The spirit of democracy. [volume] (Woodsfield, Ohio) 1844-1994, 1859-11-02

man delights in strife, perpetual strife.
If out of the atmosphere of contention,
he would suffer like the traveller on the
Alps from the thinness Of the air. Slim
ulated as he was by all the fierce and Bit
ter feelings, anger, wrath, malice and re-
venge, and de6ed as he was to his head
and face, the foregoing old stale affairs
are all that he could bring up to damage
his enemies and to justify his own posi-
tion as volunteer informer and accuser.
Has he net most maliciously and unwil-
lingly written the eulogy Of the Board!
Ought not the public, in common justice,
to decide favorably to the Board, when
such an enemy so dishonest, so unscru-
pulous can substantiate no more than
This? Is any man green enough to suppose
that he has not done his worst, that he
has spared us in any particular, that he
has any more specifications, which he can
render even colorado? Fellow.citizens,
when this man raised such lhorrid out
cry about our attending the funeral of our
ancient and venerable friend, did you not
expect that he had some recent instance,
some late array Of facts to show that the
Board was grossly negligent or culpably
Indifferent to the public interests? Be it
remembered that since the seventh day Of
November 1857, more than seven hun
dred applications of candidates have been
decided on. Yet out of all these he
brings forward the case of the two Fo-
giles. As to the two junior members of
the Board the charge was wilfully and
maliciously false; false to Mr.. WheeIer's
own knowledge; for he well knew that they
were not members till long afterwards and
of course neither had nor could have any
concern in the matter. And no member
of the Board either senior or junior has
any personal knowledge or remembrance
on the subject. Candor and fair dealing
would therefore have attributed those
cases to inadvertence and mistake. But
whoever has the misfortune to excite the
wrath of Mr.. Wheeler will look in vain
for candor or fair dealing. Yet it is all
for the public interests, that he comes
forward as public accuser, otherwise he
would not volunteer in that character, not
bel! o hypocrisyl if thou hast local
habitation upon earth it is under the coat
of William Wheeler. na- Mind accord.
ing to his own showing he examined these
papers and made these discoveries last
January. If the thing was so heinous
why did he not make his disclosures then!
Why not raise his outcry at that timei
Why did he not then impeach and accused
But one answer can be given to these
questions. He had then no personal
quarrel with the Board We had MOI
then exposed ourselves to his vengeance
We had not most unwittingly and unex
pectedly incurred his displeasure. w.
had not committed the outrage as he calls
it, of accepting the assistance of Mr.
Moore, while compelled to attend tht
funeral. If we had a remote suspicion o
his being an honest bigot, a sincere fanatic
of his motives being other than impure
and personal, we should adopt other Ian
guage and cherish other feelings towards
him. y''
| 1t is about two years and three or four
months since Mr. Wheeler left the Board
Since near that time we have rejected
more than eighty candidates. Does tina
show that we are negligent of the public
interest, easily suffering unqualified mer
to palm themselves off on the public, al
competent teachers. Would selfish pop
ularity hunters have dared to be thus bolt
thus courageous? Did it require no effort
no self-denial thus to stand between s,
many disappointed men and their wishes
simply because the public interests ant
our duty demanded that we should taxi
such q stand?
] If in Mr.. Whceler's time, we had beer
attacked by. q captious and determined
adversary, we should have found our de
fence much more difficult. Whateve
may have been the abuses then existing
the Board had no aid in redressing then
from his honesty or his integrity. Pub
lie murmurs are still heard to the effec
that he used his position in the Board t
bestow undue favors on his own scholars
OF this we know and affirm nothing, bu
as Clerk of the Board he had an oppor
tunity to practice many arti6ces withou
arousing the attention of his fellow-mem
bers. .sFe.iait
But soon after obtaining relief from tn
incubus of his presence, the Board deter
mined to take q higher stand to demand
higher qualifications and to be more res
lolute and determined in the performance
; (of duty and more inexorable to private SO
licitations. These good resolutions W
have honestly and consistently carried ou
: to our great cost and det.iment. Ant
it is hard after abuses have been swep
away, after long perseverance, in the rug
, ged path of duty to be thus assailed by I
most captious and unconscientious sdver
sary. :rr.ansla
Mr.. Wheeler complains that we hsv
; not time for the discharge of our araurou
and important duties. And he kindl
volunteers to compel us to spend our tim
in defending ourselves from charges o
false and as groundless as ever wer
a