John Harrison Wilson, The life of Charles Henry Dana

[426] in the purchase of machinery and supplies, as well as in the repair of vessels, had become “a sink of corruption.” Charging the majority with complicity, it dared Congress to allow a full and searching investigation of the robberies which it had specified, and which it did not doubt would turn out to be robberies indeed.

In conclusion the editor expressed his personal conviction that the President himself was primarily responsible for the corruption of the public service, and that he had

... done more to destroy in the public mind all distinction between right and wrong, to make it appear that the great object of life and the chief purpose of official authority is to acquire riches, and that it makes no difference by what means this object is attained. Had Grant been a pure man of high moral sense, a delicate feeling of honesty, and a just conscience, his example, his influence, and his power would long since have sufficed to turn back the rising tide of corruption and to rescue the government from the dangerous evils with which it was struggling.

It is to be noted that this terrible arraignment is entirely at variance with Dana's commendation of Grant as a military man. It was followed almost immediately by the first public denunciation of the “Whiskey Ring,” which, with its widely extended system of frauds at the distilleries and warehouses throughout the country, cost the government untold millions before it could be broken up. It was a period of exposure. Public opinion was becoming so aroused and inflamed that Congress felt compelled to intervene. The House of Representatives could no longer hold out against the whirlwind of indignation, and hence made haste to appoint a committee for the investigation of the Navy Department. Although this, as it turned out, was an effective step towards reform, it did not at once silence those who were thus brought to the