The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1872-09-28

public men do not deserve censure when they
are true appears plausible enough, and yet it
opens the door for the justification of much of
the scandalous warfare of the pending cam
paign. We have seen how a grain of truth
may be perverted and how much injustice may
be done under it's mask. One of the main
evils of these assaults is that they deter good
men from accepting nominations for Office.
Few persons choose to set up their private
affairs and personal characters and habits as
marks to be pecked at by every journalistic
daw who happens to have made his nest in an
opposition bush. Let candidate be as pure
as ice and as chaste as snow, he shall not
escape calumny, for your political ibeller
will find occasion for censure in the record of
every man not of his own way of think
ing. No upright public officer can object
to the closest scrutiny of his official
qualifications and conduct; but scarcely one
would wish his private life to be
made the subject of criticism or would admit
that his personal habits or affairs are fair themes
of public discussion simply because he happens
to be before the people for their suffrages
The specimens of the last few days will show
the depths of degradation into which this per-
sonal warfare is dragging the partisan journals.
Four or five days ago liberal organ assailed
Senator James O'Brien in a manner which
would scarcely be regarded as a justifable per-
sonality, as man
l. Who cannot read and write.
Y. convicted rtOttDr DettV
larceny.
s. Who has worn Penitentiary stripes as thief
4. Who altered and fasihed his accounts as
Sheriff.
s. Who falsely swore that one bill against the
city for $1o4,o was true thereby committing per-
o. Who conaded to the President of the United
states u. $. Grant that he had put 10, 900 fraudu
lent ballots in New York ballot boxes to help elect
him President.
7. Whom the records Of Congress show to have
been concerned with McCunn and Barnard In the
immense naturalization frauds Of 1863
8. Who is an inveterate gambler, who sometimes
gives fraudulent checks In payment Of his losses.
0. Who Is proved blackmailer.
Hereupon the regular republican journals
take up the cudgels for Senator O'Brien and
retort by bringing the following list of charges
against Senator Fenton -
!. He was arrested for robbery.
2 He was committed to Jail for the offence.
8. He is q thief by his own confession.
A. He was accused of arson in burning his own
BCOfc TO OBTAIN Cnc Insurance..
8. 1t Is in evidence that he took brides as men,
Der of Congress.
O. When Governor nc held back the bill to 'qe-
Gould paid $4,000 to one of his Albany brokers.
T. He withheld his signature to the Dry Dock
Railroad bill until one OF his confidential men was
g. lie bargained with Tammany Hall to sign the
infamous tax levies, and for which he received hts
price.
o. He was partner with the late Health Officer
Swinburne, who shared the plumber OF that office
with him.
The liberal organ comes back to the charge
with the following Indictment against Mr.
Latin, the Naval Officer of the Port
We arraign A. H. Lanin, present Naval Oficer of
Wt s port men 0on
cured, and for whose sake President Grant re-
moved from the office one of New York's Oldest and
We charge this present Naval Officer Of
the Pc Port with being indicted for perjury
false swearing clearly proved upon him, and with
escaping conviction and the Pententiary only on
the legal technlcality that the matter about which
he swOre falsely not material TO the immediate
issue then on trial. We charge him with conniv-
ance with bank cashier, whereby Latin deirauded
swearing, and forced to refund. The cashier COM
mltted suicide. The false swearer Is Naval Officer
of the Port OF New York. To-day we Charge these
things. Tomorrow we shall prove them
Now, these personalities may be justified
because some of them may have grain of
truth. That is to say, Senator O'Brien, as a
young man, may have been in trouble through
q too hot temper and too ready blow
Senator Fenton may have been involved in ON
awkward scrape at eighteen years Of age
before the people who knew oil about it
elected him to the first of the many public
offices he has filled to their apparent satisfac-
tion There is this grain of truth about the
Latin story, that the Naval Officer was
charged with perjury, but was speedily and
honorably released from the charge, while
Judge Earl, of the Court of Appeals, made the
following remarks upon the easel
A great wrong has been attempted against one
OF our public citizens 1t is due to all that he should
be publicly congratulated on his vlndication Mr..
Laflin and myself have been opposed to each other
IN politics. Probably we always shall be, unless he
changes his views. But believe in conducting
political battles on the principles Of civilized war
and scalpng-knife.
But what can decent citizens think of a
campaign carried on by such means? And
public men and our party press, when they
find such charges banded about and such
unfair weapons used against political oppo-
nents? 1t is time that such disgraceful ex-
hibitions should cease. Mr. Greeley, in his
admirable public speeches, has shown how
the real issues of the campaign can be dis
cussed ably, tersely and courteously, and the
example he has set should be followed at
least by every American journal The foulest
food Of personal abuse has poured from city
daily 81 English proclivities and English
management. The well-known British error
which attributes such style Of Journalism TO
America may have been the cause of this
but American Journalists who have an inter.
est in the honor and reputation of their coun-
try, should see to it that the nation is no
diccxxa God LIZ oh