Year: 1876

could secure for himself commanding
position as presidential candidate.


The ability with which Bristow has played
the game is something wonderful. 1t must
be understood, however, that his method
and purpose have been from the start
known in Washington. Here he has NO
friends. There is not single Republican
Senator who does not know he is faithless.
He has not champion in the Senate and
few in the House, while all the Republicans
of prominence have been aware OF his
sinister purposes from the beginning. He
is always estimated at his true worth by
every Democrat Of note in the capital. But
l suppose he will have the concurrent
hurrah of almost all the press of New
York and the cooperation Of the independ-
ent newspapers of the country. He will be
duct has been at once plausible and daring,
and it will be difficult to make the people
at large see anything more than that he
was public servant bent on reforming the
revenue department and Furnishing thieves.
and disgraced for trying to do it by g.
President who was alleged to be intimate
with the offenders.


Accident has wonderfully helped Bris-
tow. When the vast power was originally
given to the Secretary of the Treasury by
q Republican Congress, it was with view
to enable him to honestly collect tho rev
enue. The machinery was all new, and it
was felt that it would be better to err on
the side of severity and undue authority IN
those trying times than to run the risk OF
not collecting the revenue. Hence, the
Secretary of the Treasury Yields to-day
power that is extravagant and dangerous.
He ls beyond the authority of the Attorney
General or the President. He can convict
any innocent man whom he wishes to ruin.
ALI the usual safeguards of the citizen have
been broken down to arm the Treasury De-
partment with power to collect the revenue
speedily and thoroughly. The leading Re-
pubicans here feel keenly the mistake they
made in conferring such extraordinary and
absolute power on any public officer. And
it is safe to predict that it Republican
Congress is chosen in 1876, one of its first
acts will be to restrict this power.


The facts, therefore, seem to be:


l. That Secretary Bristow is one of the
most dangerous and most plausible, one of
the most adroit and unscrupul0us political
adventurers that have ever appeared in
American politics. He is without any sense
of gratitude, and he knows no friendship of
obligation when ambition prompts him to
act.


2. That Mr.. Brlstow has captured all the
correspondents and many of the 80 called
Independent editors of the country, who
Will 6nOuL LneRS0lVo6 uO6re0 OV0r uI6 oJoC.
ton from office, and will make him, if pos
sible, prominent presidential candidate.


3. That the leaders of both parties here in
Washington understand Mr.. Bristow thor
oughly. They know that he thinks Of no
one but himself; that his object is not 80
much q reform of the revenue as the ad-
vancement of himself, at the expense of the
President and the Presidents friends, who
made him what he is and gave him his
chance.


4. That Mr.. Bristow has no personal
him. He has no party behind but the
brigade of Bohemians. The shrewd, wire
pulling, popularity-hunting demagogues
who swarm around Washington understand
the man, who is one of their kind, only
more intrepid, and who has had an oppor-
tunity that seldom falls to the lot of one of
the most selfish of men.-Nec York Graphic.