The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1875-11-06
AFTLALAPs.

! Ia short but sharp" little political cam
paign like that through which we have jus
passed In this county, We generally strive st
to conduct our part of y as to have as few per
sonal quarrels left as possible. In the heat o.
such a scrmmage, however there are usually
some pretty sharp frictions and occasionally
somebody gets scorched pnintentionally The
La Sale Press, for instance, objects to, and the
Ottawa RepuJlican emits quite shadbandlar
groan over the fact that we called Mr. Nor
rill 1.-THE brave soldier" &C., &c, stick
The connection in which we used the word
made it certainly less offensive in meaning
than the papers in questioHwould force upon
| it, We used it in connection with the RepuJ
teams suggestion that if Mr. Morrill, was not
himself competent to take charge of the treas
urer's books lie could hire book keeper OF
clerk. In that casc, our suggestion was, that
it would be better to elect the proposed assis
tant, as Mr.. Morrill, would be useless appeu
dage to the ollice-a mere stick La any
other connection, Of course, lF Morrill, is the
last man who with any show " justice can be
called stick" A man wlo commanded
battalions, regiments and b.igades during
the war, and acquitted himself creditably
and even gloriously on dozen batlle.felds,
is infinite removes above deserving, in any
general or offensive sense, to nc designated
by such an epithet
Then we also had the misfortune, we are
t,1J IN nyt iynI,, off al; n
cials about the Court House by charging
them with achieving, in a variety of "ways
that are dark and tricks that are vain" some
pretty extensive salary grabs" &c. The ar.
tice in the FREE TRADER on that subject
was doubtless taken more seriously than was
inteAded. There had been a terri bic b ullabaloo
raised by the Ottawa Republicanf backed up,
it was SAID, largely by most Of the court
house officials, and pcdded assijuously all
over the county, aboat certain wholly imag.
mary salary grabs by Mr. Raymond We
undertook to show how wholly unjust and
unfOunded this "huiiabaloo" was, and that
of all the Offices in the cour, house that of the
county treasurer was in fact the only one
about which there were no extra fees, rerauis
ties or grabs" and by way of illustration
we showed how, in some of the Other Offices
there ~ere undeniably some pretty handsome
extra clippings, and we named some ofthem
The plea put IN by the gentlemen Is, that
these perqulsites, if such they can be called,
arise wholly outside Of regular duties of those
officials, and in earning and pocketing them
they violate no law; and they quote the
opinion of Attorney General Edsall TO sub
stantate their position. Very well. The
FREE TRADER made no charge that any law
was violated, or that pocketing these extras
or perQuisites was not even proper or leg.
itimate. On that point we have no coutro.
versy. Our only object was to question the
or good taste of gentlemen who IN
luestionably did enjoy quite nice ,hlng In
such perquisites assisting SO assduously In
stirring up a "tempest in u teapot ovor some
wholly imaginary perquistes snpiSaed foi
ave been enjoyed by Mr.. Raymond, when
,xtras or pe:quisites in his Office were known
o be impossible