"At this moment the air is full of calumny, and it is sickening to observe that men usually charitable and just, are made to believe that all honesty and virtue have taken their flight from earth; that our National Capital is reeking with corruption; that fraud and peculation are the rule, and honesty and fidelity to trust the exception. I do not believe it, and I think we should resist the torrent. Our President has surely done enough to entitle him to absolute confidence, and can have no motive to screen the wicked or guilty. At no time in the history of the country, have our courts of law, from the Supreme Court at Washington down to the District Courts, been entitled to more respect for their learning and purity; and Congress is now, as it has ever been and must be from its composition, a representative body, sharing with the people its feelings and thoughts, its virtues and vices. If corruption exist, it is with the people at large, and they can correct the evil by their own volition. If they have grown avaricious and made money their God, they must not be surprised if their representatives and servants share their sin. What are the actual facts? We have recently passed through a long civil war, entailing on one moiety of the country desolation and ruin,--on all a fearful debt,--States, counties, and cities follow the fashion, until the whole land became deeply in debt. The debts are now due, and bear heavily in the shape of taxes on our homes, on property, and business. "Again, the war called millions to arms, who dropped their professions and business, and found themselves without employment when the war was over. These naturally turned to the National Government for help; and the pressure for office, at all times great became simply irresistible. The power to appoint to these offices is called 'patronage,' and is common to all Governments. Then, again, arose a vast number of claims for damages for seizures and loss of property by acts of war. These all involved large sums of money, and money now is, as it always has been, the cause of a life-struggle--of corruption. Yes, money is the cause of corruption to-day as always. Men will toil for it, murder for it, steal for it, die for it. Though officers and soldiers are simply men subject to all temptations and vices of men, we of the army feel, or rather think we feel, more in the spirit of Burns: "'For gold the merchant plows the main, The farmer plows the manor; But glory is the soldier's prize, The soldier's wealth is honor.'" Sherman set out in July, 1877, for a tour through the Indian country and the far Northwest. He was absent from home 115 days, and travelled nearly 10,000 miles. After visiting Tongue River and the Big Horn, he went to the Yellowstone National Park. In relating the story of his adventures, he said: