The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1873-08-15

~ ~"t HtKat8 la
ton was against the Credit Mobilier cor
ruption and the back-pay steal, they at
once trimmed their sails to catch this
breeze, and with desperate audacity have
sought TO make capital by pretending to
condemn outrages for which their own
party Is exclusively answerable.
Ohio held the first convention and sent
out the pattern resolution, which was
subsequently adopted without altering q
word by Maine and Iowa. This little
fact shows the preconcert ofthe managers,
and proves that the scheme was a deliber-
ate deception from the start. And now
Minnesota has passed the machine reso-
luton as follows:
tive measures Of the late Congress Tor ferreting
out and exposing corruption. We have seen
with profound regret, in the developments made
thereby, evidence Of political and official cor
ruption and abuse Of responsible position by men
OF all political parties to further personal ends,
and We demand pure Official conduct and the
punishment Of unfaithful public servants, State
and national, who, having betrayed the conf
dence freely extended to them, shall not be
shielded from the disgrace Of their acts by any
craftsmanship ofours; and we denouncs all Credit
Mobilier transactions. whatever be their fsrm."
This declaration is identical In the four
platforms of Ohio, Maine, Iowa and Min
nesota. Stripped Of its artful DISCUSSES,
the attempted fraud becomes glaring. and
the falsehoods detect themselves. 1t Is
not true that the late Congress adopted
any ''active measures for ferreting out
and exposing corruption" An investi-
CATION Of the Credit Mobilier jobbery was
forced by the independent press, and
when the testimony convicted the most
prominent Republican chiefs Of corrup-
ton, the .late Congress" refused by re-
peated votes TO expel or condemn the
guilty members.
1t is not true that men ''of all political
parties" were involved In that ~iniquity.
The late James Brooks wa the only
Democrat implicated. Schuyler Colfax,
Henry Wilson, Henry l.. Dawes. James
A.. Garfield, William ID. Kelley, John A.
Bingham, Cakes Apes, James w. Patter-
son. James +. Wilson, and James Harlan,
all leading Republicans and holding the
highest places of honor and trust in the
party, are the men whom that investiga-
ton branded with infamy, and not one Of
them was punished by the slate Con-
gress," to which most of them belonged.
These resolutions therefore extol the
very rogues who voted themselves innO-
cent, and who packed the House of Rep
~resentatives with the most formidable
lobby ever collected there, representing
all the great corporations, TO coerce a ver-
dict by terrorism, or to purchase it with
money. That is the way the Republican
majority ''ferreted out and exposed cor
ruption." ~, -
Equally false is the declaration made by
these conventions, "We demand pure
official conduct, and the punishment of
unfaithful public men, State and national,
who, having BETRAYED the confidence
s-1-l.- <-fnloJ tr thnro ohan n4$ 10
shielded from the disgrace of their acts
bv any p~artisanship of ours.v Not a
Single name Of all the convicted Republ.-
cans has been held up to re~probation.
TEsse conventions have done exactly the
opposite of what they professed, by
shielding from disgrace" the "unfaith-
ml public men who had betrayed their
confidence"
Another machine resolution is in these
words:
"w condemn without reserve the voting for
or receiving Of increased pay for services al
ready rendered, and demand that thu late act OF
Congress by which the salaries were increased
should be promptly and Internationally re-
pealed.'
After the horse is stolen by their own
co~nfederates, they are very energetic
about closing the stable door. 1t was
carefully left open until the booty was
carried of. The back pay having been
pocketed and the increased salary drawn,
they pretend to van the law repealed by
the very men who were most active I'm
passing it! And it is attempted to palm off
this sort of stuff on the public for reform,
just as the Philadelphia Convention de-
clared for a purer civil service and against
further land robbery. after having demon
allied the first and voted away the public
domain to huge mOnopolies which pur-
chased successive Republican Congresses
at so much a head.
Minnesota Is the last TO make this de-
ceitful u~tterance. She had two members
in the late Congress"-Mark III. Dun
nell and John Il. Averill-who labored
zealously by night and by day to pass the
Increase of pay, and to extend Ii back two
years, after having already been paid In
full for the whole term and receipted for
their salary. They were reelected to the
next Congress. Yet the Minnesota resolu-
tons, which in one breath would not
shield public men who betrayed conf
dence from disgrace, has not a syllable
against these its chosen representatives,
who did exactly what the Republican
Convention protested to denounce.
All these conventions are purposely
silent as to the responsibility of the Presi-
dent In the back-pay grab and Increase OF
salary. They know that he was the great
est beneficiary by that outrage, and that
the Constitution f0rbids any change In
his compensation during the period for
which he is elected. They know that
without bis approval it never could have
become a law, and that IL he had vetoed
the bill there was abundant time to elimi-
nate this odious amendment and repass
the appropriation pure and simple. The
pretence that the Supply bill was in any
danger Is a sheer invention. Besides the
money for carrying on the Government
until the first of July had already been
provided, so that in the EXTREMIST sup
possible case there could be no derange-