, 1875-11-11

How THE STANDARD REGARDS IT.-A
disinterested public act; political pro-
fessien or principle which has not a
personal or pecuniary motive at its base,
sis utterly incorprehensible to the editor
of the Standard. He cannot understand
-or discuss any public measures, but
from a personal standpoint. The only
questions with him, in all political and
other public 2atters, are: How much
will it pay? How much can 1 make
.oat of it?" And he judges every other
public man by his own moral standard.
Hence. if anyone disagrees with him
upon any public measures. he never at
tempts to discuss the principles of such
disagreement, but imagines and invents
some personal and private motive for
the same, which he gives to the public
AS fact, in utter disregard to the truth
or falsity of such such statements. The
fact that we have not contributed much
to the editorial columns of the DISPATCH
for the reason that other public du-
ties have occupied our time-is stated
with the exclamation that Judge Lewis
appointed us Clerk of the District
Court at Seattle, on ''the condition of a
total cessation from editorial duty"
and "that party necessity has Undue
ed the Judge 10 relax his determination,
and allow MIR. Brown to mount the tri-
pod for the occasion only and indulge
in his accustomed scurrility. A dispen-
sation issued by Gov. Ferry gave free
license for column of abuse. and the
old battery which has seen service in u
thousand hard-fought conflicts, was i'm
mediately brought to bear upon the
Democratic majority in the Council"
This pitiful personal twaddle is the
best that the editor of the Standard has
to offer in defense of q notorious and
manifest combination Of members of
the Legislature in conspiracy against
the laws, against public sentiment, and
against public interests, with the sole
purpose and intent OF seizing upon and
dividing the spoils of office: And yet
this editor assumes that his paper is
the sole Democratic organ of Washing
ton Territory, as it formerly assumed
to be the "only Republican paper in
Washington Territory" and further.
that the ring combination. made up by
the purchase of member who was not
elected as a Democrat nor ever acted
with the Democratic party, is Demo
cratic majority in the Council;' and
that the member from King county
which gave over 400 Republican
majority at the last election - fairly
represent the popular sentiment of his
constituents. If the Democratic party of
WashingtonTe Territory cannot sho bet
ter record and representation than this
in common decency it had better dis
band: it is gross libel upon the hon.
cred name it assumes for the basest
purposes. Let it assume the more ap-
propriate name of Pickering party" or
=" Murphy party" which would clearly
indicate to all. its purposes and charac-
ger. as neither of those names were ever
associated with the old Democratic par-
ty or its principles in any other manner
than scramble for spoils.
It is not necessary, but nevertheless
due to Chief Justice Lewis, to say thai
his appointment of Clerk of the Court
at Seattle was not accompanied by any
personal or political, express
or implied. other than related to the
faithful discharge of the duties of the
Office. AL fair-minded men who know
Judge Lewis will concede that no man
has higher regard for the dignity, in
tegrity and independence of the judicial
and he is the last man to i'm
pose on subordinates, conditions which
he would himself scorn, and we believe
our acquaintances generally would not
suspect us of surrendering our indepen-
dence for any official or pecuniary con-
sideratlons. Judge Lewis has made nc
and has only asked as per-
sonAl favor that his official and judicial
acts shall not be made the subject of
newspaper defense. He wants NJ news
paper beslobbering, nor will he bedraggle
his judicial robes in the filthy pool of
Territorial politics. We may add that
!, the appointment of Clerk was an indie.
pendent act of his own voIition, and has
subsequently, been endorsed and ap-
proved by his Associates upon the Su-
preme bench and by not less than four
fifths of the lar in this Judicial Dis
trict
Our relations with the DISPATCH have
in no wise changed. 1t will be as in
dependent as ever and when the public
.edgencies require, as ready to denounce
official corruption and ring combina-
Aions Is heretofore, regardless of party