The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1873-03-15
COLFBX AND CULLEN.

The tcnacity with which Cullen, OF the OF
tawa RepublicoR, sticks to Schuyler Coli'iN Is
touching, and nearly justifes the suspicion
that Colfax in some way proposes to divide
with him, or at least to assist him materially
in his aspirations after the Ottawa post Office.
Butt as Bryant Of the New York Ec6"f"9
POST says of his attempted defence, " the
case of Mr.. ColfaX is past argument. 1t does
not in the least matter what he says. He may
have new story for every hour, but in vain,
What he says is not Of the slightest moment
His elaborate speech in his own defence at
South Bend on Saturday is proof of this Mr.
Colfay said nothing new, nor did he SO ma
npulate the facts of the case as to present
them in less damaging aspect, lie com
mences by quoting from his South Bend
spccch last summer, and avows that that
speech, instead of being denial that he had
ever bought Credit Mobilicr stock of Ames,
rs the country understood it, and as he prob
ably meant the country should understand it
Mt the time. was a clear avowal of his right to
purchase SUcn SloCh' anu ms " Willingness "
buy, if he could do SO without buying u
lawsuit. Well suppose this Interpretation OF
that speech is correct and that Colfax did not
last summer tell lie by denying that he had
purchased Credit Mobilicr stock, but claimed
his rioht TO do so-how does this better his
case? While it may relieve him of the Hc
does il not fastcn on him The crime Of pur-
chasing the stock? Had he right, as Il
Christian statesman and an Influential mem
Der of congress, sworn to protect the interests
of the people to deal in stock the sole profits
of which he must have known, unless he was
a fool to consist of money stolen from the
government? His baby plea, "as | under
stood it"won't avail II, after the exposition
Washburn and others had made on the floor
of the house of the character of that stock
he was still ignorant of its rascality, there
were other contemporary Developments enough,
as Mr. Stevenson has abHndantly proved, to
show its character. Yet Mr. ColfaX nowhere
claims to have given up his 20 shares on that
account but solely because they might in
col0e Tim in q M,csmti He was willing
enough to take the reeking carcass, if he
could hold it without the Inconvenience OF a
fight over it with another set of wolvesl Mr..
Colfax's defence, therefore, against the charge
of living involves the other and most unfor-
tunate horn of the dilemma-the confession Of
an infamous crime.
20, ,,obn olp IL hl1
that Colfax makes no denial of any of the three
dividends Amcs' memorandum book shows
he received except the $1,000 one, about
which again he is accused of having lied. In
his explanation of that affair, his South Bend
lcfcnse also brings Us nothing new. He re
peats the thrcadbare and utterly improbable
story of the $1,000 bill and the breakfast table
scene; makes no allusion whatever to his
other doeceur of $4,000 from Nesbit, and
wholly ignores his lobbying with the Post
Office department for the extension of Mes
bits contract In this whole business in fine,
his attempted explanations, the more he la
bors, the more they become Il hopeless jun
Bile, and remind one of Grace Grcenwood's
Steamboat, whose mournful foun
lerng is so pathetcally described by an eye
Witness
"She hove and sot and Sot and hove,
And high her rudder flung
And every time she hove and sOt
A wlIsscr leak she sprung"
We have no wish to disturb the rustic conf
lcncc of the South Blenders in the purity of
heir idol if such defence as he has given
hem is satisfactory. Let him enjoy all the
placidity his conscience will permit in his ru-
raj retreat, and let him hereafter eschew poll
lies, as he has often expressed desire to do,
and devote his mighty intellect to building
up the prosperity of his loving village, by en-
gaging in the extensive manufacture of hair
pins or skirt hooks But as a moral statesman
or politician of any grade, we submit he is |
plavcd out