The Portland daily press., 1872-07-27
A Few Words with the "RefOrm"
Leader.

We have not yet seen any response from
Mr.. Lang to the cordial invitation given
him by the Kennebec Journal to produce
the letters which passed between him
and Mr.. Blaine. If this disinclination or
inability to publish the correspondence con-
tinues indefinitely, it will not be the first
time that Mr.. Lang has failed to produce
letters on the alleged contents of which he
has founded the most important statements,
often placing his friends in a most embarrass-
ing position thereby. 1t will only be one of
long series of Questions of veracity" that
have arisen between him and other gentle
men, some of whom have seemed to have
much the best of it in the resulting contro-
versy. From the classic days of "Blank
Perry to this time, the record of Mr.. Langs
political life has been largely made up of ap-
parently futile efforts on his part to reconcile
hasty declarations, made in moments of
ELUSIVE triumph or vindictive anger, with the
truth. We do not by any means intend to
impugn Mr.. Lang's honesty, but we do mean
to say that his mental constitution is singu-
larly deficient in those qualities which enable
men, in answering loyalty to truth, to state
facts with reasonable precision. We mean to
say further that he has the greatest possible
need to produce the letters in question for his
own vindication, because his narrative of the
transactions between Mr.. Blaine and him
self, as it is freshly remembered by scores of
listeners to his imprisoned invective, places
him in the position of making his support of
the Republican party conditional on his re-
ceiuing A LARGE SUM OF MONEY as salary
for SOME office, it mattered little what. If
Col. Lang will answer categorically and truth
fully the following questions it will be then
clearly seen how fierce a passion for reform
has driven him into league with Pike, S. P.
Morrill,, Joy, Knight, Long and other disin-
terested patriots for delivering Maine up to
Marcellus Emery and Charles P. Kimball:
Were you not in full sympathy and accord
with the Republican party so long as there
was probability that you would become col
lector of internal revenue for the third dis
trict, with salary and perquisites amounting
to many thousands of dollars? ...-
When it became impracticable to give you
the collectorship, did you intimate to any
body that the Republican party was corrupt,
that it had outlived its usefulness, or that you
were anything but devoted supporter of it,
so long as there was probability of your ID
tanning the surreyorship of Western terrific
ry, an Office worth perhaps not much less
than the collectorship?
Was it not at the precise moment when, all
the largely remunerative offices to which you
aspired having escaped your grasp, nothing
remained for you but a position whose emolu-
ments seemed trivial to you, that you became
aware of the degeneracy of the Republican
party and of the Lutheran spirit, hitherto
dormant in yourself that impelled you to as
sail it in the interest of reform?
If you say "no'' to these questions, we say,
that we can prove that the true answer is
''yes," by an authority that it would be un-
becoming in you, at least, to dispute. And
now, one question more. As a matter of
public interest, could you not state exactly
how large sum of money, in the shape of
an annuity you regard as fair equivalent for
your support of political party? We know
from the induction of facts already made,
that it is somewhere between one thousand
and seven thousand dollars; but it is due to
your new political associates, who are just
going into business with you, to know the
exact price they must pay. AS for the Re
publican party, it has no fund for that
nnrunca