Democratic Sentinel, Volume 4, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 March 1880 — SCANDALS OF GRANTISM. [ARTICLE]

SCANDALS OF GRANTISM.

The Formation of the District of Columbia Ring. [From the New York Su".J Gen. Grant was no stranger in the city of Washington when he was called to the Presidency. From the close of the war to the time of his inauguration, a period of nearly four years, he had lived there, in a house presented to him by some of those admiring friends whom he subsequently rewarded with offices. He had found a* a >ciatea by that natural law of selection which brings together those of a kind. A fiber of honesty ran through Andrew Johnson’s character, and, although he was susceptible to flattery, he could not be used by the promoters of the scandalous jobs. But with the coming of Grant they saw the promise of ample rewards for their nefarious industry. The city of Washington was governed for many years with reasonable economy by its own people. It got its charter from Congress and was subject to the Federal Government instead of to a State, but otherwise it did not differ essentially from olher municipal corporations. Most of its inhabitants derived their incomes from the strangers within their gatep, but they countenanced no intermeddling with their local affairs, and the majority of them were rather parsimonious in the matter of public expenditures. The Mayor of the city for the six years preceding 1868 was Richard Wallacb, a war Democrat and an honest man. He was swept from power by the introduction of negro suffrage in the District of Columbia, and Sayles J. Bowen, a Republican of large officeliolding capacity, was elected to succeed him. Under his rule the expenses of the city were doubled, the resources of the treasury exhausted, and the pay of teachers and laborers withheld because all the public money had been diverted to illegitimate purposes. Bowen was Mayor when Grant came to the Presidency. The floodgates of extravagance had alleady been lifted, but the methods of plunder w’ere not perfected. The first scheme' for tapping the public till was audacious but grotesque A compauy was formed in September, 1869, w’liicli proposed to hold a “ Grand Universal Exposition of All Nations’’ in the city of Washington in 1871. Congress was asked to make an appropriation of $3,000,000. The Government was also expected to provide End for the buildings, to furnish from the navy ships for the free transpsrtation of exhibits, and to beslir itself, through its foreign Ministers and Consuls, in puffing into success this great international swindle, Ulysses S. Grant ,vas chosen President of the General Ex< c utivo Committee aud ex-officio Cha r man of the Local Execntiv'O Committee. He accepted tin so dubious honors and openly consorted with the vulgar knaves who originated this absurd scheme. In December, 18C9, the bi 1 charter ng the company- and making the appropriation of $3,0 0,000 was in'r » need in the Senate by Mr. Patterson, of New Hampshire. This Patterson was the full flower of that plant of Christian statesmanship which bloomed and rotted tinder Grant. He had been a professor in Dartmouth College before lie was made a Senator in Congress.' His success was hailed by cultured flunkies as a recognition of the “ educated classes,” and as the advent of the “gentleman in politics.” But. under the cloak of hypoerisy, this “ gentleman” carried the weapons of the public plunderer. He was driven into disgraceful retirement at last by reason of his connection with the Credit Mobilier. But, in truth, hi 3 most shameless acts were wrought as the apologist and confederate of the District of Columbia ring. While Patterson was working for the success of this exposition steal, he was secretly engaged in real-estate speculations xvith the lobbyists and spoils-seekers who had it in ebarge. Senator Thurman denounced the job as “a humbug, imposing an expense of $5,000,000 or $6,000,000 on the treasury of the United States.” But it Avas dragged iu and out of Congress till near the end cf the session (June, 1870), when it was permitted by its sponsors to die, because largar plots monopolized their attention.

On the 20th of May, 1870, an act was passed turning over Public Reservation No. 7, on Pennsylvania avenue, between Seventh and Ninth streets, to the Washington Market Company for a term of ninety-nine 5 ears. The value of the land thus disposed of was $500,000, and the franchise carried privileges worth $500,000 more. In return for this royal grant the Market Company was to build a magnificent City Hall, and was to pay an annual rental to the poor fund of the district. But the rental was evaded, and an appropriation was smuggled through Congress to pay for the City Hall which was not built. In 1870 Mayor Bowen was defeated as a candidate for re-election, and was succeeded by Mr. G. Emery, who ran on the Citizens’ ticket. This ticket was supported in the main by men who desired to check the abuses and stop the reckless extravagance of the city Government. But it was also used by certain tricksters to promote their selfish ends. Among the men elected to the Board of Aldermen on that ticket was Alexander R. Shepherd, who was destined to figure in history as the friend of Grant rnd the boss of the District ring. Shepherd deserves all the notoriety he has attained. He was a plumber by calling, but not by trade, for he had never served an apprenticeship. He was not a natural leader of men. The qualities which enabled the late William M. Tweed to rob the metropolis were net despicable qualities, albeit tiiey were put to a despicable use. He would have gained prominence in any sphere of life, and under almost any circumstances, by reason of his quick grasp of affairs and his intuitive knowledge of men. But Shepherd was of different stuff. If his promotion bad depended on the votes of the people, he would never have risen above the office of Alderman. Even to secure that place he resorted to false pretenses, professing to favor the reforms which he sought to defeat. He was brutal to his workmen, patronizing to those whom he considered his equals, but obsequious to fcbe dispensers of public favors. As soon lie enti rrd the Oexn-

