Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1866-06-29
The Congressional Canvass

the wing, 10 Lry II.
The Congressional Canvass.
To the Editor Of the Leader
Will you allow an outside OBJ
server, Eho is neither ofice-holder
offce-seeker nor politician in any sense
except so far as it is consistent with
plain business man interested in the
commercial and manufacturing interests
of the city, and in the great public ques-
tions which involve our national pros
perity, to bo a politician-to give mis-
views on the Congressional question as it
is now presented to this District.
We start out with the proposition that
the people Of the District are under OBJ
legation to 40 man. Mr.. Spalding at a
very advanced age is sent to Congress.
Asking for a denomination, as the Gus
tomary endorsement, it is granted him,
ard h~ serves a second term. We do not
think, however faithful ho may have
been, that he would himself claim to have
performed any such signal service, that
this District had been laid under such
further obligations, that he has any perpe-
tual claim upon the office. In the emolu-
ments and honor of the position, and the
opportunity it gives to subserve the in
terest of friends, the District and he may
be assumed to Re at least even and acquit
to each other in their mutual obligations.
Nor is the District under obligations to
Mr.. Parsons. In official positions in the
city, as Master and Speaker of the House,
as valuable public officer at foreign
port as Collector of the District, he has
| served the interests of the city, State and
National governments faithfully and well.
As IA lawyer and scholar he has been
known to be able, cultured and eloquent
as legislator manly, sagacious and eff
hcient-as a business manager honest,
capable, and in every way to be relied
upon. On the great questions which have
agitated the country for the past five
years. he has been sou0l 10 the core. And
his letter to Judge Bolton, of February,
1861, lately republished in your paper,
when as Speaker of the House of Repre-
sentatives he refused TO vote in favor of
the Peace Congress-entering manly
protest against asking an insulted nation
to stultify itself by tanning the faces of
malignant traitors with olive branches
will forever stand on record as a political
document which for forecast, fearlessness,
logic, and the elOquence which comes from
an honest heart, finds hardly superior.
In any of the respects We have mentioned,
or in any of the qualities which tend to
make Congressman valuable to his dis
trict, or distinguished and influential for
the good of the country, We should long
| hesitate before we ranked him as inferior
to Judge Spalding. Yet the district is un-
der no obligations, as such, to either of
these gentlemen.
Personally friendly to them both, but
having to choO5e between them, we give
our voice for a chan ge, with an earnest
] preference for Mr.. Parsons. The equal
of Judge Spalding in all respects, except
Ia age land it was not our oldest Generals
who won our battles, or our oldest politi-
clans who proved our wisest statesmen in
times of peril), he is in many respects, we
think, his superior. We might specify
his ra Did executive ability, his frank and
cordial manners-adapted to winning
friends, and his generous and genial tenn
per-adapted to keeping them. We be-
ileye tha. in a single month in Congress
he would command as much personal in
huence for any measure intended for his |
District, or for any matter of national i'm |
portance as any member of the new House |
But let us consider further. The great |
questions of the day are how to recon- |
struct the Union, so that justice may be |
insured to all, and as to the manner in |
which our great industrial interests may
be fostered, so that their protection and |
development may recuperate the country |
from the financial drain that has been |
made on its resources. On these lead |
ing questions, which of these two men is
1t safest and best for an intelligent and |
patriotic district to trust as its leader 1
First on Fipanoa This district has i
large interests in manufactures as well as |
in commerce and agriculture. Do we want |
a Representative whose anteeedents and |
education, as an old line Democrat, have |
tended to free trade, or one whose train |
ing and society, business experience |
and associations, have imbued him with |
the great American doctrine, now more |
important than ever, that American in |
dustry is to be fostered and protected |
against the pauper labor of foreign coun- |
tries, in order that our great national re-
sources may be developed, our enormous |
national debt be paid, and the country be |
restored to its former financial soundness |
and prosperity. Grant that Mr.. Spald- |
ings votes may be right on this question, |
we want no member in whom we cannot |
fully RELY as hearty co-worker with our |
manufacturers and business men and far |
mers in the protection of their interests.
Second, on Reconstruction. Where does |
the District want its Representative |
TO he on this, Of all questions
the most vital Independent of johnson |
and his official patronage, or in afiliation
with him and it. What was the plan of |
Congress Protection and justice to all,
and security for the future. just that and
no more. What was the plan of our ac-
cidentaL EKecutive2 Why, simply to
throw wide open the doors, and suffer the
avenues to the National Capital, which
had been purged as by FIRE, TO become
| turgid and tumid again with the rank
| est poisons of throttled but still
| malignant treaSpu.o- The. whole loyal
party of the Nozth, with Congress at its
head, revolted at this, clearly discovering
in it q political catastrophe which would
sweep sway the glory of our military tri-
umphs as by food The Union party
had saved the nation, as it thought, but
now a Southern representative elected by
sham, was to be permitted to strike
hands with his copperhead friends of the
| North-the rebellion thus achieving by
partisan combinations what it had failed
to accomplish by force Of arms. This was
the propositions all the Vallandig-
hams, and Seymours, and Van Burens,
allS the aspirants for Office under the
new power, and all the newspapers whose
hitherto bigh-tcned patriotism eonld be