The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-04-20

him. The Albany correspondents of several
papers mentioned these reports as having OBJ
tanned wide ciroulation; and the truth is that
Senator Fenton's own actions gave rise to
them. We pointed ont as a strange and ''un-
fortunate coincidence" that Senator Fenton
should have held prolonged interview with
jay Gould on the very day before Wi
mans announced his transfer to Tam
many and Erie. Mr.. Gould did not call
upon Mr.. Fenton, as the T1S6une
insinuates. Senator Fenton went to the Erie
offices to see MIR. Gould, and the fact of the
interview was well known in the city on Fri
day night, before Winans' detection was
heard Of or suspected. Senator Fenton's past
connection with Erie, the obligations he owes
to the directors and the favors they owe to
him, have long been well understood. When
the traitor was found to be an Erie man, from
Senator Fenton's county, people could not
help quitting two and two together" and
coming to the conclusion that Senator Fenton
had been consulted in the transaction.
Undoubtedly we could not have had proof
that MIR. Fenton ''desired, or suspected or
imagined, that Winans would betray his
party, for positive proof is never attainable
in such cases. Senator Fenton was not likely
to put his name to any document which would
implioate him in the business-he is too old
politician for that. Few men are less likely
to commit themselves in such way as to be
-
is not a fool-no one ever suspected him of
being that. In such cases. as in many others,
people Judge from crcHmstantial evidence,
and the presumptions here were much
against Governor Fenton. man some
times suffers through keeping bad
company-it is unavoidable 1t is a we'll
known, and most deplorable fact, that the
greater number of Mr.. Fentons friends in
this city are men who are always doing the
work of Tammany-and doing it in scarcely
a less disgraceful manner than that in which
Winans performed il in Albany. They are
men who are in the pay of Tammsny,
and are only employed by the Tammany
leaders because they are useful to them.
They call themselves Republicans, while
they do all that lies in their power to keep the
corrupt Democrats in possession of the
State. Honest Democrats, who wish as
heartily as we do to see Tweed and his
clique broken down, know very we'll that the
greatest obstacles in their path are created by
the "Tammany Republicans. To this class
of Republicans almost all Senator Fenton's
friends belong. When, therefore, another
Tammany Republican turned up at Albany,
from Senator Fentons own county, the gene
raj rumor was that Senator Fenton could not
have been without some foreknowledge of
the occurrence. Men who are practically
working for Tweed and his gang nine days
out of ten have not much right to COM
plain if, on the tenth day, they are wrong
fully suspected of carrying on the same line
of business.
If Senator Fenton is in earnest in saying
that he deplores the Republican divisions in
New York, and condemns any conduct or
course of action which ''does not tend to
strengthen our cause" he will undoubtedly
separate himself unequivocally from the
"Republicans" who are employed by Tam
many to weaken and distract the party. He
| is far too sagacious a man not to perceive
that the prime cause of our weakness here is
the presence in our ranks of men who are
slavish dependents of Tammany. They are
always scheming against u.s. and just now
they have double motive for scheming,
since they are bitter enemies of the sadminis-
tration. 1t is useless for a man who is
foremost in creating dissensions to say, 'let
us all be coed friends together" He himself
renders reconciliation impossible. If Senator
Fenton would assist in the work of sitting
out the false Republicans from the true ones,
he would afford the best possible guarantee of
the sincerity of his present professions How
can he reconcile it with a desire for Repub-
| lican unity to countenance men who are help
| ing to support the rule under which corrup-
| tion runs riot-a rule which can be guilty of
such Legislation" as we have seen during
the last few days at Albany? His Republi-
can associates, who are In the pay of Tam
|
| foot the principles of free government, are
all in the same boat together. This is not
time in which any Republican can serve
| the Democrats without treachery to his own
party. Events have brought out the issue,
"purity against corruption, into very bold
relief, and he who is not with us in the con-
test for right is against us. Senator Fenton s.
political friends in this city are almost all on
the side of the party which adopts corruption
as the only principle of government worth
fighting for. If he thus allies himself with
Tammany, he must expect to share the
odium of Tammanys violent and ubiquitous
proceedings-of such bills as those which
have been rushed through the Legislature
during the last forty eight hours, the Gov
ernor, meanwhile, standing ready with pen
in hand to sign them. Republicans ought to
be arrayed as one man against Tammany in
the presence of a crisis such as that in which
we are now placed-but they are not; many
of them are paid to give succor and support
to the knaves who are turning legislative
government into farce. Among such men,
Senator Fenton's friends are very numerous.
He cannot divest himself of all responsibility
for the course they pursue. His influence
is great, and if he exerted it on the right
side Tammany would soon lose all its Repub-
lican supporters. Until that result is accom-
plished, or Senator Fenton has tried to ac-
complish it, we shall have incessant and
hopeless divisions in the Republican party,
and Senator Fenton's professions about de.
string to see it reunited will be received with
incredulity, if not with derision.
PARTISAN TAXATION.
From the N. Y. journal Of Commerce.
The method now adopted of enforcing the
~ N faN 10 sar,low IL