mon Council lie began to plot for the overthrow of the municipal Government. As Chairman of ihe Finance Committee he recommended a reduction of appropriations from a million and a quarter to a million dollars, saying: “These taxes will bear heavily upon our people, and it therefore becomes our duty to administer their affairs with rigid economy.” At this very time he had an agent on the road to negotiate for the monopoly of certain wood pavements, which were laid at a price which enabled their owners to di vide evenly with the ruling powers. During the spring and summer of 1870 the Common Council of Washington directed that Pennsylvania avenue be paved with wood, and that Louisiana and Indiana avenues be repaved. The property-owners on Louisiana avenue protested so vigorously against wood that stone was substituted for that portion of the work which was made a direct tax on them, but ttie center of the street was paved with wood, which quickly rotted away, leaving for years a suggestive contrast between honest work and jobbery. After three months’ delay the contract for paving Pennsylvania avenue was let in four sections to the highest bidders, under that form of competition which flourished during Grant’s administration. On the Ist of November, 1870, the contractors who had secured the job gave a fine champagne supper to invited guests in an improvised building near their shops. Wormley furnished the viands and wine, axul the crowd that gathered saw the population of Washington doubled before their stimulated vision. The glory of wooden pavements was extolled by intoxicated blockheads hired for the purpose. The pavement was quickly laid, the surplus profit of $150,000 fairly divided among the embryo ling, and in February, 1871, on tke birthday of George Washington (shade of the mighty dead forgive them!) the people of the capital turned out en masse to participate in a cartii val and fete which the ring rascals had arranged for tlieir delectation. These preliminary paiing jobs served a double purpose. They diverted comfortable sums from the city treasury into the pockets of their promoters, and they frightened conservative citizens at the possible excesses of a free Government in a place where the newly-en-franchised negroes held the balance of political power. The ring played upon this fear, and gradually unfolded its plan for erecting a Territoiial Government in the District, in which the President of the United States should be vested with the appointing power, and Congress should ultimately be made responsible for all expenses. The plan, viewed from the standpoint of pure selfislinesp, was quite plausible, as a means of lightening the burdens of direct taxation. Twoyears of Bowen had made the people ready for almost any change, and when old Hannibal Hamlin introduced a bill in the Senate, in February, 1870, “to provide for a Territorial Government for the District of Columbia,” it was received with more local favor than opposition. It passed the Senate in May without much discussion, and went to the House, where it slumbered in the District Committee till it was supposed to have died. But, on Jan. 20, 1871, Burton C. Cook, of Illinois, Chairman of the committee, reported back the bill with numerous amendments, which made it virtually a new act. This was crowded through a thin House by a vote of 97 to 58. On the same day Boss Shepherd, who had foreknowledge of the event, rushed off to the Board of Trade and offered a resolution “hailing with joy” the passage of ihe bill, “as the beginning of a new era in the development of our business interests ” —which indeed it was. The board appointed Shepherd, Hallet Kilboume and three others a committee to urge the Senate to accept the House substitute for the original bill without alteration. The Senate, however, demanded a conference committee, and in that committee the bill underwent a number of changes, all made in the interest of the ring. The bill finally passed on the 14th of February, 187 i. Grant withheld his signature a week. This delay was not a concession to decency. He had no hesitation about approving the act, but he wanted to give the knaves who had the carnival in charge a double cause for rejoicing—at the incubation of a monstrous swindle, as well as over the completion of a paving job. The Territorial Government of the District of Columbia consisted of a Governor, a Secretary, a Council, a House of Delegates, and a Board of Public Works. The Governor was clothed with all the powers of the most favored State Executives; he could veto bills, grant pardons, appoint officers, and posture as the center of a military staff. The Counci*, which was a sort of mock Senate, was appointed, as were also the members of the Board of Public Works. The House of Delegates and a Delegate in Congress were to be elected by the people. But the Delegate in Congress had no vote, and the House of Delegates might as well have had none, for the members were powerless for good and superfluous for evil. Mayor Emery was induced to favor the abolition of his office, in the belief that he would be made the first Governor of the District. He had for a backer the Rev. Dr. J. P. Newman, of whose church he was a member. Dr. Newman held himself in readiness at all times and under all circumstances to certify to Grant’s sobriety, honesty and innate piety. He- was moderately certain that he had never seen the President drink, absolutely certain that he had never seen him steal, and profoundly convinced that he would be a devout Methodist, if he were any sort of a Christian. In return for bis services, Dr. Newman asked only an occasional office for himself, his wife, and his immediate flock. Boss Shepherd was also a candidate for Governor. His chief advocate was Henry D. Cooke, of Jay Cooke & Co. This Cooke was the President’s banker, and in his opinion was the wisest financier of modern times—wiser even than Boutwell or Richardson or brother-in-law Corbin. That he might not be forced to take sides between Shepherd and Emery, Grant rejected them both and conferred the office of Governor of the District on H. D. Cooke. With this action Parson Newman could find no fault, for Mr. Cooke was loud in his religious professions. It was he who negotiated for the Young Men’s Christian Association of Washington a large loan from the Freed men’s Savings Bank on worthless i econd-mortgage bonds. As the*e bonds weye never paid, the loan

