Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1875-03-24
RECTIFYING DANA GED REP
49, NIATIONS. ~

HEt fIf liNG ia Nd ULU HEf-
.a..- UTATIONS, oIlj
-et Az
However obnoxious the late Con.
gress may be 10 harsh criticism for
many Of its actions, il has leii one re-
deemi9g record that viii eyer COM
mend il 70 the iavor Of those who
teach, tinticr~ all circumstances, that
'thc greatest of these is charity. -
The general wreck of once valued
regulations in and about the admins
tration and in the circle of its accept
ed leaders, presented such a CHASTITY
monument of wasting skeletons Of the
fallen, that some general system of rec
tifying political damages became u
supreme necessity. Carpenter and
Chandler, and Ramsey, aud Thayer
and Butler and n host of lesser lights
had witherod in the midst of their fol.
lowers, and the few whohadthcproml
Use of future nseinlaess b,r escaping
the people for q year or two had TO be
FURNISHED and frightened fo,' popular
inspection. No ordinary measure
would meet such case, and actual re-
formation in any of the leaders who
| fingered on the ragged edge Of power
was out Of the question. Congress,
therefore, resolved itself into sort OF
compound, doublc-action political fec.
tifyer Of musty and otherwise damag-
cd political spirits. Kellogg being
about all that was Left to hang the ad-
mlnistraiion harp on in Louisiana, was
repaired by special recognition as the
legal Governor of the State, mainly be-
cause il seemed TO be clear that he had
never been elected. And having rec
tilted Kellogg, the House took an carly
opportunity TO rectiiy itself by seating
Sheridan and Lawrence Just in time 10
participate in the final adjournment,
and thus declared the Kellogg election
and the Kellogg certificates unmitiga-
gated frauds. Butler was rectified by
allowing him to usurp the leadership
Of the House and plnmc his cap with
I the Civil Rights Bill. Cessna would
have got in his repairs on the Arlan-
sas resolution but for the iact that the
political, patchwork, had, about that
time, got too big for the original gar.
ment and the friends OF John Young
Brown, remembering how "use doth
breed habit in the man." clamored to
rcctify his record in the dying throes
of the session but the mill had, un-
fortunately, shut down, and he was
hidden to wait for more convenient
season.
In the general divine spirit of for
giveness that hoary political sinners
profl'erod to each other in the closing
hours Of the late Congress, there was
special fitness in resembling the rcsolu.
tons of censure passed upon Secretary
Simon Cameron on the Both of April
1862. We heartily commend this act
as one cminently worthy the popular
branch of the Forty-third Congress
and when il was to be done, il was
well to have il well done. The reso
luton Of 1862 was the act of another
era in the history Of the Republican
party and the country, and bore on
its face the indelliblc impress of tn,
age that gave il birth. Ii was the era
of integrity, of truth, of honor and OF
patriotism, and it wrote It's grand pur
poses in every line of the solemn jndg
ment of ccnsurc The evidence Of tn,
facts being then, as now, undisputcd
and having been presented 10 thu
House by Henry l.. Dawes, who proved
that official ialschood and official We
nality in the War Department dcman
ldcd the formal condemnation of the
Country, il was resolved, by decisiv,
vote of ~ TO IS, that Secretary Cam
cron, "by involving the government in
q vast number Of contracts with per
sons not logitimatcly engaged in the
business pertaining to the subject mat.
ter Of such contracts, especiallyin the
purchase Of arms for future delivery
has adopted policy highly injurious
TO the public service, and deserves tho
ccnsure of the House" For thirteen
years the resolution stood, without q
voice having been raised to cxpunge
the record President Lincoln had
justly relieved the Secretary from the
ccnsurc in the first clause OF the reso.
luton relating to the purchase of mil.
litay supplies in New York, but the
censnro we have quoted dcfed cxpla-
nation, and il remained as a monument