The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1870-06-23

do what we can to effect 1t, that the
days of the party may be longer thar
those of the Democracy In its pride.
We think we shall succeed, and moth
ing, certainly, will contribute more to
that end than a glance at the facts
which the SentinePs delicacy was not
shocked at when they occurred. It's
leader of Friday was too modest to
enumerate them with the array Of
Republican expenditures.
When a Democratic Legislature
sold 100000 acres of land In Georgia,
worth $500. 600 or more. to Martin r.
Green for ST 900, and Ashbel Willard
defeated every effort to thwart the
fraud, and deprive the swindlers of
their plumber, the Sentinel was not
shocked" no reform" was pro-
posed, and when the Democracy died
for it. and other crimes, it died "all
over" And if the people of Indiana
don't want more work of the same
kind, they will sec that it don't come
to life again.
When Jacob Merkle, Democratic
Treasurer of Jasper County, pocketed
$127, 900 Of the Swamp Land Fund,
in that county, and his defalcation
was as notorious as the new Constitu-
ton. how did the Democracy "re-
form him and purify itself? Why
Governor Willard re-appoisated him
to the same office, with more than
5000 of his swindle unsettled and
unsecured. That is Democratic re.
formation" And it is all the kind
that anybody ever saw that party
make. The Sentinels delicacy en-.
dured that dirty bit of Democratic
linen with more composure than il
did the compulsory display of the
national flag on its building on the
10th day of April, 1861.
When Congress gave this State
j, 300, 600 acres of swamp lands. aDun
dainty capable, as Governor Wrigh
demonstrated, to pay 81 ,O00, 900 to the
School Fund. what went with it
| Democratic State officers and LAND
spectators, like z. NJ. Kent, John P
Dunn and NJ. q. Bright, reformed
it out of existence. They got il. TIL,
school children did not. The Sentine
was not at all disturbed by this, prob
ably because il did not think it in
delicate" It certainly was not vul
gar" in the sense of being common
for speculations of that magnitude arr
not common even among Democrats
If any effort at reform was suggested
by the operation, we never heard O.
it, and the Sentinel has no record
of it.
| When Governor Willard emptieC
the Asylums and sent the blind GU
to beg, and the insane to live in the
woods, the Seminal approved it. He
had no appropriations to pay with,
it said, and he would not call an ex
ira session of the Legislature "be-
| cause be knew that parties would be
just as obstinate as before" When
he had done all the mischief he could
had put some counties TO an extra
expense of $4,000, and nearly all to
more than they cared to shoulder, "a
please a fddle-headed Democratic
Governor-he opened the Asylums
without dollar more than he had, OF
could have had as lawfully when be
closed them. And the Sentinel "del-
icately" suggested amen, but not re-
formation Of the corruption or stupid
ity that incurred the evil in the frst
place.
When Governor Willard paid Hen
~ Achey 500 for carrying the respite
of Mullenix, the murderer, to Green
castle, was the Sentinel "shockedP'
Ii did not say so, if it was. Possibly
its "delicacy" had not grown strong
enough to ''cheep" in those days of
Democratic reform" At all events
it allowed that bit of Conveying" as
Pistol calls it, to pass with the de-
lighted smile of "Squeers," when he
saw his son stealing the victuals of
his enemy.
Here are some of what Horace
Greeley's book calls Hints toward
Reform" and what anybody would
call reasonable alarms to moderate
delicacy, but it would be as hard to
find qualm of modesty or a sugges-
ton of reform touching either, in
the Sentinel of those days, as it would
be to find anything ''indelicate" in
what excited its first and only appear
anee of delicacy since the paragraph
which made Pennsylvania Street Ia
dy. who accidentally saw it, carry the
paper out with the toDgs and throw it
IN the gutter, and leading Democrat
propose, through the Journal, to
send the whole edition to Canrobert,
at Sevastopol, and have it fred off in
stink shell" at the Mamelon. If
the conductor of the EentiReI has for
gotten that singular exhibition of de-
cency, we will get it for him from its