National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1874-04-17
DANA AND JENNINGS

WHAT THEY HAVE TO SAY OF THE
NATIONAL REPUBLICAN-SOME GRIM
AND CHASTITY JOKES.
Dana, the Pirate of the Press, In the New
York SHa of the 18th, prints an editorial in
which the following illusions are made to THE
NATIONAL REPUBLICAN,:
COLLECTIVELY, the newspapers at the Capital
are among the poorest and meanest in the
country. Destitute of vigor, manliness, and
enterprise, they have become mere dependents
of power and leeches on the Treasury. They
live by jobbery in all its forms, and are utterly
INSCRIPTIONS in the pursuit of gain. ENTy
one of them is subsidized or owned absolutely
by the ring which is now on trial.
offence they have habitually misrepresented
the astounding evidence Of fraud, defended the
iniquites of their employers, and Joined In q
chorus of defamation against the outraged tax
payers, now seeking to protect their rights by
tho exposure Of organized corruption. This
spectacle of servility Is sickening TO contem-
plate"
Here follows the testimony of Mr.. Collins,
a witness before the District Investigating Com
mittee, with which our readers are familiar:l
t'The story of this job is sufficiently told in
the foregoing exit acts, and II may be summa-
rized in a few sentences. Murtaugh was put
ting up a fashy printing office without money.
Jones 81 Collins were the builders. He
owed them about s25 900, which he could not
pay or raise on credit. In this dilemma he
fell back on a resource often tried before. He
went TO Shepherd and got contract for %, 900
yards of wood pavement, worth SS7 500, in
the name of John Collins, who never applied
for 1t and never laid q pavement. The con-
tract he handed to Jones, the financial part
ner of Collins, and said he wanted half the
profits without putting in any capital.
"This is the way in which the organs of the
ring and the Administration build their offices
and carry on their business. Murtagh and
Shepherd are allies. They indorse each others
notes, know each others secrets, and are bound
together by q common instinct and interest.
And the same may be said OF all the others
who are engaged in plundering the Treasury
and the people Of the District by this sort of
extortion.
"Murtagh is a low, ignorant fellow, without
capacity to write even the bad English in
which his masters are dRubed with adulation.
He is professional lobbyist, and his paper is
notorious alike for imbecility and venality. OF
course, he Is q member of the Young Mems
Christian Association, temperance leader,
and an attendant ct Grants church, besides
being an admirer Of the late Schuyler Colfax."
Strange as this information may appear to
many of our readers and to those of our citi-
zens and neighbors who have any knowledge
of the origin, growth and conduct of THE Ma
TIoNAL REPUBLICAN, it is not to be wondered
of that 1t received the Endorsement of Mr.. Jen-
nings, the unnaturalized editor Of the New
York Times, who copied 1t into the columns Of
that journal with the following editorial com.
ment:
"Among the Washington Exposures OF
the season, that of William j. Murtagh, "edi-
tori of paper called THE WASHINGTON RE-
PUBLICAN should not be overlooked. The details
of this mans case are accurately reviewed in an
article in the Sun, which we reprint this morn
ing. Murtagh was heavily In debt to a build
ing firm, and when they asked him to pay them
some money, he offered them contract which
he said he had obtained by his influence from
the Board of Public Works. he wanted hall
proits on that contract, and this sum was to be
placed to his acconnt-a good way of wiping
off debt. We recommend 1t to the notice Of
any reader who happens to be in difficulties. II
is, we should say, an ingenious variety Of
swindling-but the oddly OF 1t is that Murtagh
continues to boast Of his private and ccnfden,
tial relations with the Government and that
marked copies Of bis newspaper are scattered
far and wide By Mr.. Plat, Q Republican mem
Der of Congress, and by one or two other poll
ticians of the same type. These papers contain
scurrilous articles by Plat and genius dis
charged from another newspaper for dishon
| esty, and must, in. connection with Murtaghi
personal character, be of very great value Y
the Government"