OCR Text |
Show k MORAL B.EV0LDII0S. j I Judging from our exchanges the Belknap bomb shell which exploded in Washington on Thursday last, created a greater consternation and , panic than any event which has I happened during Grant's administra-1 tion. Tho humiliation and shame of the republican party was not disguised. dis-guised. Tho president appears to have misunderstood the full force of Belknap's crime when he accepted his resignation, and he subsequently said that the secretary had deceived him by the representation that some scandal had been developed about his wife. Washington became suddenly illuminated by a blaze of virtuous indignation, in-dignation, and no congressman, lobby man t or cormptionist, but wore sackcloth and ashes. The daily press thoughojt tho land improved the occasion to read the public such a sermon on social extravagance, and its tendencies and consequences as has not been uttered since the civil war. The expos jro of the Belknap method of living on a high tide of shoddy ism, is a tact, however, which is worth all the precepts that the pulpit can sound and the newspaper press can echo. These moral and intellectual tribunals have both winked at and tacitly approved the costly and decollete exhibitions of Mrs. Belknap and her compeers at tlx) national capital; but the belching forth of this earthquake was needed ; to expose some of tho ugly and vile L phases of modem society. Here is I the picture painted in a Uhicago paper, the counterpart of which we have often presented in this Hep.ald : Tho rivalry of diamond?, of velvet', lares, antiu, and (ilki, hai been destructive destruc-tive alike to nioraU and to integrity. '1 ho rivalry in tho way of b"U-es and fjrni-ture, fjrni-ture, of horses a:.d carriage?, of plate, if enlcrUinmer.U of the most amnp'-umis charad'T, hss bctn in!cnse, aiid th-i mftj-.riiyof thosB engaged in this c.-stly etriio have hsd no boi.e.-t income to sui-tin sui-tin it. Uebt, crime, or orrup'.kn wr inevitable. . This syniem of social wa-ite and extrava-rancoenn extrava-rancoenn hwo but ono end 1 ankruptcy or crime, wiih all their conse. .-oiiccs; and there tan bo no reformation t until gocielv ahU regm.e wraith as disreputable disrep-utable that is not tho product of huncit Wil and ekiil. Amen, and amen I let this doctrine ! bo generally recognized, and there will i be a fair chance for an honest poor, man once more. i Dr. Miu.kr, who until recently has been a firm believer in the third-term possibility, has just returned frora Washington and the meeting of the democratic central committee!, now announces through tho Umaii Herald that the third term is dead, und that nothing short of a miracle can galvanize it : It wfti reervml to Belknap and his brokers to knock tho wind ai:d life out of Grant and third tTm. And svd as we are to cmf.-ss it, the thing is a dead from this hour a-i John Randolph s rotten rot-ten mackerel, a door nail, or the republican repub-lican parly. This Heiuld will wait until after the Utah republican convention before be-fore giving up Grant entirely. Xo one can tell what may come of tho appointment of two active third-termers third-termers who have good lungs, clear voices and a good conscience. |