The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-08-24
Morals aud Manners.

morals ana Manners,
From the NJ Y. Tribune.
The Sun thus replies to our three questions
respecting Hsratio Seymour's assertions in his
Bridgeport speech:-
at is evident to any man who knows the
facts, that the statements quoted as Governor
Seymour's are not true, aud that 1t is not
creditable to him to have made them. He
should not have allowed himself to be led into
such exaggeration. But who can properly un-
dertake to say that he was not honestly con-
V1nced that they were true when he made
them? Certainly, we shall not do IT, We
know, II the Tribune does not. how honestly
rom TIE he e8aet In the Soas or
how ready he is TO rely. Without rigorous slit
ing, upon what is furnished him as facts. No
man ought 10 pronounce such conduct dis
honest, unless he can bring upon the spot the
add, he will commit grave error if ne employ
but avoid the eplthsts, and your case will be
great deal stronger for it,"
Comments by the Tribune.
Governor Seymour, speaking directly to
large gathering of the electors of Connecticut,
and practically to most of those electors on
the eve of an important election, and when
too late for efectual contradiction, asserted
1. ut will cost this year more than $3.50 600 900
to maintain IN army to keep the South in sub
II More than $500, ,OOO, 900 per year have been
wasted in order to uphold this policy of recon-
Ill NOW $500 900 900 (per annum) are raised
and out Of 1T the public creditor gets but
100000, O00"
The Sun, if we understand it, holds that
these assertions, though "not true, " and ''not
creditable" to the maker, may nevertheless
have been honestly made. We, on the other
hand, maintain that they are 80 utterly at va
rance with official records and exhibits that
they could have been honestly made only by
a very ignorant, incompetent debater, whose
blind, besotted prejudices induce him to swal-
low whole whatever worse men OF his party
have asserted. Horatio Seymour is no such
man. He has good natural abilities, ample
leisure, abundant means of information, and
is we'll posted on public affairs. When
they official documents show-as they
certainly do show-that the entire ex-
penditure of the Federal Government in the
South for the fiscal year then closing, and
since closed, for the pay and maintenance of
so much of our army as were stationed there.
Military government, reconstruction eX-
penses, and the Freedmen's Bureau, alto
gether, was less than forty millions of dollars,
"a considerable share of it being devoted to
guarding the exposed frontiers of Texas
against possible Mexican or Indian raids), we
insist that public man of Governor Sey-
mour's general intelligence cohld not have
asserted that sit will cost this year more than
| $3.50, 900, 900 to maintain an army to keep the
South in subjugatiOn," without intending to
deceive and mi5lead his hearers and readers.
The public must judge whether our position
or that of the Sun is the right one. We feel
that simple statement precludes the need OF
argument.
But, says the Sun, '1t is grave error'' to
characterize false and defamatory statement
as a lie, or to brand its author as liar. Under
favor, that depends on the motive and GnimuS
of the falsehood.
"Why didn't you strike the dog with the
butt of your musketH" asked captain of an
Irish private, who had pinned a savage mastifi
to the ground with his bayOnet
"Sure and so | wud, plase yer Honor, if the
baste had run at me wild his tall"
We feel that Mike was more logical than the
captain.
1t seems clear to our mind that there exists
a formidable conspiracy to lie the Republicans
out of power by the most enormous eXaggera-
tions and fabrications with regard to the ma
tional expenditures. Take recent illustra'
tom
d. w. Voorhees, recently made a speech al
Terre Haute, Indiana wherein he (of oourse)
tried hard to make COpperhead capital out of
the Freedman's Bureau. To do so he roundly
asserted that said Bureau "spends from ten to
fifteen millions of public money for the support
of ofSouthern negroes" AS the said Bureau is not
spending even one Million nor half a million,
for the purpose above indicated, we regard the
above quoted assertion as going to the utmost