The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1869-12-27
Family Reconstruction.

succeed, by sheer audacity, in getting the
claim allowed. But fortunately reputation
involves responsibility. The impostor cheats
himself in assuming virtue which he cannot
maintain. His mask does not change his
character and sooner or later the time ar
rives when the inconvenient lions skin is
cast off or disarranged, and the terror Of the
forest becomes its scorn. His just deserts
are meted out to the vicious and obstinate
brute who claimed the hOnors due TO the
king OF beasts.
Esops fable represents tolerably we'll the
state of the Republican party at the present
time This Infamous Observation-Disclosures
case has laid bare the corruption OF the poo,-
Iitical vendors of moral ideas. As the pa
irons of cause whose appalling details
have startled and shocked the whole coun-
try. stand forth the staff of the Tribune, and
the great pulpit lights of Republicanism-
Henry Ward Beecher and 0. b. FrothlnS-
ham. These model reformers, than whom
none have spoken more sanctimoniously OF
the tenderness and strength OF the marriage
bond, have pandered to dark matrimonial
intrigue eliminating in adultery and murs
der. Such is the latest ethical precedent es-
tablshed by the very Elite of our national
reformerS.
The case was Of such sort that the min
istry should have had no connection with it.
If the ec 1,arte. evidence given for the pro-
curement of the divorce to the court at Mar
tinsville can be- credited, Mcfarland is
monster. But it should be said that the one
hundred and twenty adults living in that re-
mote village of Indiana, knew and cared
nothing about the case, and that the de-
serted husband had no opportunity OF de-
fence. So far as Mrs. Mcfarland is con-
cerned, she cannot be held blameless, for
the divorce was an illegality, and was Sc
cured for the purpose OF facilitating her union
with cher husbands friend" As to Rich
ardson. who is now in his grave, the evi-
dence pretty clearly shows that he had So
licited and won the affections OF his friends
wife before any separation had taken place;
and he pursued, with an eagerness which
Mrs. Mcfarland herself was constrained to
moderate, his purpose of making her his
own. Regarded from whatever point OF
view, the case was an ugly one. The min
istry had nothing to do with it except as
they are officially appointed to ''call sinners
sto repentance. 1t was horrible outrage
when they appeared, in their robes Of sane
tity to bless an affection which has cast
gIfted genus INTO q Dioouy grave-wnlcn
has eclipsed the virtue and the happiness of
beautiful, accomplished woman, and which
is likely to bring wretched husband to the
gallows.
This case is taken out Of the ordinary
class of crimes by the circumstance that all
who have acted in it from first to last belong
to the Republican party, and are representa-
tive members thereof The humblest OF
them all in station was Mcfarland who was
first in the provost marshals office and then
received an appointment to the custom
house. His wife was employed as contribu-
tor to the Independent. His ''friend" Rich
ardson was an editor OF the Tribune. So
was his wife's female friend and adviser,
Mrs. Calhoun No less person than Vice
President Colflx welcomed Mrs. Mcfarland,
on her divorce expedition to Indiana, and
introduced her ''to the best society in In
s.dianapols." The card which introduced
Mrs. McFarland's female friend to Beecher,
bore the signature Of Horace Greeley. The
two ministers who performed the public con-
secration OF the bigamy are among the most
distinguished men Of the party. In short,
the terrible burlesque was an act of dOmes-
tic reconstruction, to which Republican
ism lent its greatest names. There was a
marshalling of the clans, grand magniil-
cent uprising g-Yice-President, editors, secu-
lar and religious, male and female, and min
isters, orthodox and hetorodox-for the vir-
tuous, glorious, nay sublime purpose Of
taking away q wife from her husband and
giving her to another man. Rank after
rank with civic trophy and sacred sign,
they threw themselves, body and soul, into
that grand conflict; and when it was over,
one, perhaps the noblest Of them all, lay
dead in the arms OF victory, heart-broken
woman at his side, and i'll the prison house
there was one miserable blOod-stained cap
tive. wringing his hands and tearing his
hair and gibbering in his mad anguish.
Great is the honor of the cOnQuerOrs! They
have reconstructed a family in way just as
legal, just as moral, and just as successful
as that in which they have reconstructed the
Southern States.
The Ti'tJune, in its issue of the 18th
instant is particularly and justly severe oil
what are called Southern loyalists. One Of
this sweet set--the Hon. Mr.. Blackburn
resides in the Parish of Claiborne, Louisiana,
which he represents in Congress. He is also
editor of the Niati, 1.-The official journal Of
| the United States" from whose tripod he de-
nounces his opponents as 'buzzards, :"
''bottle-bellied toads,' ''skunks," ''hogs,"
dogs and the like. The inference may
''be drawn says the Tribune, that it is
las necessary for Republican TO be as
''dirty in Louisiana as Il Democrat in New