With
the South out of Congress since 1861 and no Southern leadership to
provide a conservative and responsible voice in US government, the
predictable occurred. As a soldier Grant was a butcher who sent wave
after wave of new recruits to wear down the thin Southern brigades; as a
politician, Orville H. Browning of Illinois described Grant as “weak,
vain, ignorant, mercenary, selfish and malignant”; that he was
surrounded by corrupt and unprincipled men and that his reelection would
be a great calamity to the country.”
Bernhard Thuersam, Chairman
North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission
"Unsurpassed Valor, Courage and Devotion to Liberty"
"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial"
The Union Saved, the Republic Lost
“The
eight years of Grant’s administration rocked with one scandal after
another. Citizens defrauded the government in the acquisition of land
and in claims for [Northern veteran] pensions; contractors supplying the
army and navy were often venal; and unscrupulous lawyers levied toll on
ignorant and defenseless Indians.
Members
of Congress were bribed and disgraced. Cabinet officers were
investigated and impeached. Subordinate officials and employees were
revealed in outright betrayal of public trust. Never had the Republic
sunk to so low an estate of official morality.
During
the 1870s there was both incompetence and dishonesty in the large
customhouses; discipline and integrity among the navy-yard labor forces
were at a low ebb; the Indian service had been roundly condemned by
[James] Garfield; land agents connived at irregularities, and surveyors
made fraudulent claims for work not performed.
The
tone of the eight years of Grant’s administration was . . . set by a
small number of weak and unreliable persons holding seats in Congress
and in high executive office. It was during these years that the most
resounding scandals occurred, not only in Washington but in many States
and cities. When the mighty wandered far from the paths of rectitude,
it was not surprising that some of the lesser ranks followed their
example.
To
a few of the scandals we turn . . . The Credit Mobilier . . .
originally organized to finance railroad construction, [it] fell into
the control of a group of adventurers, including a member of Congress,
Oakes Ames. The corporation was awarded a lucrative but fraudulent
contract for the . . . [Union Pacific Railroad and disgraced Grant’s]
Vice Presidents Colfax and Wilson.
Laxness
or corruption in the award of Indian trading posts had been suspected
for some time under General [William] Belknap’s administration of the
War Department. [Secretary of the Navy George M. Robeson levied]
percentages on . . . contractors’ engagements with the navy, [and]
Robeson grew rich. [Secretary of the Treasury John D. Sanborn, a
protégé of Benjamin Butler, siphoned money destined for the Internal
Revenue Service].
The
most dramatic and perhaps the most damaging evidence of corruption
during the Grant administration involved the evasion of internal revenue
taxes on distilleries. Fraud had long been suspected [and persons
involved] included General John A. McDonald, collector of internal
revenue in St. Louis . . . other collectors, the chief clerk of the
internal revenue division of the Treasury Department in Washington [and]
General Orville Babcock, President Grant’s private secretary, who was
subsequently indicted but who escaped conviction.”
(The
Republican Era, 1869-1901, A Study in Administrative History, Leonard
D. White, Macmillan Company, 1958, excerpts pp. 366-373)
No comments:
Post a Comment