Knoxville journal. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1874-1986, 1874-08-20
: Another Chapter of Bill
stones villainy!''
Gle Prostitutes his Omcial
Position for a COnsid-
eratiOn!!o
"Let Every One Rcad!!!"

The above startling headlines, ex-
clamation points and and all, appear
ed in the Marion Co. Democrat Sept.
2Ith, 1867, and under them appears a
letter purporting to have been writ
ten by county officer in Leon, De-
catur county, Iowa, charging Stone
with having, while Governor, re-
mitted a judgment of $500 against a
man at Leon who had signed the
bond of an absconding horse-thief.
1t also charged him with having re-
mitted a fine of $500 against another
man in the same county, giving
names and dates, and AYERS that for
these acts he received deed for eighty
acres of land. The Democrat, in
commenting upon this letter, says :
"For eighty acres of land the Gov
eror interposes his official preroga-
tive to filch from a county debt OF
$500 which the courts decided should
be paid, and to remit which the
Board of. Supervisors refused! a
criminal is permitted to go free
among society, forgiven by an officer
| who had sworn to execute the laws,
his freedom purchased by a consid-
eration!!
"And yet this man, covered all
over with corruption; guilty during
his term of office of nearly every
crime in the catalogue-Swamp Land
Fund Stealings to the amount OF
nearly $4,000; Contingent Fund
Squandering to the amount of nearly
$50, 900; of swearing falsely before
a Legislative Committee to ferrit out
crime; Of bribery, as this letter clear
| ly shows, to save criminal from
| just punishment,-this man, rotten
from the sOles of his feet TO the crown
of his head, has the impudence to
come before the people of Marion
county, and preach to them about
| official purity!
Republicans, honest men of all
parties, this is the record which has
been made by the Radical Anti
Monop.l leader in Marion county,"
In this year of grace, 1874, these
two apostles, Stone and Mccormack,
are hobnobbing and coquetting with
each other, eating soup from the
same bowl, swearing they like 1t,
and dishing it out to the +" honest
farmers" as the panacea for all ills to
which the body polite is heir. They
love to despise each other, as they
always have done, but In order te
deceive the "honest farmers" and
set an example to the Changers, they
walk arm.in-arm, billing and cooling
like pair of innocent, loving doves.
If Gov. Stone was guilty Of these
charges, is ne just the man to make
Il State platform for an honest party
and take the lead In a great battle
for Reform? If he was guilty then,
and Mae. knew 1t, why does not the
latter denounce him still? If the
Governor was not guilty, and Mac.
has discovered he has been lying
about Wm., why does he not retract
and try to set the matter right ?
Further pertinent questions we
leave for our readers to PROFOUND
and answer for themselves but will
merely give them hint that may
lead to a solution of some OF the
questions suggested by the above.
Gov. Stone wants to go the United
States Senate, and hopes to do so by
organizing a revolution In the poiit-
ical status Of the parties in Iowa, and
securing an Anti-Monopoly majority
in the Legislature. lie wants Macs
! help. Mac. wants reelection to
the State Senate, and wants WINS
assistance. "You help me and I'll
help YOU" and "we'Il humbug the
people and get fat offices by preach.
ing reform and pretending to be su.
perlatively honest
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