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that the Hon. Albert A. Blakeney, Republican member of Congress from Maryland, has found that postmaster an entirely unfit person for his place, who should be removed for incompetency.
The Bristow report mentions other cases of the same kind; but there are, no doubt, a great many similar ones not mentioned, and perhaps not yet discovered. Now, what does this mean? Here we see members of Congress, Republicans and Democrats—for spoils politics know no distinction of party—corruptly filching unnecessary and unjustifiable salaries from the public treasury to provide for some favorites, and doing this with the aid of a high officer of the Government, himself appointed by “influence” and thus a creature of the spoils system. And there we see that officer of the Government “obliging” members of Congress and “making friends” of them by carrying out the corrupt transactions, and that officer robbing the Government in his way for his own profit, and relying upon his friends in Congress to protect him in return against discovery and punishment. Mr. Beavers is reported to have said that he had Congress in the hollow of his hand; and I should not wonder if the report were true. At any rate, he and all the other malefactors in the Post-Office Department thought themselves similarly fortified, for according to the Bristow report they carried on their business of “getting rich quick” with a recklessness which can hardly be explained on any other than the theory that they expected their many obliged friends in Congress would prevent any investigation thorough enough to find them out for fear of being found out themselves. Indeed, there have been Congressional investigations of the Post-Office Department, by the Senate, as well as the House, but they always stopped short of the evil doers who, knowing too much, held Congress in the hollow of their hands. So much more credit is due to the executive who let light into the dark places.
Now it is to be hoped that the operation will not stop with the punishment of the culprits already discovered. In the first place all the patronage mongers in Congress who have seduced officers of the Government into crooked
