The Findlay Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Hancock County, Ohio) 1870-1881, 1872-07-26

Is he HONEST.

u ls nafd TO renounce an old pc
litical friend, one whom you hav
trusted, sought advice from, and in
certain degree regarded as a leader
1t awakens feelings of regret, not @
much for the loss of q friend, as TO
the lossof that confidence which mad
friendship possible. If there was on,
man in the Republican party whom
we deemed more honest in his conyic
tions than another, that man was Hor
ace Greeley. We know he was eccen
trlc, on some questions unreliable
but we never doubted his honesty
until now. We have been forced t.
desert him, for when q man desert
from himself, how can he expect hi
old friends to remain by him? If W
ever believed. in his honesty we takt
it all back. We look in vain for some
grounds on which to justify our pas,
faith I; but We turn unwillingly from
the search, and confess there are none
We can accept either horn of the
dilemma, and the result is the same
If he was henest in the past, he is dis.
honest now. If he is honest now, he
has been disbonest al his life. Out oI
bis own mousA che is convicted Of po-
litical dishonesty. Hesadvocated the
elevation Of the black race; the grant.
ing oflands to freedmen /; the neces-
sity of passing laws for the protection
of southern loyalists; the absolute
right of the Federal Government to
enforce these laws, and the vital i'm
portance of defeating Democracy, be-
cause its triumph would defeat these
wise measures. Now he swallows his
past record and denounces the very
acts he first suggested and advocated.
The champion OF protection, a bitter,
unrelehting foe to free trade, he has
left on record more good reasons for
making protection" a plank in the
party plattorm-of engrafting the pol.
icy on the administration-thsn any
other political writer of our times. In
his estimation no greater calamity
could befall the nation than the tri-
umph Of the Democratic party, be-
cause the weight of its administrative |
and legislative influence would be in |
favor offree trade. Now he ignores
the past, abandons the policy Of pro-
lection, shakes hands in perfect fel-
lowship with free traders, and is will
ling to be all things to all men, Just
to become President of the United
States.
Now that be is at the feet of De-
nocracy, begging for political aid In
mis- work OF rule or rum, doing his best
% prove that his past life has been
miserable sham, career of deceit
md hypocrisy, in the interest of his
rec trade friends, let us permit Hor-
zee to speak for himself, lest our
words might do him injustice. Speak
ng Of the Democratic party and its
'olicy, he not long ago paid it the fol-
owing compliment:
"Point wherever you please to an
'lection district which you will pro-
lounce morally rotten-given up in
,reat part to debauchery and vice
nd that district will be found at
Iearly or every election to give a large
majority for that which styles itself
he Democratic party. F..
'Take all the haunts of debauchery {.
d the land and you will find nine-tenths +,
4 their master-spirits active partlci- I
ants Of that same Democracy.
"May j: be written on my grave !
hat never was its follower, and lived
nd died in nothing its debtor" +,
Was he honest then? If he was,
Q is dishonest now. The Democratic t
arty has not changed, for the same t
lement rules it to day that ruled il 2
'hen Greeley wrote the above. But '
[orace is not himself. He has caught '
nat terrible malady which has carried t
many leading men to untimely 8
raves--the presidential fever. He 9
As avery severe attack, it has turned t
is brain, and out of charity we
re willing to forget the wrong he
IS done his party, and leave to g
is own conscience the future realiz-
;ion of the greater wrong he has
ono hinnaoIf =,