ON outraged and indignant public sentiment
forced them out of the Cabinet, and then
gave them certificates Of character, either in
writing as in the case of Delano, or by APP
pointment to Office rs in the case Of Rich
ardson, or by public acts of friendship
rs in the case of Williams. His efforts
TO shield and save Babcock were
not moro indcfensiblc than the attempt he
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