The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-04-16


writer, they are of absolutely no significance.
The writer was very much in love with her
correspondent, and seemed to be ardently
desirous to promote what she deemed to be
her welfare. Whether she judged rightly or
wrongly as to the means of increasing her
happiness is beside the question She evil
IDENTIFY considered Mrs. Mcfarland a suffer-
ing and an ill-used woman. Mrs McFar-
land so considered herself, and il is natural
that she should have brought her friends
to her way of thinking. A prudent person
would have hesitated before counselling
n wife to leave her husband, whatever
bitterness aud misery may have been
involved in the continuance of that rela-
ton. But in matters of this sort women
are rarely prudent. They take counsel of
their prejudices, their passions, their afec-
tions. This is as natural to them as breath
ing; and if their counses are indiscreet, or if
their affectionate zeal leads their friends into
error, it is the motive which anlmates them
alone of which we must judge. The severity
with which some of the counsel commented
upon the letters of Mrs. Calhoun was perhaps
to be expected It is the business Of the
LAWYER to make mountains of molehills.
Sergeant Buzfuz discerned most sinister
implication in Mr.. Pickwick's innocent order
for chops and tomato sauce But when a
respectable journalist takes these senseless
an1maQVeISlOuS pIedCnoo u
upon the ethics of private letter-writng,
as the Times did on Thursday, we have q right
to look for q certain measure of COM
mon sense and fairness. 1t criticises the
style and matter of Mrs. Calhoun's letters
with as much severity as if they had been
written for the public and challenged exami-
nation and review. 1t says that they are full
of ''transcendental rubbish Why shouldn't
they be? Surely lady may write rubbish"
transcendental or other, to her friend if she
chooses without calling. down the critical
wrath of the Times. 1t says she ''gossips"
and ''makes mischief all round" This is not
true; but if it were it would only be an i'm
peachment of the discretion and good taste of
the writer. The publication of almost any
private letter would embarrass the persons
who were alluded to in it, and Mrs. Calhoun's
are perhaps no exception to this rule. But
the references in them to individuals are
none of them unkind or malicious, and,
at worst, they betray only that sort of indis-
Greet enthusiasm In which women are so
prone to indulge. To found, as the Times
does, ageneral arraignment of the writer upon
grounds of this slender sort is, we grieve to
say it, absurd. The letters are appropriate
subjects of comment only as they relate to
the case before the court. With their lite
rary style or personal illusions the Times has
nothing to do. They were not written to be
criticised, like lecture or poem. If the
writer were on trial, the contents of the let
ters would aid us in forming an estimate of
her character But she is not on trial. Like
many other innocent persons, she is acci-
dentally involved in the publicity of legal
process; and if chivalry had not departed
from the bosoms of lawyers and the attic
cells of editors they would treat with more
gentleness and justice a lady whese only fault
appears to have been too earnest fidelity to
friend who does not seem to have been
worthy of her friendship.
THE FARCE OF CONTESTED ELEC-
TIONS.
From the NJ Y. Herald.
With all the important public business
pressing on the House of Representatives,
that body has been spending two whole days
in the partisan work of voting to seats men
whom their constituents had elected to re-
main at home. In vain did the chairman of
the Committee of Ways and Means object to
| this interruption of the consideration of the
Tariff bill, which has been dragging its slow
length in Committee of the Whole for the
last fortnight, not counting the time occupied
in general discussion. The dominant majority
could not resist the demand of party, and
the important business of the country had to
| give way to the petty interests of individuals.
| First came one of the Louisiana cases, in all
| of which the theory of the various Republi-
| can claimants is that if the negroes had
voted, and voted for them, they would have
been elected; and then came a Pennsylvania
case, where the sitting member, Democrat,
had to give way to his opponent on equally
plausible grounds. There are many other
cases of like character that are to be called up
| before the session draws to a close-each OF
them to occupy time which might easily be
applied to better purpose.
There never was a greater farce in legisla-
tive bodies than this one of contested elec-
tions. No matter what their several merits
or demerits be, there is but one conclusion
| inevitably to be reached, and that is that the
seat is to be given to the person who is of
the politics of the majority. The unfortu-
nate individual who trains with the minority
might Just as we'll yield without struggle.
Now and then an unmanageable member will
kick over the traces and vote according to his
| conviction, as the irascible but unstable
Bingham did the other day in the Louisiana
case; but these eccentricities never affect the
general result And the extraordinary spec.
tacle is presented, whenever one of these
judicial questions is submitted to the House
of Representatives, of the facts being inter
preted in one way by the members of one
party, and in the opposite way by members
of the other party. What high estimate Of
Congressional purity and independence this
state of things is calculated to impress on the
public mind!
There is but one remedy for this abuse anC
for the systematic contempt of popular elec
tions which it brings with it, and that is fo
the House to renounce all interference witt
the matter. Whoever presents the prope
credentials of election should be admitted &