The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1870-01-29
From Our Regular Correspondent
Letter from Washington.
WASHINGTON, D. c., Jan. Is, 1876

SANS PEUR ETlsANs REPRoAcHE.
In period when the thirst for gain is the
most prominent characteristic, and the belief
prevails so generally that public men are not
exempt from its influence, it is refreshing to
remember that there have been those who
lived in our midst and died in our day, against
whom no such reproach can be hurled. No
SANDER Of this kind will ever fall upon the
names of Abraham Lincoln, John A. Raw
Inns, Edwin NJ. Stanton, William Pitt Fessen-
den. Yet there were probably thousands of
occasions when stroke of the pen, or a sim
pie use OF the knowledge they possessed,
would have placed them and their families in
possession of abundant means. These occa-
sions, too, would probably not have involved
any apparent dishonesty or betrayal of trust.
That any idea of even so using their positions
ever entered their minds, I do not believe
They were, too, without doubt, free from the
faint of more subtitle form of corruption-
that OF using their power to advance the per-
sonal interests of their friends and partizans.
do not mean in the way of giving positions
OF trust or honor, but rather to contracts or
mcduS vi peSuuIdry gam.
1t is well to recall these shining illustrations
of men who devoted themselves unsel6shly
in this regard at least. When we hear the al
most Vulnerable charges that are floating
about among us, against well-known public
men, it is well also 10 remember that the
men have named labored and died, too, in a
time when other men went into the public
service as poor or poorer than they, and have
in some way come out rich.
REBUKING COMPETITION AND ITS PENALTY.
The strength of the Republican party can
not be better shown than in a patient heed
to the charges that circulate against some of
Its active public men, in a careful Sitting of.
and swift and scornfal administering of
proper penalties, if they are found to be true.
tits not pleasant task this-to assail ones
party friends, but it is more pleasant than to
see corruption stalk in high places, and pass
on triumphant. / hear great many things
said derogatory, for instance, Correspondents
here who have intimated that all is not as
Emery as marriage BELLS" and 1 daily
hear the most insolent sneers of denunci-
ations of journalists, like Gen. Boynton,
Dom Piatt, and others, who dare to call at
tention to the fragrant suspicious that rest on
certain men In Congress. The chief argument
used against these gentlemen is that they are
destroying the Republican party. But the
people after all are nearer right than the poll
ticians' Iowa showed that in the recent SEN
atorial election. 1t left the men on whom
the faint OF corruption had fallen, justly or
otherwise, "out in the cold" and sent men
here who, like Caesars wife, are above suspi-
cion. The Republican party is strong enough
70 weed itself of corruption, and if it is not, it
oeen' 70 go to pieces. 1t certainly will, in
.L"s ssene. The journals and Journalists
W. ~ Nenoonced, have the interests of the |
nepooii'ah party at stake, as mucb or mora |
than the politicians. They hara S
much to create the party, and excort eoie "'
legitimate way of their professional nr ,n .ne
have not benefited by its success,
AN OBVIOUS STANDARD.
There are men here in and out Of Con-
gress, journalists and otherwise, who are pre-
pared to stand by rule of criticism in This
matter of reputed corruption, the statement
ofwhich will be its own justification. That
rule is that there's reason to be suspicious of
the man, Senator, Representative, Secretary
OF other Official, who coming into public life |
curing the war, without much of or any 9TH