was equivalent to a gift from the poor negroes to the assoc : ation. Some of them had worked very long and hard for the little sums which they deposited in the bank, in the hope, by-and-bv. of owning a home, or of giving to their children advantages of which they themselves had been deprived by slavery. Gov. Cooke was the vain, pretentious figurehead of the District ring. Shepherd was quick to see that under this quack banker he could plunder the treasury with greater ease and safety than he could if he himself had been placed at the head of the Territorial Government. His own religious professions (for Shepherd also managed a Sunday school and “ran” a church) had failed to deceive anybody, while his financiering bad been limited to a few paving jobs and to bulging his bills for plumbing and gasfitting at the Capitol. But Cooke was a certificated Christian and the Government’s pet banker. Under his wing it was safe to steal. Boss Shepherd was made a member of the Board of Public Works. This board consisted of four members besides the Governor, who was ex-officio its President. What the Beard of Audit was in New York under the Tweed ring, the Board of Public Works was in Washington under the Grant ring. Shepherd was its Vice President and controlling power. Ho was permitted to dictate the appointment of other members. The first of these was A. B. Mullett, then Supervising Architect of the Treasury. This appointment w-as a stroke of genius. Mullett was the man of all others whose favor venal Congressmen courted. If they wanted new public buildings in their respective districts, they must first of ul>, Mullett’s recommendation, and, after the new structure was authorized, they counted on him to award fat contracts to their friends. Mullett met these advances in a gracious spirit, but gently reminded each importunate Congressman that he, too, had a nest to feather; that favors should not.be one-sided; that the beautifying and regenerating of the national capital was his particular hobby, and that a liberal appropriation would be gratefully appreciated by. the Board of Public Works. Thus the ring and the Supervising Architect of the Treasury played into each other’s hands in making Congress subservient to their purpose.

The third member of the board, and its Treasurer, was James A. Magrudor, better known as Stubb Magruder. He worked with great diligence to confine his accounts, so as to make it difficult to tell w'hat part of t] <j public money was spent and what was stolen. The records show that $1,000,010 which lie claimed to have paid out in his official position was entered on his books. S. P. Brown was the original fourth member of the board. He was a dofauloing navy agent, but not acceptable to the ring. They finally crowded liim on!, on the exposure of the fact that, lie was interested in a contract. Grant appointed the members of the Council at the dictation of Shepherd. It was necessary for the ring to coc trol the Commissioner of Public Buildings and Grounds. Gen. Micliler, the incumbent of that office, was an honest man, but, he possessed an unfortunate fondness for liquor. The ring deliberately arranged a round of social gayeties to keep him perpetually in a bewildered state. But, finding that they could not make him absolutely subservient to their will, they arranged to rid themselves of him, and in June, 1871, the President ordered him to the Pacific coast. Orville E. Babcock, Grant’s private secretary, was immediately detailed as Gen. Michler’s successor. Between him and Boss Shepherd a perfect understanding existed. Babcock, as Commission* r of Public Buildings and Grounds, was to guard the rights of the people against the excesses of the ring. Shijiherd, as chief of the Board of Public Works, was at liberty to go as far as Babcock permitted. And these two—one iqqiointed nominally to check the extortions of the other—were purtners in spsculation, bound together by the cohesive power of public plunder and equally interested in making tinexpenditure as extravagant us their mingled greed and audacity might suggest. With other preliminaries arranged, it was deemed essential to buy back the followers of ex-Mayor Bowen and conciliate the negroes. Accordingly. Bowen’s chief counselor, William A. Cook, an unscrupulous lawyer, was made attorney to the Board of Public Works, and a colored man named Johnson evas appointed District Treasurer. Johnson had failed as a barber and restaurunlkeepir, but was considered competent to keep the public money. Nothing remained but to buy the loeil newspapers, and this was an easy task. The editors of the leading organa in Washington were given a slice of the spoils, and while the ring lasted they sang its praises continually, and pocketed their share of the plunder. It will be seen that the ring at its inception embraced: 1. Ulysses 8. Grant, President of the United State*; 2. Henry D. Cooke; 3. Alexander It. Shepherd and the whole gang of disreputable characters, including the Washington journalists whom he controlled; 4. Orville E. Babcock, who sold himself for a price and betrayed liis trust as guardian of the Government’s interests; 5. A. B. Mullett and the Representatives in Congress whom he influenced ; 6. Senator J. W- Patterson, of New Hampshi re, and De Golyer Garfield, of Ohio; 7. A gang of Pennsylvania contractors, who taught the lessons of addition, division and silence. It remains to narrate the acts by which this comprehensive ring robbed the people of $43,000,000.