Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1872-09-27
Campaign SIanders

The systematic personal abuse and
SANDER of President Grant by the prom
inent Greeley organs and advocates has
reached the very sublimity of impudence
Because these miserable inventions of his
enemies are not publicly refuted by the
President himself they affect to believe
that their truth is admitted, and boldly
parade them before the public as reasons
why he should not be reelected. There
are a few of these Greeley organs which
are combined together in the dirty work
of inventing and circulating these false
and scandalous stories, and they have re-
duced the business to a regular system.
In the first place, one of them manufac-
lures defamatory statement of some
conduct or transaction of General Grant,
which the writer prefaces with an ''it Is
said" j." or 'it is alleged" in order to screen
himself from responsibility. Then the
Confederates catch up the false story and
repeat it in their columns as an actual,
positive statement of fact, without the
qualifying reservation, and thus it is scat
tered broadcast through the country tc be
copied by the press and repeated by par
tisan speakers. 1t is also a part of the
system never to contradict a story once
started, however clear and direct a refu-
tation may be made; but simply to drop
it and manufacture another to take its
place.
In this way miserable falsehood was
manufactured and circulated through the
country that President Grants cottage at
Long Branch was given to him as bribe to
secure the appointment of Mr.. Murphy as
collector of the customs at New Y ork. But
the fact existed, and was susceptible of
proof, that the property was bought by the
President and paid for with his own
money. When this was made to appear
the slanderers never took back their false
charge, but quietly let it drop and started
in its place the equally scandalous and
disgraceful allegation that the Presi-
dent accepted free gift of Il
large tract of land in Illinois as a con-
sideration for appointing j. r. Jones as
Minister to Belgium. This libellous in
vention has had the same wide circula-
tion that the Long Branch story had, and
the miserable authors and vendors of this
political garbage have hypocritically pro-
fessed their pain and anguish at being
obliged to make public such an imputa-
tion upon the Chief Magistrate of the ma
tion. If their sentiments were not those
of Joy rather than pain and anguish, why
did they not investigate the facts upon
which their calumny was founded before
they uttered the shameful invention? +?
Governor Jewell, of Connecticut, has
taken the pains to follow the slanderers
along their Shiny track, and he has de-
tected and exposed the vile calumny, and
shown to the world that in the Illinois
case, as in the Long Branch purchase,
the President bought the property ia
question, and paid for it with his own
money, paying large advance in price
above that at which Mr.. Jones acquired
his own interest in the same property.
This matter is fully treated by Mr..
Jewell in his speech at the Cooper Insti-
tute in New York city last night
1t is against the policy of these profes-
sional stabbers of reputation to retract
their falsehoods, and in the matter of this
Illinois land SANDER, they will merely let
it drop now that their wickedness is ex-
posed, and start something else to take
its place. OF the same character was the
trumpery story told by General Fitzpatrick,
that the President appointed Judge Hoar
as Attorney General in compensation for
"a library worth $25, ,000," given him by
the Judge. The Judge, though not now
in office, voluntarily cOntradicted this
falsehood by published letter over his
own signature, denying that he ever gave
the President any library whatever, or
had any part in such gift. And so of
the petty ISLANDERS as to intemperance,
brought forward by a contemplate time
server by the name of Denison, and par
AIDED at large in the Greeley organs.
These statements have been completely
refuted by General Wilson, Colonel Web
ster, of the army, and other re-
sponsible men. And yet not one
of these false and abusive allega.
tions as to the Presidents business trans
actions or personal habits, though all of
them shown to be maliciously false, has
been or will be retracted by their authors
and circulators. No they were invented
as contribution to political capital
their disavowal would diminish that CAPT.
tai, and so they will be persisted in or
dropped in silence.
! What the people think of this personal
abuse and SANDER of the President is
shown by the late elections in Vermont
and Maine, which speak the honest New
| England voice of censure and condemna.
tion against the wanton libelers of gal.
liant and faithful public servant. We do
not wonder that the results exhibited in
those two States should prompt the Gree
| ley advocates to eXclaim that their cause
is lost unless they can enlist some new
element of opposition to General Grant
The current falsehoods and misrepresen
tations have not produced the intended eff
feet and they now contemplate resorting
to new ones. But even the truth from
such @ questionable source would now
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