The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1872-12-07
Does Calumny Pay!
[From the n. Y, Tribune,1

Does Calumny Pay!
[From the n Y Trbunel
Vice-President Colfax, in late es-
say over his own signature, discusses
the question, Does calumny pay in
politics3 With the result Of the recent
campaign before us, we should GER
tainly Ire tempted to answer that it
does. 1t has been the fashion Of the
Administration press, since the cleo
ton, to draw innumerablc moral les
sons from the failure of what they
term the SANDERS invented by opposi-
ton orators and journalists against
the President, forgetting that if de-
nunciation has been freely employed
on one side, f;,lsehood has been still
more freely on the other. There has
been no limit to the license of attacks
upon the personal character of Mr..
Greeley. He has been accused Of
failings which are disgraceful and Of
crimes which deserve the penitentiary.
He has been arraigned as a llypocrite,
who concealed the most corrupt prac-
| tices under an atfect;ltion of honesty.
In Washington he was briber. In
New York he was q partner III the
| Ring frauds. He defended the r;,s-
calities of Tweed. He tried to suppress
the famous secret accounts. He sold
the influence of his paper to TAIN
many Hall. He intrigued to restore
the thieves to power. He swindled
the shareholders in u tobacco company.
He was involved in schemes for rob-
bing the national treasury. He was
plotting the payment Of the Confed-
crate debt. He had promised pen
ssions to the Rebel soldiers. He had
nade a corrupt bargain with Horatio
8eyfflAur. He was an enemy of Civil
Service Reform. He was an original
Secessionist. He always opposed the
war for the restoration of the Union.
He was once slave-trader in Mem
phis. de was the friend Of the ku-
Klux and the ballot-box suffers. He
was the guilty comrade and ally of
the worst gang of rogues ever organ
lied in American politics.
These are specimens of some of the
stories told of him during six months
from one end of the country to the
other. His language was perverted.
Sentiments were put into his mouth
which he abhorred. His denials were
unheeded, and though we frequently
offered proof of the falsity of every
charge which did not seem too absurd
to require answer no accusation once
made WAS ever withdrawn. To the
end of the campaign Gen. Dix went
on blaming him for expressing eleven
or twelve years ago sentiments iden-
tical with those of Gen. Dix himself;
Republican newspapers upbraided him
for words which were penned by the
leading writer of one of the principal
Journals of their own party Repub-
lican organ made it one of the charges
against him that llo had signed Ger
tain letter which also bore the sigma
ture of its own manager; and the car
pet-bag organs at the South made
him the author of expressions respect-
ing Southern women from whicl, he
recoiled with horror. Some of these
charges were downright lies. Some of
them were distortions Of facts from
their true meaning. All were untrue,
dishonest in their origin, and fol the
most part dishonesty repeated.
How much effect they may have
had upon the result we do not care to
inquire. But SO far as we can judge
from surface indications, they did
pay. y negro woman, it is said, was
heard cursing him i'll the streets Of
an Ohio river town, because he had
"sold her baby down South before the
war." The colored people of the
plantations were taught to look upon
him us something between blood
hound and Confederate General.
The ignorant everywhere doubtless
imagined that when SO much was
charged some of it must be true. OF
course there was violent language on
both sides, and on both sides there
were false charges. But the Tribune
said nothing which it had not good
reasons to believe true, and in one
case where it found itself seriously
mistaken it made an immediate re-
traction. This good example WAS moi
generally initiated by the opposite
party; and Il cynic might perhaps
suggest that therefore the opposite
4 L Il