, 1864-07-22
THE WASHINGTON STATESMAN
FRIDAY EVENING. JULY %, 1854.
LOOny Z. Bond-appropriatelr named 50

STATESMAN being in the Copperhead in
terest, refused to publish" certain COM
munication which he sent Us; and which be
has published in the Oregonian. That the
public may have the benefit of both sides
of the question, we publish the following
facts In regard to the matter, and think the
community will readily see that Mr. Bond
has at least been little Jiased-not to say
Prgadiced and romantic-in his state
ments.
His letter-the same as sent to US, with
the exception of paragraph added by him
self and slight polish given it by the prin-
ter-as published in the Oregonian, is in
substance, as follows
That at the election at Coppei on the 9th of June
man who had beon in the Confederate service came
TO the polls to vote, whereupOn Mr.. Anderson Cox.
one OF the Judges, cha enged his right to vote and
decided that he could not do so unless he took the
oath of allegiance to the United States This. he
says, the man refused to do, and Rev. j. W McGhee
and Mr.. Thomas Winhett, the other Judges over
ruled Mr.. COx's decision, and decided that all that
was necessary for the voter to do to swear that
he had been Six months in the Territory and thirty
days IN the county,
After making this statement, Mr. Bond
INDUCES in a personal thrust at the intelli
gence and honesty of the two latter named
Judges, which, if his story we're true, would
not, upon principle, be amiss. But with
the facts, as presented to us, the letter Of
Mr.. Bond clearly shows to our mind that his
object in publishing it was a desire to graft.
fJ personal spite as much as to exhibit the
intensity of his patriotism.
The letter in question was sent by Mr.
Bond to Mr.. l.. j. Rector, of this city, with
instructions to him to give it to us for pub
lication. Mr.. r. left it with us, and upon
reading it We concluded there must be some.
thing 'rotten in Denmark )" for, being per-
sonally acquainted with Mr. MeGhee, and
with Mr.. Winnett by reputation, we were
not willing to believe that they would allow
person to vote whom they kneao to be an
open rebel and claiming no allegiance to the
Government, without entering their pro-
testj and knowing, too, that IN times of po.
lltlcal excitement there is always two sides
to every question where invective and per
sonal illusions are called into use by oppos
ing political parties, we deemed it proper tC
inquire into the matter before deciding to
publish the letter. Upon inquiry, we
learned, 1st, that the Confederate soldier -
as Mr.. Bond terms the voter, did not 90 in
to the service of his own free will and ac.
cord. For the manner in which he was
"gobbled' into the service, see Mr.. Dugan's
letter, in another column. I'd that he GOT
out of thesservice as soon as it was possible
for him to do so; Sd, that he stated when
challenged that he had taken the oath Of
allegiance before the proper authorities since
leaving the Confederate service, and had his
papers at home TO testify to The fact 4th
that he did not say he would not take the
oath Of allegiance, but that it was unnoces
sary for him to do so, as he considered
himself as strongly bound by his first oath
as he could be by second 5th, that he
claimed to be loyal to the government, and
thought his word should be as good as his
oath among those who knew him, as to the
facts stated 9th, that the question decided
by judges Mce}hee and Winnett was that
they had no authority to administer an oath
OF allegiance-their being no Territorial
law empowering them to do so-and that, as
sworn judge they could only be governed
by the statutes Of the Territory in deciding
upon the qualifications of voters. We
were told, too, that both the Judges in cues
ton, as we'll as the voter, would make aft
davit to the truth of this statement. and
that the letter of Mr. Bond was a misrepre
sentation of the facts With these facts in
our possession, we saw that the publication
of Mr.. Bonds letter would result in evil on
Iy, creating neighborhood differences and
elimination ami recrimination upon the part
of those concerned. We therefore told Mr.
Rector that we would not publish the let
ter, upon the above grounds, and requested
him to inform Mr. Bond of our reasons fol
declining to pub ish it, and at the same time
to tell him that we did not nor would not
subscribe to the idea Of persons claiming
allegiance to the Confederate government
being permitted to vote in the United States
This he did, and now MIR. Bond shows his
peculiar penchant for rOn1ancing by adver.
tisiDg in the Oregontan that we declined tc
publish his letter because the STATESMAN
is in the COpperhad interest f" If it is
Copperheadism to decline giving publicity
to statements from strangers which we are
assured by friends and patrons are false
then we are copperheads and copperbottoms
too, and in that light we shall take Mr.
Bonds epithet as a compliment. But that
the STATESMAN is or ever has been in the
the "Coppcrhead" or any other partizan in.
terest we deny, though such minds as MI
Bonds might see it in that light. Still, we
will be charitable enough to suppose that if
he had been reader Of the paper he might
have concluded otherwise; though, judging
from the course he has pursued in regard
to his letter, it is not uncharitable to sup
pose that he belongs either to that class Of
reasonerS who form their opinions from what
they hear other men say rather than from
any thinking powers of their own, or to that
prolific kind who manufacture facts to on,
der. When we depart from our independent
course to espouse the cause Of any political
organization we SHALL ourselves, inform the
public of the fact, and through our own col
umns but at present it is not our intention
to do so. BY three hundred days labor at
the "case" each year since we commenced
the publication of the STATESMAN we have
managed to place it upon permanent basis
In doing this we have neither rasked for moi
received the assistance of any particular
party. For the patronage that has been
bestowed upon us We have done our utmost
to return value received; and the only
tffntereat' rVa have had IN Wow hac haar