Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1872-12-09
DIFFICULT TO PLEASE.

1t would seem that the liberal republi-
cans ought to be satisfied with an investi-
CATION of the Credit Mobilier scandal, and
doubly satisfied with the mode in which it
was proposed by the Speaker and ordered
by the House If the charges made are
true it ought to be known and the guilty
parties punished; if they are not true the
persons unjustly accused should be
promptly and fully relieved from the obi
um cast upon them, and their accusers be
placed in the pillory of public opinion as
slanderers. But the liberals are not sat
isfed. If appearances may be relied up
on they are opposed to investigation. This
is cerainly singular.
The inference to be drawn from such
signs of objection is that they know the
charges are false, and dread the position
in which exposure will leave them. 1t is
the accusers and not the accused who fear
investigation. While Speaker Blaine and
his associates who had to bear these heavy
accusations through the campaign, have
demanded investigation, and said to the
democrats ''pick your committee in this
House that shall probe the matter to the
bottom,'' the liberals pretend that inves-
LEGATION is useless and endeavor to cast
undeseryed reproach upon the movement.
The public will not fail to take notice of
these things, and to form their own opn-
ions concerning them. The following ed
itorial in the Springfield Republican is sn
example of the way the liberals treat the
matter.
The Credit Mobilier corruption was not a
party matter, and the making of it such in
the discussions Of the campaign, and again in
the proposed investigation at the opening OF
Congress, is one Of various reasons for not
believing that the truth, the whole truth and
nothing but the truth is likely to be got at, at
present The committee is doubly imperfect
in having men on it who will be personally
indisposed to sharp investigation and others
who will seek or avoid evidence and exposure
as they affect politics and parties. 1t might
be difficult, but it ought to be possible, to give
the subject to a committee both utterly free
from suspicious of corruption themselves and
above manipulating the Investigation for
purely partisan ends. But one thing is GER
tain; with Cakes Amess letters before the
public, and what else is less tangibly but
hardly less fully known on the subject, it will
be impossible for the committee and Congress
to apply the whitewash brush all around with
out bringing further suspicion and danger on
characters that a square and fair investiga-
ton should thoroughly exculpate, and that
the people want to have exculpated.
This is the first time we have heard an
objection raised by a liberal republican to
making IKE Credit Mobilier party matter
during the campaign. The liberals used
It for political effect in every corner Of the
land. 1t was their biggest gun. Having
used it for that purpose as long as it was
considered av ailable, it is rather late now
to deprecate its introduction into the cam
paign as party engine. DO they pretend
to charge the republicans with being re-
sponsble for bringing this scandal into
the campaign? We rather think not.
And now with what propriety does the
Springfield Republican assert that it is
made party matter in Congress? If it is
the democrats have the best of it, They
made the Committee at the request of the
Speaker. and three OF the five members
oi which it is composed are democrats,
or the same as that, one of them being
liberal. If it is party committee it is a
democratic committee If it fails to fer
ret out the truth and do justice in the ex-
animation the fault will not be with the
republicans.
Are the republicans afraid to stand the
result of investigation? If they are they
had better make clean breast of it at
once, acknowledge that the Credit Mo
blier scandal was an utter and gigantic
fraud of their invention, and this confess
ion might gain them the charity that is
allowed criminals who confess; but il
they resort to little articles 10 defeat the
object Of investigation and prevent fair
play and the exposure Of the whole truth
they will be guilty of worse crime than
the original fraud.
The National House of Representatives has