Year: 1876

From the New York Herald1


We repeat that Belknap is symptom
of the disease, not sporadic ease OF
personal dishonesty. This miserable
and degraded wretch, who only yester


day was the Secretary Of War, Is a sam


pie of the men who now govern the
country. For this and for all that may
Republican party are also respon


sible. Mr.. Blaine, Mr.. Conkling,
Mr.. Fish, Mr.. Morton, Mr.. Sher-
man, Mr. Edmunds, are all as
responsible for his moral earthquake as
the President. They have submitted to
every command and indorsed every out
rage. They have been the willing ad-
vocates of every act OF usurpation which
has marked the administration from st.
Domingo down. BY their aid this crowd
OF adventurers and jobbers. whose rep
resentative Is now under impeachment,
were enabled to hold power. They
consented to all of 1t. They had no
protest, no objection, and now, when
before us in its naked deformi-
ty, when we see ring after ring
breaking and developing the deepest
corruption, when we find the American
name over the world the synonyme Of
official dishonesty, when because Of the
infamy Of this trusted leader of the
Administration our very institutions are
In reproach, 1t is time for the people,
and especially for honest Republicans
who remember the proud days when the
party dared to proclaim emancipation,
to compel q reluctant Lincoln to obey
its will and to drive johnson to the
verge Of impeachment, to hold the true
culprits responsible. These men have
~ ff,y-


There Is not q Republican Senator
who can escape this condemnation. IT
they had been true to the party and the
best interests OF the country; If they
had held their high place free from the
contamination OF patronage; II they had
felt that something was due to the spirit
Of our institutions and the welfare OF
the party as well as to the stubborn am
bition OF military chief, there would
have been an end OF this long, long
ago. AS it is, II the country, as now
seems probable, will turn upon the Re-
publican party and repudiate it, the
blame will rest upon Grant and his sub
servient Senators. The power that was
given them has been used for their own
ACKNOWLEDGMENT. Belknap in the dock
cal OF the position which the Republican
party in the persons OF its trust
ed leaders now holds before the coun-
try. All are guilty alike guilty Of
subserviency to the will Of u military
dictator, guilty Of selling their Sena-
torial influence for patronage, guilty OF
betraying their great party into the
hands Of gang Of military adventur-
ers who only came into the party when
it gave them office, and who have no
sympathy with 1t outside OF the
gains it has bestowed upon them.
Because Of the slavish submis-
sion Of the Conklings, the Sher-
mans. the Blaines, the Mortons to the
will Of the President this shame has
come upon the nation. Men not only
say that the institutions Of q republic
are insufficient for the purpose Of an
economical and free government. They
ask whether, after all, we should not,
In this Centennial year, take the whole
fabric to pieces and see IL we cannot
have an administration machine which
will give us something other than
"cronies" i'm the Cabinet, slaves In the
Senate and thieves in the public offices.