Daily national Democrat., 1860-04-24
Wonderful Acumen.
The Express quotes the following language
e tka nrvncnuT.


lion without specifying the thing which he
has done and boldly yprocaim'nE ihe evidence
! hv which IL ia to ohcdemoustrnted, he is not only
I an abuse cf power but it is nm exercise of 1t
vli.h yerres upon the dia Oica. No pub.
| lie writer has the hight TO breathe n faint up
an the iAr name and character Of either a
ruiIic or private citizen. hy imputdlon or
insiuuaiiou or by general charges that he is
corrupt Let the time when aud the place
where. and the specific Thing done be named
aud designated, or else hold your peace IT Is
one thing tn charge, It is another to prove.
md. unless the proof he forthcoming, and
Won know That it is at hand. you are a slnn-
derer and liheler if YOU make the attack
And comments in this wise:
Now that il precisely our position with
regard to The "dinhoiicaw attack of the Re
puilicons Ia Congress upon the President
This course when pursued 10y an editor. nc
cording to the DEMooRAr, mnkes him IA SLAM
ierer and Gheler" but when Republican
members Of Congress do the same thing they
ure upheld as "geutlenen and scholars" We
do not understand how the editor of the Dem.
ocRAr manages to discriminate between Re
publican Congressman and editors. We can
see no reason why thing which is crime
when done hy an editor, should be virtue
when rerpetrdted Ny a Congressman"
And in another place, it says:
"The language above quoted IS bold,
straight forward and to the point We are
told that if public writer breathes "a taint
upon the fair name and character Of public
or private citizen hy mputation and insinua
tion, or 10y general charges that he is cor
rupt unless the proof is forthcoming, and he
knows that it Is at hand, he is "a ibeler and
a slanderel" This is the very thing that the
House OF Representatives has done, aud of
| which the President complains, 1t is the
very thing wh hich the DEMuCHAr did during
he last camptign, when it accused our gal
| liant standard learer, Mr.. Latham, of cor
rupjiou, and did not have the proofat hand
The editor of the Express really imngines
that be has found a wonderful contradiction
between the theory of the DEMocRAr and its
| practice. and it is lapghable to see how he
italicises the striking points and how he mag
nifes the importance OF them. as he so tri-
umphaaly makes out his case. Pshaw this
little effort Of the Express is mere driyeling.
and we are surprised to see man Of sense
standing on such level. Every body who
has read our remarks on the subject of the
Presidents Protest knows that we took the
ground that the House of Representatives
had a perfect constitutional right to appoint
IA Committee to inquire into the general con-
duet Of the Administration, and to ascertain (
whether the President or any other officer
had abused the power with which lie had |
been invested or violated the obligations Of
his Office or been guilty of any corrupt act
rhe House of Representatives., we said, had
this right, no matter what their political
complexion might be- If it should appear,
after such inquiry into the conduct Of the
President or ether high official, that the Conn
mittee had been purposely constituted to act
unfairly in the COLLATION. of testimony or
frauduleuIly in the preparation of the facts
set forth in their report or otherwise inde- /
Gently, on account Of partisan or personal |
feelings and animosities, the party composing
the acting majority would be held response
BE for their conduct by the people and con-
demned at the bar Of public opinion. But,
The right Of the House Of Representatives, as |
a great constitutional power in this Govern
ment, to institute proceedings OF inquiry into |
The general conduct Of public officers, either /
for the purposes of information or for those |
Of impeachment. is not in the least affected [
hy any consideration whatever ns to whether
this OF that thing was done from partisan mo.
tives.
AZ to any charges against Latham. which
could not he sustained by the proof. we made
none The accusation which he had to meet
during the last campaign was made ly San
Francisco paper, and that paper referred, soon
after, to gentlemen who, it was alleged, were |
familiar with the circumstance alluded to.
We stated that such charge had been pre-
ferred. and that it became Mr. Latham, if he
were innocent, to call upon the men named
as having knowledge of the matter. for a
declaration upon the subject. Meantime we
receiv ed a private letter, from a responsible
source, informing us that this charge had been
for long time made against Mr.. Latham, ty
members of the bar and others, and suggest
ing to us the propriety Of calling upon GER
tain conspicuous men in the State to answer
as TO what they knew about it. We did SO.
Finally, Judge Beatty, one of the parties
called upon 10y the press in opposition to Mr..
! Latham, to state what he knew, came out in
a card in which he gave such grounds for
| the charge as he had heard Of Finally, the
various parties who had been mentioned
made statements respecting the matter, and
the thing was soon reduced to the simple
! point that Chief Justice Murray had at
one time entertained the opirion that Mr.
Latham had attempted the corruption of the
| supreme Bench, but that afterwards be came
to the conclusion that he was in error; he
having misunderstood remark Of the Su-
preme Court Clerk, Jos. R. Beard in refer
ence to the subject This is about the sub
stance of the whole matter Of the charges
against Mr.. Latham, and it is perfectly ride
ulous to say that the most scgupnlous press in
the world has not a right to discuss charges
which are thus publicly made and to com
ment upon the testimony which is thus pub
lrcly produced pro. and con- in regard to
| them.
Probably the Express viii conclude that
we have no right to discuss the testimony
which Republican Committee will shortly
adduce against the present occupant of the
White House Probably it thinks it had no
right (although it did SOY to repeat charges
Of completely with John Brown made against
VIM. H. Seward 10y a portion of the Atlantic