New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1872-11-28
From the New York Irdependent.l
Calumny-DOes It Payf
BY HON. SCHUYLER COLFAx, VICE PRESI-
DENT OF THE UNITED STATES.


campaign than in the canvass which has re-
Gently closed. Unfortunately, no party can
ever truthfully claim that all of its advocates
and spokesman, in the press and on the hust-
ings, are entirely just to political opponents.
For it is the fate of nearly all public men to
be too harshly judged by one-half Of our mill
lions of voters, offset though this may be by
being too flatteringly esteemed by the other
half. And all of them expect to be misun-
derstood, if not misrepresented.
But the animus Of the campaign against
the Republican party and its representative
men was so plainly marked as to be unmis-
taxable. In the opening of the campaign
last spring and summer-amnesty and civil
service reform were the main themes on
which the opposition sought votes and
power; and their personal warfare was
concentrated on one man-General Grant.
AS the campaign progressed, however, it be-
came more and more evident, for many rea-
sons-the general amnesty bill passed by
Congress, in June, and tho advocacy of
civil service reform by the President himself
being conspicuous-that these two battle
cries could have but little popular effect.
The personal attacks on General Grant had
been so long before the public, and had been
so often explained or refuted they had become
as devoid of influence as they were Of nov
city. And then tho fire opened along the
whole opposition line against nearly all Of
the most active and influential men in the
Republican party-those who had been most
prominent in its many contests against sla-
very and the rebellion, against Johnson's re-
construction policy, and for the constitutional
amendments. 1t seemed as if a general Or
der had been issued: "Blacken and Willy,
aspersc and destroy the character of every
prominent Republican who adheres to the
Republican organization" How persistent
ly and bitterly this kind of warfare was kept
up need not be detailed. An impartial OBJ
server would have supposed, if he could have
believed the charges, that Republican Con-
gress was but another name for a charnel-
house Of corruption, that all its prominent
members were tainted with the vilest dis
honor. Month after month such charges
were reiterated, elaborated, amplifed, inten-
sified, till foreigners must have supposed our
capitol was den of thieves and its inmates
worthier of membership in a penitentiary.
Wicked as this wholesale denunciation
was, its object was obvious. 1t was to COM
pei the people to believe that the Republican
party, as an organization, was hopelessly
stepped and sodden in corruption and lnfamy;
and that qualification" could only DO hoped
for by driving it from power. To answer
these charges, to explain away the suspicious
they sought to create, seemed useless. If
an assailed Republican denied the aspersions
fatty, the only response was that, of course,
corrupt scoundrel would do that. If, on
the contrary, standing on his character, he
refused to notice the ISLANDERS, that was held
up as convincing proof that he dared not deny
them. And, if he took the pains to prove
by official data that it was impossible for the
charges to be true, it made no difference.
There was no retraction nor regret but, on
the contrary, the defamatory accusations
were repeated and reiterated more industri-
ously than ever. New charges were added
to the old ones and the number Of Republi-
cans assailed and branded as corrupt, dis
honest, infamous, constantly increased. At
last almost every prominent Republican was
included in this black list; and stranger
would have supposed, from our campaign
literature, that everything was accomplished
in this country by ''rings"-railroad rings,
treasury rings, Senatorial rings, military
rings, naval rings, tariff rings, post-office
rings, custom-house rings, land-oflice rings,
Indian rings, ETC., etc.
And thus the canvass went on. Every
thing was wrong, everything was corrupt,
everything was dishonorable, everything was
mangled and tainted and defiled by ''rings."
The grand political results of the Republican
party-mOre glorious in a single decade than
any other party in any other country had
ever achieved in centuries-were not taken
issue with by those seeking to drive it from
power; for on that issue its enemies knew it
to be imprcgnable. Nor did they dare to
join issue with the Administration on its re-
duction of the national debt, it's reforms and
reductions in external and internal taxation,
its elevation of the national credit, its settle
ment of the alabama" irritations, etc.
Inn hot no ~ ~
the people on such campaign issues was be-
yOnd question or doubt. And SO the canvass
was lowered from the higher plane Of prin.
ciple to one Of personalities, of invective and
calumny.
But when the people at large clearly dis
| cerned that such was to be the controlling
spirit of the campaign-that no mans cha
racter, however long established or however
pure and honorable, protected him against
| the most outrageous ISLANDERS and the most
unblushing misrepresentation and perver
siOns-the result Of the canvass was nc
longer doubtful. There was time during
the summer, before these hood-gates Of viii.
| fication were opened, when it seemd as /
campaign was so shaped that the American
people clearly understood that theirvotes were
to be construed as declaring that the Presi
dent and all the prominent Republicans of the
land should 60 down to history as personally
Infamous there was no longer reasonable
doubt of the result. The people, too, hat
the strongest proof before their eyes that the
calumniators did not believe their owl
calumnes. Only last year the New Yorl
Sun had for weeks striven, by charge and inu
endo, to make the country believe that Hor
ace Greeley and others, who were persona
friends of the murdered journalist, Richard
son, were Free Lovers, etc. But when with
in a year thereafter, the Same editor pre-
sided at the Tammany meeting ratifying ant
eulogizing Horace Greeley's nomination TO
President as the very best and werthiest tina
could have been made in tho United States
the masses realized how worthless and UNI
reliable are even the most maglignant charge
against men occupying public positions whel
their fabricators make haste to publicly Civ,
the lie to their own aspersions.
No! Calumny does not pay. In thi
campaign its only result was to enlist on tn
right side hundreds of thousands of previ
ously lukewarm voters. They could not con
sent to be regarded as indifferent, when tn
turning point of the campaign was whethe
they would declare to the world that tn
American Executive and Congress, including
especially those who had been most activ
in the great civil and political reforms whic
have made our country so glorious, wer
tainted and disgraced by the vilest corrur
ton and infamy. The best impulses Of tn