The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1873-01-29

YIcE PRESIDENT WILsoS.

No finer or more pathetic illustration of the
sore trials of American craftsmanship can be
found than the testimony given by Henry
Wilson before the Credit Mobilier Investigate
ing Committee yesterday. The lesson is too
noble to be passed in silence his self vindica-
ton is at once SO proud and SO touching that
it should become a part of history and remain
record of a pure, hard, faithful and unflinch-
ing patriotism So satisfactory is his state
ment in this regard that we can almost for
give the indignity offered to the Vice Presi-
dent elect of the United States in calling him
up under oath to deny that he has been dis
honest, and forget the insult offered to the
great majority of the voting citizens of the
nation, who had only few months since given
to him and his political career the highest ap-
proval they could possibly bestow
Campaign lies were never so gross or calum-
NOUS as under the handling of the so-called
Liberal Reform party of 1872. Mr.. Wilson
found himself accused of having voted in the
Senate under the inspiration of two thousand
shares of the stock of the Credit Mobilier. He
was said to be fabulously rich by means of
speculations to which his Senatorial office fur
nished him the opportunity. In other words
he was venal and unworthy, the more so that
he had claimed the highest purity in all his
Legislative action. He dismissed the false
hoods then with an indignant denial, without
descending to details. Now he, the Vice Presi-
dent elect, is hauled up before smelling com
mittee to testify to details of his private life
which no man cares to make public, however
honorable the record may be. But the story
is singularly interesting.
Mr.. Wilson never cared for money, and so
long as he was out Of debt was contented At
the close of the war he found that he had
somewhat exceeded his income, an incident
forced upon him by his position as Chairman
of the Joint Committee on Military Affairs.
and his own personal expenses in raising troops
in Massachusetts. He was behind some 81 900
or $780, When his silver wedding occurred.
at his modest home in Natick, aside from the
ordinary presents which are usual on such oc-
casions, his neighbors made up a purse for
Mrs. Wilson amounting to $3, 800. His estate
then consisted of a modest wooden house and
lot in Natick, a life insurance in favor of his
wife for $4,000, this $3, 800 gift which belonged
to her, and as offset personal debts of some
$1,000; certainly not very lucrative result
from long life of such distinguished service.
When he went into Congress he was worth a
clean $1,000. Twenty years later he could
count about as much as really his own. But
he had had enough.
Mr.. Ames and Mr. Alley, really anxious to
aid Mrs. Wilson, suggested to him that she
should invest to the amount of SO, 900 in Credit
Mobilier stock. 1t was done, but after that
stock had earned 1914, Mr.. w. heard some
stories of litigation in the Company and,
against the advice of Mr.. Ames, refused to ac-
cept the $s14 and surrendered the stock, OF
rather an agreement to deliver, for the stock
never passed hands, taking the par value for
it, But in this transaction he felt that his
wife was entitled to the 1914 because she had
lost it through his advice, and he went to work
to earn that money and pay her rightfully.
How? BY the drudgery of writing for the
press by the small sum that he, almost the
leading Senator of the United States, could re-
ceive from the sale of articles to the New York
Indepondent. And so that debt was honorably
paid and-then Mrs. Wilson died. Said Mr..
Wilson, in his evidence
| would sell all | have to-day to anybody
who will take my property and pay my debts
for $3, 300; this money | have saved during
the last four years by writing for the New
York independent if ] had not written for
the newspapers, should now be $4,000 or
$4,000 in debt that is my financial condi-
ton; | have done nothing as member of
Congress that / did not feel had a legal and
moral right to do; and in regard to my official
life, feel that to-day, with all my sins, can
20 into my closet with nothing to ask God to
forgive me for feel outraged at the charges
made upon me, and wish to say to this Com
mittee that believe no greater wrong has
ever been perpetrated in this country than has
been perpetrated upon honorable gentlemen
in connection with these charges whom |
have known for twenty or twenty-five years.
and whose integrity the Pacific Railroad and
all the railroads in the country could not buy
or swerve q hair.
There is passionate pathos in this noble
statement, the passion shaping itself in the
hot defense of Ames and Alley, the pathos
embodied in the deep sense of wrong that he
a man who has given his whole life to public
StTNlCe dlitt SOupHb ilo TcWdTu save UDc fcCOg-
milton of his countrymen, feels when the last
step has been gained and he still finds Jealous
and grinning wolves barking around him, i'm
pugning and trying to destroy the record of
a life remarkable for it's devotion to religion,
to family to State and to the Nation. We
reiterate our detestation of this detective DO
liceman style of craftsmanship. The cam
pagn of 1872, so far as the Liberal Republican
managers were concerned, began, continued
and ended on the plan of Kidding fair and
honest regulations. Mr. Greeley and some of
those most nearly associated with him were
victims and not agents, and it was the con-
seriousness of that which brought good man
to die of a crazed brain and broken heart
"Will my old friends ever take me back?"
was one of the last rational utterances of
Horace Greeley. If he had lived they would
but not Fenton, or the foul clique of Mis-
souri, cayotes which led him to his RUM
Nemark Duty Adoertiser, Jan. II.