Litchfield enquirer., 1840-11-05

Wnlcn pflVatG llIe IS so SaCfeO, ana III puU- ! lie life so noble as an honest man. But there are circumstances giving to this injury still more dangerous aspect only speak now from the documents sign ed by the actors themselves. The apparent $ s.ttcr forth of the story, Mir. J. D. Steven son, was i'll that position and character, that accusations by him, unsupported and un- c.untenuIc d, would have received little notice and done little damage. The frank ness, too, of the prctcrdcd disclosures from the alleged agent in the frauds which Ste venson pretends to devclope, was not a lit- tie remarkable, and IGmarkab bly, suspicious. Stevenson knew well he must have better aid
 He addresses himself to Mir. Butler, the | United States attorney, and Mr. Ioyt, the collector ot the customs, and they meet to- gethcr at Hoyt'S house, i'll an interview, which the latter with untGigned simplicity 1 calls wholly accidental" Mir. Butler, un- der his own hand, admits to us that Client worth came upon an expectation to sell dis closures for the purchase and reward of of 1 flee: they we'll knew the character and standing of those whom he was to assail
 They cannot expect us to believe that they were unacquainted with the pretended secrets of Stevenson, and yet do they repel the informer! Do they take fire at the in- suit of being applied to to sell their influence, their accommodation to office, in return for the accusation of their fellow citizens? Can 1t be that the frequent prostitution of that influence, the habit of rewarding party ser- vices with the spells of office, had deaden- ed the sense of insult at being applied to for such purpose! Certain it is, that tho man, coming as an informer, asking to be suborned, was not neglected.
 The powers of persuasion of MT. Butler l. .1l &laos sI ~E an official reward and on him the whole of this service appears to have devolved- But did 1t not occur to those men, at that l1l- terview, that the very proposal made to 1 them, showed that they must be dealing, if their own statement be true, with one who was unworthy of belief, and an unfit associ 1 ate that their duty to their neighbours good name, as we'll as truth and honor, required them to have no communication with what must have seemed to them so polluted source! But they held on to the man tri- ed to persuade him to their service; and, finding themselves unable, they fall back upon the rctailcd hearsay of the original 1 Stevenson.
 This 1t is which they have spread abroad in order to divert from public questions the attention of an intelligent and honest peo- pie, to divert from official misconduct and bad government, the indignation of an awakened nation.
 1 Upon this plot, base in all its aspects, and upon its authors, invoke your just sen- tence. Shall this abortive tampering ripen into successful fraud! This question, my fellow citizens, is for you to decide The extent to which dependents upon the public treasury have interfered with elec- tions is already as shameless in it's charac- ter as it is dangerous in its tendency.- Their interference to- its present extent in our elections is a most formidable evil, al- ways operating to shelter official miscon- duct and to oppose salutary reforms. Op- position to this system is one of the princi- pies of the party with which act.
 But how IS Lhfs, dnnger increased when the officers of the Federal Government con- vene as body of inquisitors, and seek to procure from man appearing before them as they themselves say, without any credi- bility, and with the avowed purpose of be- ing suborned, charges of fraud upon their fellow citizens! Charges against men whom they assail for opposing their opinions and .eoparding their offices! My fellow citi- zens, it is for you to say whether such system shall receive your sanction
 To me, personally, your service in Con- gross now will be a most costly sacrifice of time, of private interest and domestic com fort. But know that in offering to sacri- flee them, do but discharge duty both to you and to myself; to you, as presenting the question not merely whether you will sanction the general measures of the present Administration, but whether you will per- init the offices which are wholly your gift, to be thus prostituted and abused; duty l to myself as throwing myself upon your ! sense of justice, as we'll as your hatred of fraud and trick, for triumph over such combination.
 My fellow citizens, those who are the &C., tors in this attempt at operating upon your l election of a chief magistrate, have shown how interruptions they are of public wrong and private injury. It will be most extra ordinary if, with the stake before them, they shall omit any effort which may promise success. Slander and falsehood they readi- 1 ly wield that they are not shocked with subornation, their tampering with GIent- worth fully shows. That they will attempt | to cover me with islanders, that they will, in some other mode, seek to impose other false hoods, at a time too late for contradiction, am not to doubt. I fearlcssly encounter them all.
 l bare myself to their attacks. Upon your intelligence, your aversion to such principles of management, upon your fixed suffrages. Upon your care for your own your general intelligence, rely for pro- and calumny. MOSES H. GRINNELL.
 Ncw-York, Oct. 26, ls4O.
 l pendent of the Brooklyn Daily News hns Ai,rs bad sz sNh NNcE