Wyandot County Republican. [volume] (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1869-1903, 1872-09-19
That old KnOw-NOthing Speech
Again Settled.


Special Dispatch to the Cincinnati Gazette.
WASHINGTON, d. C Sept. 10.
Senator Henay Wilson arrived
here this morning. He authorizes
your correspondent to make the most
Rositive denial of the charge so wide
ly circulated Of late that he receiv-
ed from Oakes Ames an interest in
the Credit Mobilier. He wishes the
denial to be made in the most COM
prehensive sense, and at the same
time to meet every detail of the
scandalous charge. He never inves-
ted in the Credit Mobilier, or in its
bonds or stocks, nor has he ever re-
ceived from anyone, or owned any
interest of any kind in that company,
nor in the shares. bonds, or stocks
of the Union Pacific, or of any other
railroad or corporation that has been
before Congress for legislation since
he has been in the Senate. In short
the use of his name in the alleged
list Of members of Congress, who re
ceived an interest in the Credit Mob
ilier, is without shadow of justifi-
cation, aud the charge based upon it
Is absolutely and unqualifiedly false.
His reason for not noticing this
charge in his speeches or in a letter
when it first appeared, is his expert
ence in attempting to correct the de-
liberate misstatements of the princi-
pal Liberal newspapers in regard to
his alleged Known Nothing speech
es. He found in that case that, in
spite of all his proof and explanations
these papers persisted in their false
statements, and so had concluded to
let their future slanders go.
To-day Mr.. Wilson found among
his papers a letter from Mr.. Colfax
to the New York Tribune, which
was printed in that Journal Nov. 18th,
1868, which not only establishes the
forgery of the Know-Nothing speech
which the Liberal press has persisted
i'll circulating, but shows that the
Tribune knew it to be an old forgery.
The letter of Mr.. Colfax is as fol-
lows:
".Io the Editor of the Tribune:
"SIR-On my return homo from
the session of November 10, / find
nearly hundred Democrtic papei s
from all sections of Union sent me
by friends, containing a vile and
scurrilous speech against foreigners,
said to have been delivered by me ia
1884 or 1880, and which appears to
have been published simultaneously
and by concert North and South,
East and West. in the closing weeks
of the present canvass. l need not
refer to this wicked and malignant
libel now that the election is over.
Were is not that the story having
been go extensively published from
Maine to Nebraska, and vouched for
as authentic by editors who were
supposed to value their character for
veracity, some honest man of one
party or other, whose good opinion
l value, might suppose it possibly
true. Allow me, therefore, to say,
as l did publicly in this State last
month when the columny against me
first appeared, that it is in every
word and syllable forgery; that l
never uttered such sentiments in
1854, nor in any other year, and that
the vulgar and scurrilous language
embodied IN ii never fell from my
lips, nor were written by my pen in
that or any other time. Precisely
this same speech was printed by the
Democratic papers in. this State. a
number of years ago, and then attri-
buted to Mr.. Wilson, who was Re
publican candidate for Congress, but
having been thus used with effect n
one campaign, it was revamped in
the recent canvass with my name at
tached to it by the same editors, ev-
cry one of whom knew that it was
impossible for ME to use such vile
language in a speech on any subject.
1t will doubtless be used against
some other Republican candidate
hereafter, and 1 have felt it, there
fore, duty to expose its history ant.
its falsity. Yours truly.
TSigned SCHUYLER CoLFAX.
SOUTH BEND. IND, Nov. IA,
1865"
The speech to which Mr.
Colfax thus alludes is identical in
throughout with the one which, this
campaign, has been attributed to Sen
ator Wilson. At the time the above
letter was written the World had
published it as one made by Mr.
Colfax, and when his letter was pub
lished in the Tribune the editor add
ed the following note: .'The World
published this villainous forgery /;
well knowing it to be such, just be-
fore the election, crediting it to the
Kentucky Yeoman. As it probably
made few votes by the fraud, while
it had nothing of character to lose,
the operation seems to have resulted
in net profit of so many votes.
led. TRIBUNE"
~ Maine was oYerrun with Dem
ocratic and Chappaquack orators,