The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1875-09-10
John Porter.

This being the fls st week OF Court,
a Iarpe crowd of people from all Sec
tions of the county has been III attend
ance. which has afforded good OPP
pOrtunitv for. ascertalnlpg Democratic
sentimpntan reference to the election
by the Cambria confcrees OF john
Porter as Senatorial delegate to the
Erie Convention. The expression OF
Indignation against that unparalleled
outrage has been deep, outspoken and
overwhelming 1t could not be other
wise John Porter was lifted from
obscuritv by the Democratic party or
this county in 1868 and elected 10 the
Lcrislature. A few days after he took
his seat that entcrprising and corrupt
politician. Robert w. Mackey, hoated
to the surface of Republican politics,
and was elected State Treasurer, and
so fir at least as one Of his plundering
schemes of legislation was concerned,
of which he (Mackey) was the orig!-
nator, and through whose peculiar
personal manipulations it passed the
House. Porter stood by him and did
his bidding, as the official record OF
that session will prove. There were
E0ne&f men enough in the Senate to
strang!e and Kill it, and for that reason
nothing more was thought or sald
about it, In October, 1869, Porter
was re elected, and in three years al
tcrwards lie was openly engaged WITH
the leading radical politicians OF this
county In laboring to defeat The very
party that had confded in and honored
him. In 1873 he played the same DIS
honorable game, and at the election
last flf! was consistent in his treason.
He thus voluntarily placed himself
outside Of the Democratic party, and
long since forfeited every claim to its
confidence and respect. lngIatltude
is sharper than a scrpcnt's tooth,
and i'm his case no words can ade-
quatcly express the inctiable baseness
of his treason.
"Oh for u tongue 70 curse the slave
Whose ircCSO1I, like deadly blight,
Comes Ger the councilS of the brave
And blasts them in their hour OF might.
Would any delegate TO q Democratic
county convention dare to nominate
John Porter as a candidate for a cOun-
tv office, or as a delegate to a State
convention? If he did, his name
would be received with one long, con-
tinucd outburst of Indignation.
When the county committee, on the
14th of June. instructed the confcrees,
Mcssrs Bonackcr, Linton and HassOn
to vote for John H. Fiske as Senator
ial delegate, did any member of that
committee insult it by moving to sub
stitute PorteI's name in place of
Fiske's? Not n word of it. There
were several substitutes in the commit
tee, (some of them for certain pur-
pOse) but not one of them had the
courage to do HGt-nOt even the sOlon
who offered the celebrated prOriSO-
If Fiske had died the insult which the
cOnferees hurled at the Democracy of
the county by electing Porter would
have lost none of its grossness for in
impossible contingency will the honest
Democrats Of Cambria ever bestow
office upon, or consent to be represent
ed in State convention by, a guerilla
who, like Porter, has 50 often and so
baselv deceived them. And vet this
is the man who has been commissioned
by our own cOnfcrces to represent the
Democracy of this district in a State
convention and help to nominate can
didates for Governor and State Treas
urcr Shade Of Andrew jackson!
If the Democratic party in this
county is to he held together, it can
only be done by comforting its honors
on those who tght iis 6otties, and not
on men who befray and stab It, We
know and feel that on this question we
echo the united voice of the Democracy
and that they will endorse all that we
have said. The gallant Democrats Of
Blair and Cambria may well hang THEN
heads i'm shame over the humiliating
fact that they had no delegate at Erie.
John Porter only represented the three
cOnfcrecs who sent him there and
about twice that number of broken
down political hacks and chronic office
seekers. Democrats Of Cambria! shall
this insult be unrcbuked or this outrage
ever he repeated? .? 1t is for YOU to say.
TO be forewarned is to be fOrearmed
IF n Democrat, long accustomed to
Democratic rule, low taxes and hard
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