National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1874-02-12
MR.. CORCORAN AND THE INDIE
PENDENT.

d, IN. his card printed recently in the adver-
Using columns of the Baltimore Sun, in reply
to the Governors memorial, Mr.. Corcoran
volunteered statement that he had paid a
certain portion of his taxes with his check,
stating, however, that che had been pre-
viously offered an additional ten per cent.
discount by the editor and proprietor of q
daily journal of this city" for the privilege
of paying said taxes for him. This was
stated in language and matter calculated to
impress the minds of people abroad that
the offer was made in the nature of bride
for the furtherance of some corrupt purpose
That no injustice may be done the motives
of Mr.. Corcoran, or any misstatement made
regarding the effect of his language, the
following is quoted from the last number
of the New York Lvdependent zone of
'the Washington papers quotes the state
''ment with this remark: We do not know
that there is anything positively wrong in
''the offer that was made to him, if 1t was
made Of course not. 1t was only a
proposition to put the peoples money
where it would do most good. Mr.. Cor
''coran being the largest tax payer of Wash
''ington, it was proposed to shut his mouth
concerning the operations of the Washing
ton ring by offering him this bride. He
rejected it and paid his taxes in full, taking
''only the lawful discount of six per cent
'.And now this innocent editor cannot see
'tany harm in making such proposition,
though he says he did not make II. 1t
might not be unwise for the Washington
"City Mission Society to print the Ten
Commandments as a tract and scatter them
through the newspaper offices of the Dis
''trict.''
1t is here very clearly shown that the
editor of the Independent received the i'm
preston that it was offered as bride, and,
indeed, that the impression was not only so
strong as to amount to conviction, but also
such as to make his editorial soul yearn for
the salvation of his hardened brethren of
the fraternity in Washington. He imme-
diately suggests slight application of that
universal panacea for the heathen-a mis-
sionary and his tracts.
1t does not seem ever to have occurred to
the Independent that the Washington editor
could by any possibility have honestly &C.
quired any of the Districts certificates of
Indebtedness. which, while they were not
worth par in cash, were receivable at their
face for taxes. and that, not being so for
tunate as to require them to pay his own
taxes, he could have conceived the idea of
going to the 'largest taxpayer in Washing
ington and Offering to make it an object
to him to cash them for him, or, what
would amount to the same thing, give him
the sum of his taxes less sixteen pcr cent,
provided the editor and proprietor would
settle his tax bills for him.
It does undoubtedly seem little strange
to some that two mon like Mr.. Corcorsn
and the New York editor. one Of whom
has spent the most of his life, and made On
immense fortune by shaving Government
and individual obligations and the other in
the purlieus of the New York stock. money
and dry goods markets. where . large
quantity Of paper Of oil kinds d constantly
being shaved ct ruinous rates, should A.
tempt to exhibit such refreshing innocence
In kindred matters, and lit up their hands
in holy horror Il The sia supposed to be In
volved. By all means let the fhvoritc mis-.
sionary labcn be pursued in this direction. |
and let . copy or two of those proposed
tracts be thrown into the gilded palaces Of