The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-12-30
FATAL FRIENDSHIPS.


What is the proper word to describe the
process Of killing ones particular friends?
Is it homicide, or 'amicde," or what? So
much of this sort of thing is being done,
especially in politics, that we really need
name for it. Talleyrand used to point out,
as q philosophical phenomenon, that some
thing unpleasant always happened to any
Government which did not conciliate him
'U q q gU6iQUe CLOSE GRGtpljca6Le en- moi, g1S
porte maLteur auC g0UgerRoHle3S Q8j me aGg-
Hgeat.' But there is a class of newspapers
rising among us with the contrary power
No man can survive their friendship after it
is once fairly brought to bear.
There was Mr.. r. H. Dana, Jr., of Boston,
for instance, who really seemed to have po-
litical future before him, until an obscure
weekly newspaper of this city took him up
and killed him off, in the Butler Congress
sional campaign. There were all the mate
rials for a strong opposition to General But
ler. He had just avowed financial theories
which had displeased his best friends. Then
many disliked him for what he had done in
the war, and many more for what he had not
done. He was not even, it was urged, citi-
zen of his district, possessing within its
limits only the rudiments of q barn, while
his opponents father, at least, had house and
lands. Sofar so good for Mr.. Dana, when in an
unlucky hour the Nation took up his cause,
representing him as q high-toned conserva-
live and his opponent as pestllent radical.
This was precisely what General Buffers
managers wished, and from that time they
had it all their own way The special drawbacks
of General Butler, on which a shrewder oppo-
nent would have made the fight, were at once
forgotten. If he was to be thrown overheard
as too radical so would Sumner be ousted, 80
would Boutwell,, whenever the political Bour-
bons grew strong enough. This settled the
| question. Mr.. Dana was left in minority so
crushing that it will long paralyze his political
career, and Mr.. Butler in a mai jority most pre-
| judicial to his humility of spirit. So much for
an injudiciops and fatal friendship, that as
sassinates its ownallies
Precisely the same destructive process has
! since been tried against Attorney General
! Hoar, by the same class of journals, to whom
| Tile NofM Amcrican Rcctclc has also supplied
a spare stiletto, in the background. Mr.. Hoar
went to Washington an advanced Massachu-
! setts radical He had always been the friend
and ally of Mr. Boutwell,, and bid fair to
! stand with him in the confidence of Republi-
cans generally. 1t was no fault of his that
his mistaken friends undertook to make him
! out all that was respectable and conservative,
as compared with this dangerous, revolu-
| tionaly Boutwell,. But their support at once
exposed him to suspicion. Mr.. Boutwell, had
won the confidence of the nation and esps-
cially of the party which had carried it through
the war. He had been thoroughly tested
Mr.. Hoar had certain claim on the public
confidence as being Mr.. Boutwells neighbor
! and friend. If he was to be set up in oppo-
sition to the Secretary Of the Treasury, the
case was very different. In vain the shrewder
Massachusetts, papers, as the Springfield
R(puJHcaa, protested against this false
position assigned TO Mr.. Hoar; declared that
| Tile North Amcr'caR Recieo0S description of
him was wholly imaginary; that, in the Ian
guage OF Mrs, BetSey y, Camp, 9S9 there warn TR
honored victim would doubtless have pro-
tested also, had it been possible; but what
could he do? An Attoney-General cannot
stand up before the Supreme Court and say,
MAY it please your honors, / wish to be
protected from my own admirers" Thence
followed the misfortune of his non-confrma-
tion, thing made all the more CALLING, for
the victim and his friends, by the ready assent
| to Mr.. Stanton's appointment No doubt