The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1873-02-28
" The Greatest OF These Is Charity"

time he Is not newspaper libeler. nor a
professional slanderer. He is not a con-
vlcted briber like Ames, nor n proven
perlurer, like McComb. He is minis
Ter, an honorable man n follower of
HIM who charged the pastor rs well as
the flock not TO bear false witness against
ms neighbor. On Sunday morning Mr..
Robert Laird Collier preached ser
mon CD to large congregation on "Our
National Modification n Pulpit Review
OF the Credit Mobilier Scandal" in
which, among other things, he said
that he wanted to impress upon his
hearers the fact that it was wrong in the
hrst place TO own Credit Mobilier stock
at all. Having taken upon himself this
assumption, placing himself above the
committee OF Investigation, who have
declared exactly TO the contrary. Mr..
Collier thus proceeded to speak of Mr..
Colfax
"To begin at the beginning, Mr.. Sen
ator Nye could not say to NicePresident
Colfax what he is reported to have said
to Mr.. Senator Patterson-that If he
wished to get out a patent for n fool he
should deposit him at the Patent Office
Tor model. Those who have known
Mr.. Colfax best have never mistaken
him for II fool. No man in America ever
played small card better, or on less
capital did larger business. He was
fortunate III being citizen of Indiana,
which, without great repute for enlight-
enment, has extended renown for re-
hgion. That he was II suitable man TO
represent his State Indiana has verify
believed
When publicly accused of being
party to the Pacific railroad job, Wa al
understand that these are the exact
words of his full, fiat, explicit, and, for
the time, efficient denial:
"' Neither Cakes Ames nor any other
person ever gave or offered to give me
one share, or twenty shares, or two thou
sand shares, in the Credit Mobilier or
any other railroad stock; and unfortu-
nately / have never seen or received the
value of a farthing out of the 30 per
cent. dividends, nor the 500 per cent.
dividends in cash, stock, and bonds YOU
have read about every day for the past
month, nor 100 per cent, nor l per cent,
nor the one-tenth of per cent.
How pitiable, how solemnly sad, this
asseveration III the light of these recent
Investigations, testimonies and confes-
sions
"And what does Mr. Colfax mean
when he asks for a suspension of public
opinion?' This is q solecism. Opinions
are not passive, but active; cannot be
kept in allowance or held in suspense
And the public are decidedly of the
opinion that lie has been told and
sworn to.
Now, mark how plain tale shall put
this reverend defamer down. We take
it that the equivOcator is rs base as the
falsifer the man who deliberately omits
words in a sentence that changes its
meaning is as bad as he who interpolates
them for the same purpose. Whether
or not Mr. Collier has done this we leave
the reader to Judge, after observing the
following facts The New York SIN,
the Chicago TriJune, and other papers,
charged last summer that Mr.. Colfax,
among others, had been gircn certain
number of shares for favoring the
schemes of the Credit Mobilier-to use
their words "briJed to put the Crcdit
MObilier MrOugh Congress that
Colfax had received in dividends on this
stock given him $40, 900. To this charge
Mr.. Colfax replied in his speech ut South
Bend. The words quoted by Mr.. Collier
were in answer to this explicit charge,
not in denial of the fact that he had ever
owned stock. This is known to the Chi
cago Times, the Tribune, and every
other paper now attempting to show the
contrary, and was doubtless known alsC
to Mr.. Collier. But this Is not all. II
is part of the stock in trade OF papers
like the ones named to misrepresent
those who happen To disagree with then
politically: still they are less guilty than
Mr.. Collier, because they at one time
gave the Vice President the benefit o.
his statement, while the former quotes
only the solitary sentence, without an,
explanation whatever Wenow call TIT
attention of the Times, the 7ribUne
and Mr.. Robert Laird Collier, to the fol
lowing extracts from Mr.. Colfax's speech
and ask them all whether the construc
ton they seek to put upon his Language
is not an open and disgraceful perversiol
of it. Speaking of the charge tina
stock had been given by Cakes Ames
and that 800 per cent. dividends haC
been declared, Mr. Coifax said
CT never had in my life dollar o
stock of any kind that / did not pay for
/ claim the right to buy stock i'll TIN
Credit Mobiier, or the Credit Immobi
lier if there is one in the Union Pacific
or Central, or Lake Shore, or Soutl
Bend and Plymouth railroads. Nor d,
] know of any law forbidding it. |
there is man in all our 10000, 900 o
people, who know me, who believes
could be influenced II hair's-breadth il
private or public life 10y the purchase o
any stocks in any company, L should no
value his good opinion as worth an
more than his evil one am proud t
say, too, that in all my public life n
man ever dared to make me dishones
proposition. Do L need to add tina
neither Cakes Ames nor any other pei
son ever gave or offered to give me on
share, twenty shares, or two thousan
shares in the Credit Mobilier, or an
other railroad stock, and that unfortr
nately / have never seen nor received tn
value of farthing out of the go pc
cent. dividends, nor the 800 per cent
dividends you have read about for tn
last month, nor 100 per cent, nor on
per cent, nor the tenth of one per cen
/ have said that if twenty shares of
could be purchased at par without bu,