Litchfield enquirer., 1875-02-25
William H. BaYnum.

We wish to take no unfair advantage of Mir. Barnum and hence we frankly admit in the outset that his absence from Con- Oress at the time the new rule was adopt cd was owing to severe illness. We also admIE that Tf1e crICIcIsnIs urgeu aBaIusU his conduct in refusing, as president of the Connecticut Western R. R. Co.,, to con- sent to the through rates offered by the Erie for Boston business were unjust and founded in misapprehension The fact was that the Connecticut Western could not have paid it's expenses transporting freight on the terms offered, and Mir. Bar mum very properly refused his consent.
 Still, the recent structures of the Tribune on MT. Barnum's Congressional career are: on the whole, just and unanswerable. It is true that he has been negligent of his duties as a Congressman to an unprece- danted extent. It is true that he cannot be said to represent any interests broader than his own personal interests. He cir culates his money freely at elections, and when he takes a. seat in Congress he treats it as a matter he has bought and owns as a thing subsidiary merely to his, other and greater personal interests. It is marvellous instance of the utter hollowness of the thing called Democracy in this Con- gressional District that tLe nomination of such a candidate for a fifth term should be even possible. He proposes to "rep- resent" the Fourth Congressiol District of Connecticut at Washington with view, primarily, to promote the manufacture of car-wheels at his works in Salisbury; for the purpose, secondarily, of obtaining legislation favorable to the great iron and railroad interests which are also his own personal interests; and with the hope, thirdly and lastly, that he may be able to devote few days, each session, to gener- al legislation for the United States of Amerlca. So manifest is the atrocious selfshness of such proceeding that at his last election, in spite of the usual lav- ishness of money by special agents. MT. Barnum ran far behind the rest of the Democratic State ticket.
 The subserviency of the Democratic or gans in Mir. Barnum's ''pocket borough" is beginning to crop out in the "free- trade" Farmer, already. In a recent issue that paper took occasion to quote a state ment from Meriden paper "that no two men can accomplish as much in the House of Representatives as Kellogg and Bar mum, Gnd they most altOays sOork togetl- er." Queer commendation that, of either the Democrat or Republican. it strikes us, true as the words we have italicised prob. ably are! They failed. we rejoice to see, though. in their efforts for the perpetua- tion of the sewing machine monopoly. The most amusing piece of toadyism in the Farmer, however, is a quota tiOn from the New York Graphic. written in that sublime ignorance of "the rural districts" that is apt to characterize the metropolitan iournel. It is so rich that we give the item entire as it appears in the Farmer:
 The N. Y. Graphic which cannot be termed Democratic sheet, says Congress- man W. H. Barnum has passed several years in Congress "busily attending to his duties, and preferring to do the actual hard work of the House rather than to bore the public with speeches" /" and like. wise that the State will do we'll to return a man who will "continue his silence and his devotion to legislative work"
 The idea of circulating this picture oi William H. Barnum, "busily attending to his duties" in Congress, ''preferring to do the actual hard work of the House" and continuing ''his devotion to Legislative wOrk"-in the District where the man and his record are known-strikes us as pretty bold journalism. To cap the climax, this prOtectionist of protectionists ought to perform once more his ''unriyalled feat of running successfully for Congress on 2 free-trade platform!