Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1871-02-02

A On s5tion Of Verdcfty..
The following taken from the Indian
apolis Journal, will give our readers
pretty fair idea OF the moral character of
the present Dem ocratic House OF Rep
resentatives.
Yesterday morning the following edito-
rial appeared in the Journal:
"The disgraceful scenes that have been
recently enacted IN the Indiana House OF
Representatives deserve public condennna-
ton. A prominent Democrat Of this
city is our authority for saying that the
obscenity and blackguardism OF which
some of the members were guilty on
Tuesday afternoon surpassed in coarse
ness and brutality anything he ever wit
messed in public place. The outrage
was highly aggravated by the presence OF
lady clerk, whose duties required her 10
remain there. The presiding officer, so
far from asserting his authority in re-
pressing the outbreak Of vulgarity, seemed
to enjoy 1t with great zeast. and allowed
It TO proceed unchecked. Indeed, it
would have been hardly consistent in him
to have interfered in view Of his conduct
during the joint convection on Friday
last He improved that occasion, when
more than one hundred ladies had as .
sembled to hear the addresses in support
Of the womans Rights memorial, to in
suit them and disgrace himself by the per-
petraiion Of joke too filthy to put in
print. We arc sorry that Mr.. Speaker
-Macks associations in Indianapolis are OF
q character to lead him 10 suppose that
there is no improperly in the public ex-
hibitinn of bawdy house manners by a
man holding SO high an official position.
This was published amer due reflection,
and not until the facts upon which the
charges were based upon had been COM
municated to us by gentlemen Of the
highest responsibility. 1t will be seen by
. careful reading Of the article that it
contains two distinct charges: one against
"son,e of the members OF the House" for
otsceni,y and blackguardism on Tuesday
last; the second is against Mr.. Speaker
Mack tor having publicly ,perpetrated q
filthy joke in the presence of large as
sembly of ladies and gentlemen en- Friday
last. We expected, as matter Of course,
that our merited rebuke would be FL by
those whose vulgar conduct had called it
forth. As we were not present on either
of the occasions mentioned, We spoke up
on what we believed 10 be good authority;
indeed, we delayed saying anything until
cur continued silence had excited remark.
The charges were confined TO the guilty
reflection upon the IIouse.of Represent
aiIves as a body. When the House was
called to order yesterday morning, Mr.
Simpson offered the following resolution
BE it Resolred. That the Indiana
polls Daily Journal be and is hereby
expelled from this House for the publica-
ton in its issue Of to-day OF gross libel
upou this body. and for malicious SANDER
and outrageous lying upon members in
divicually, rs we'll as upon the House as
al organization.
Mr. Simpson was evidently excited
"hSh HS hiSu tuis ihS'uCAShs auu sous'
logical jargon Of adjectives al the Jour
nal, and was finally prevailed upon to
withdraw it, II will be noticed that he
favored the immediate expulsion of the
Journal without giving US ghost Of a
chance for an explanation, justification or
retraction of our charges. Mr. Mcdonald
was not SO hard on us, and singing in a
lower key, offered resolution:
" That unless the managers Of the
Journal shall retract the scurrl'lous
article in regard 10 the proceedings Of the
House on the 18th (Yesteidsv) and the
very uncalled for structures on the Honor
able Speaker of tins House-this House
will exclude the aaid Journal from THE
House."
Upon reflection, Mr.. Mcdonald with
drew this, and lie action of the House
eliminated in the adoption. by what vote
We are not infoi med, of the following
resolution. offered by. Mr.. Davidson:
"Rcsolvcd, That this body has seen
with regret an article rejecting severely
upon its principal officer aud members.
said article is untrue. aud rs il pnrported
10 be from information derived from a
prominent Democrat OF this city. we
hereby declare the came untrue and un>
called fer, aid as matter of right ask
said paper to retract the article referred
to-
"Resolrcd, That the article in The In
diauapolis Daily Journal Of this date
Al.
of this House and the Speaker thereof,
charging them with obscenity and black
guardism Is false in fact, an insult to this
Legislative body, and deserves its unquali
fed condemnation"
We have no doub. that the House saw
our article with regret. We regretted the
necessity that compelled US to publish it.
Whether what it charged was true or not
is susceptible Of proof, and We stand
ready TO prove that our charges were
true. 1t was unkind in the House, though,
to say that it was untrue, because we
based part of our charges upon the stale
ment VI prominent Democrat. We
know many Democrats, not members of
the Legislature, who arc rs truthful as
any Democrat who has the honor of q
seat in that body, and our informant is
ready to back up his statement by bis
oath. We also stand ready TO prove our
charge against Speaker Mack, and will, II
the House sees fit to go into the investi-
CATION, prepare and publish a verbatim re-
port of the testimony. We therefore de-
cline to make any retractiou.
In what we have said we have made no
reflections whatever upon the House of
Representatives as body. For most of
the members We entertain the highest re-
spect and we should deseryedly forte it
that respect were VIC 10 rctract what We
believe TO be true.
THE GREAT SURRENDER.
The surrender of the forts around
D.