Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1866-01-11
The sherman Organ .ewhitewashins'

g futed in these columns BY the publication
of the official record, showing how tht
q charge was cooked to suit the purpose
of his opponents, without the slightest re
: gard to the facts.-CleUeIand Herald.
/ The Herald acts upon the theory that
:, falsehood persevered in is equal to the
II truth. We must say the Herald is "per-
8 severing," but it is difficult task to over
: come an official record by bare assertion.
If any one can do it, it is within the
capacity of the editor of the Sherman
organ in Cleveland, for, as Artemus
would say, "whitewashing" is his "best
holt" The Herald is the only paper in
Ohio that raises question of fact about
0 Senator Sherman's record. His record on
the question of the repeal of the fugitive
slave laws we recently published in a
complete form, from the official reports of
) the Senate. Senator Sherman does not
: himself differ with us as to the matters of
fact stated in our columns The Herald
has published less of the official record
than any other party to this controversy,
evidently relying upon tssuppOsed ability
! to control the brains and consciences of
the legislators at Columbus, and to make
them accept black as white. Tho guardian
of the Legislature would be terribly dis
appointed il, after its huge editorial efforts
and the Herculean missionary labors of its
Head-Senter at the State Capital, it should
fail to accomplish the task it has so conf
IDENTIFY undertaken.
As we before stated, the Herald has
given only meagre portion of the "offi-
cial record" but it gave enough to prove
the falsity of its editorial utterance above
quoted 1t gave enough to show that
John Sherman spoke and voted against
the repeal of the fugitive slave law of
1898. That makes good our assertion that
John Sherman UOted against the repeal of
all Laaos for the rendition Of .tagitivs slaves,
and he did this i1fqsOus thing during the
last year of the aOar sOaged By the SLAVE
posOer for the destruction of the Federal
Government and the establishment of
sIapehOIding eonfederaey.
After stating that it had "refuted" the
cooked" story that Mr.. Sherman voted
to retain the fugitive slave law of 1898,
the Herald "refutes its own statement
by saying;
"What Mr.. Sherman did was to vote in |
| company with majority of his political |
| ass ciates, and in compliance with the pol |
| icy of the President, that the old Act of |
1893 be retained until the whole system of |
slavery was swept away by the Constitu- |
| tional Amendment, denouncing, as he did |
at the time, the Act of 1850 as infamous |
and unconstitutional"
When man willfully and maliciously |
asserts what is untrue, and then blunders |
into giving the evidence of his falsehood,
repeating this course from day to day, we
are at loss to decide which is the domi-
nant element in his character, knavery or
idiocy. The Herald says that Mr.. Sher-
man did ''yote in company with major
'fty of his political associates" Who
those political associates" were will be /
judged by the fact that his triumph on this
question ebt~:--1 -vt4.Iss sIIv
disloysl Democracy" the very class of
men who to-day, along with ofice-holding,
ohce-seeking and weakened Republi-
cans, are seeking his reelection to the
United States Senate. The Cleveland
Plain Dealer, the Columbus Statesman
the Columbus Crisis and the Cincinnati |
Enquirer all have pronounced in favor of
John Sherman as opposed to Schenck
Bingham, or any other prominent Repub-
lican candidate. Among, the political
associates of John Sherman who voted |
with him against the repeal of the fugitive
slave law of 1893, were the drunken Cop
perhead, McDougall, of California; that
most inveterate of COpperheads, Sauls-
bury, of Delaware; Powell, who was so
rank in his Copperheadism that even pro-
slavery Kentucky ousted him and sent
Guthrie in his place; Garrett Davis, of
Kentucky, prince of Copperheads and the
t'artesian bore" of the Senate; Hendricks,
of Indiana Copperhead; johnson, of
Maryland, Copperhead; and Riddle, Of
Delaware, the COpperhead who moved to
re-enact the fugitive slave laws during the |
last year of the war. --..
The statement that Mr.. Sherman's pre-
slavery vote was cast at the request of
President Lincoln,-ths hberator of all |
the slaves in the land, the pioneer in the |
enlistment of colored troops, the advocate
of emancipation for Negro soldiers, and |
the friend of humanity and progress
everywhere,-is at least remarkable. |
and, in our opinion, savors strongly of |
sacrilege. Senator Sherman was not act
uated by any such tender regard for the |
feelings of President Lincoln when, in |
1862, he wrote letter to Andrew john
son, then Military Governor of Tennessee,
charging that "the Mcclellan politicians
were "Tylerizing the administration"
he had none of this reverence for Presi-
dent Lincoln when he declared him a |
usurper by refusing to vote that his acts
in suspending the habeas corpus were
legal. ---- 3D..
The. Herald says Mr.. Sherman desired !
to retain the fugitive slave law of 1898 |
until the adoption of the constitutional !
amendment" Mr.. Sherman offered no
such silly reason, but said he wished to
retain it because it was "made by the
trainers of the Constitution" The same
reason would have prevented the amend
ment of the Constitution.
The Herald blunders into truth when
it says Senator Sherman declared the act
of 1850 ''infamous and unconstitutional"
Then why did he give his influence and
vote in favor of law equally "infamous
and unconstitutional," in that it doomed
human beings to slavery without trial by
jury, law which the Supreme Court of
the United States had decided unconstitu-'
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