Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1870-05-19
2nlftifaI.
From the Baltimore American.
The National Scape Goat,

| er and intelligence to solve unaldcd by
| the remedial processes of time; all the
popular errors of thought and faults of
action, ery.discontent with what is
and Utopian hope of what might have
! been, is concentrated into one loud cry
of complaint and thrown upon the
shoulders of the men who meet in the
Copitol, at Washington. They are too
harsh or too slew; too precipitate or too
cautious; either they are doing what
! they ought not do or leaving undone
what they ought to do. In brief, live
were to take the outcry as seriously
embodying the popular estimate of the
men sent to represent us, we should be
forced to believe that Congress was a
| conglomeration of the stupidity and
| rascality of the nation, a congregation
of fools and knaves. and that men, who
at home bore fair characters for intelli-
gence and probity, the moment they
become Ipossessors + chair in,the House
or the Senate lost their ability to think
and their honesty of purpose.
Much of this indiscriminate fault
| finding proceeds from mere thoughtless
views. 1t is convenient and easy, ard
somewhat pleasant, to grumble. Be
sdes, it gives the grumbler an idea of
| his self-impOrtance. He is sitting in
judgment as one of the popula rsovereign
on the representatives of the nation and
asserts his independence by giving them
a bit of his mind. Such censures mean
nothing, though they sometimes, from
accidental circum stances, swell into a
chorus that gives them Importance.
| But there is another class who are at
present busy berating and beiittiing
| Congress, who do it from more corrupt,
partisan and degrading purposes than
! ever enter into the mind of the average
Congressman. The Republican party
having control of Congress and res
ponsible for it's legislstion, it is the bus
mess of the Democratic party, and the
stack in trade ofits organs, to attack :,
misrepresent and misconstrue all that is
done or attempted tobe done. AS that
party has 10 principles of its own, and
necessarily no feeling for itself, its one
resort is to quarrel with everything
that its opponents propoes. 1t is reduc
ed TO the role of grumbling, obstruction,
delay and prevarication, and itperforms
it well. Not being equal to any higher
mission, we cannot be surprised that it
takes to the small beer of misrepresent-
ing purposes, ,maligning persons and the
chronicling of scandals, with avidity.
Not the least frequent and the most
unprincipled of the means it employs
are the unprincipled correspondents of
unscrupulous newspapers. A large class
of journals, some from thoughtlessness,
others by direct intent, prenit their
Washington correspondents to supply
them with their own imaginingss or
malicious suggestions. instead of as
certained facts or we'll defined rumors.
Such correspondents, without any OF
the responsibilities, and incompetent to
understand the higher duties of the
editor, make their letters quasi
editorials, into which they compact all
their ignorance, bitterness and corrupt
motives, and by which they not seldom
drive a thriving trade in lobbying. The
modern Congressman, taken en- masse,
is no saint, and Washington life may
not improve his morals or elevate his
mind, but he belongs to seventh
heven compared with the mean, alto
gether contemplate thoroughly un-
class of characters that have worked
their way into positions as the Washing
ton correspondents of a certain class of
partisan and sensational journals. The
really respectable gentlemen who rep
resent their papers at Washington, who
strive to learn and to state facts; and
whose letters and dispatches receive
the credence of Intelligent people, know
and lament the increase of this class of
disreputable journalists, who are
treading so close upon them as to narrow
their influence and throw suspicio n
upon all correspondence from the Capt.
tsl. We run, therefore, no risk of being
misunderstood by these gentlemen, still
less of giving them offence, in exposing
this class of Bohemians. They know
how deep and offensive is the sore, and
how thoroughly it needs exposure. But
the general reading public do not under
stand how less than valueless are the
accusations, suspicious and calumnies
with which these scavengers befoul the
public mind. They read the insinua-
tion, or the open accusation, that sue Ii
member has sold his vote, or is the
creature of the lobby, and thereby hav e
their faith shaken in the integrity OF
all Congressmen;o or they are told tn at
such and such, a bill is passed for
private profit and not for public good,
and thereafter look with suspicion OH
all measures of the same character.
Hastily scanning the morning paper,
taking their impressions at random
therefrom, the reader is apt to think
that the correspondent who thus preten-
tioUsly scourges vice or denounces i'm
proper legislation, is a sentinel on the
watch-tower of political purity and
morality whose trumpet gives no un-
certain sound. Ifthey could see beyond
the white paper and speaking type. they
would find the writer to be one beneath
credit or respect, a vile growth of acci-
dent and opportunity, who ISLANDERS
from malignity, and denounces in hope
that his silence may be purchased. 1t
is difficulty for the public to discriminate
in these matters, and it would be wrong
to blame them that in so many instances
their confidence is misled and their
judgment abused. The high apprecia-
ton which isgiven in this country to
the public press, and the almost govern
ing power it has in forming public opin-
ion as to men and things, has its adj
vartages, and also its disadvantages;
and we regret to say that the latter
have grown enormously of late years in
the direction we have indicated. We
believe nobody proposes to do away with
the representative feature of our Gov
ernment as eXemplified in the National
Congress. 1t will continue, and ought
to represent not only the general in
telligence, but also the average morality
of the people. A fair, generous, i'm
partial criticism, both as to their acts
and their personal characteristics, is to
be expected by these representatives of
the people, and will do good. But'a !
system of indiscriminate censure, of
unlimited depreciation, and of uncheck-
ed slander, must of necessity have the
opposite effect. If tle people learned
not to respect their own chosen agents
must soon cease to respect themselves;
gentlemen of probity and independence
of character will refuse to accept pesi- ,,
tions which preclude them from a fair
recognition of purity of purpose and ,
honesty of action, and our Federal
Legislature will become, what we are
glad to say it is not yet, a thoroughly