uld and James Fisk, tempted by the premium
on gold, tried to corner the market, and Grant's public association with
the speculators brought upon him fair reproach. Tweed, exposed and
jailed after a long fight, revealed the close alliance between crooked
politics and business in the cities, and became a national disgrace.
Less prominent than these but far from proper were Schenck and Fremont.
The latter was arrested in France, charged with promoting a railroad on
the strength of land grants that did not exist. He had been close to
the old Republican organization, and the figurehead of the radicals in
1864, so that his notoriety was great. Schenck, while Minister in
London, posed as director of a mining company, and borrowed from the
promoters of the scheme the money with which he bought his shares. When
the company proved insolvent, and perhaps fraudulent, Grant was forced
to recall him. Critics who saw dishonesty or low ethical standards in
these men were ready to see in the carnival of the Reconstruction
Governments wholesale proofs of decadence.

During the campaign of 1872 yet another item was added to the unpleasant
list. Letters were made public showing how Congressmen had taken pay, or
its equivalent, from men behind the Union Pacific Railroad. The scandal
of the Credit Mobilier touched men in all walks of life, beginning with
Schuyler Colfax, Vice-President of the United States, including Blaine,
Allison, and Garfield, Wilson and Dawes, and other men who no longer
held office. Some of these denied the charges and proved their
innocence. But none entirely escaped the suspicion that their sense of
official propriety was low, and their list sampled the Republican party
at all its levels. One of the victims, Colfax, talked freely in 1870 of
gifts received--a carriage from a Congressman and horses from an express
company.

In 1872 the notorious Butler aimed at the governorship of Massachusetts.
He failed to get the Republican nomination, but the strength of his
candidacy showed the uncritical devotion of many voters to success. He
resumed his seat in Congress, unabashed, and put through an act
properly increasing the salaries of Washington officials, but applying
also to the men who voted for it and to the session just ending. Its
makers went home to explain their part in the "salary grab" to their
constituents, and many never returned to Congress.

Other improprieties of the first Administration of Grant came to li