New-York tribune., 1876-06-13
M1NSLAUGHTER IN POLITICS.

No man may aspire TO high place in poll
tics nowadays save ut the Ilsk OF his lie.
We have OutgrOwn the primitive methods OF
fighting for power. Candidates do not fly at
one another with lance and battle-ax, nor
look for opportunity to thrust poniard into
rivals back even the duelists pistol the
budgeon, and the fist have gone out of fashion
as the weapons of a campaign. But the am
bitious man must be as well prepared to face
danger in our time in the eras of fac
ton riots and party wars and political
assassinations If he has a proud and
sensitive spirit-and even candidates for the
Presid 'ncy are sometimes men OF dell
cate feeling and fine nervous Organization
the chances are that he will be subjected to
attacks that kill quicker than the dagger or
the sword His good name, which he has cher
shed all his life as the most precious of his
possessions, will be taken from him. His vir-
tuous deeds will be travestied and made n re-
proach His motives will be cruelty misrepre-
sented. He will be tortured with savage in
genuity, until brain and body both give way
and he may think himself happy if even his
grave be not dishonored.
We had signal example of the horrors of
| American political warfare four years ago,
when Horace Greeley was killed by it. No
doubt some of the servants and supporters of
| the Administration, who covered the good old
| hero with ridicule, viliied him, mo ,ked at
| him, cast him out of the party of which he
| had been a chief founder. declared him to be
baser than notorious thieves, more infamous
than public robbers, reflect now with mild
regret upon the violence of their behavior
in 1872, and are even little ashamed
of it, But how many of them realize
| the consequence Of their injusticc2 1t was
neither the labor of the canvass nor disapp0int-
ment at the result that broke down Mr.. Gree
lev. He fell victim to SANDER and vitupera-
ton. 1t seemed for while on Sunday as if
the present campaign would be marked by a
somewhat similar catastrophe. Mr.. Blaine ,
private character has been attacked with ex-
treme bitterness, and during the past month
| he has been engaged in an incessant struggle
to beat off accusers who represent him as a
liar and a cheat, making corrupt bargains and
irving to conceal them by perjury. I'm
his case there has been something at
stake more valuable than the Presidency; for
he has been threatened with the loss OF his
standing among decent men, and Of that repu-
tation without which no gentleman thinks life
worth having. Others every four years 20
through the exctements of race for the
White House without much danger to their
nervous system but it is the fortune of few
to feel such a tremendous strain rs Mulligan
and the rest Of that party have put upon the
ex-Speaker. And if their charges are not true,
what ought now to be the feelings of the men
who made them7
Mr. Blaine is fast recovering, and, thanks to
a strong constitution and a careful life, will
probably soon show no traces OF his sudden
illness: but the case of the present Speaker Is
more serious Mr.. Kerr was not candidate
for Office he was in desperate condition OF
health but because he WAS prominent Dem
ocrat and it would hurt the party to besmirch
his character, a clique Of Administration TOli-
ticians here in New-York undertook to nurse a
tale told to his discredit by disreputabe
creature and to make of it a national scan
dal. The story was SO Outrageously i'm
probable that no man OF average Intelligence
ourht to be excused for believing 1t. The
man who told it was 80 base that nobody who
knew him would accept his oath. Mr.. Kerr is
n gentleman of such eminent reputo that moth
ing discreditable to him ought to be believed
except upon unimpeachable testimony. Yet
we find our Custom-house politicians cggine
on Harney, and drilling him. and fixing up
his story for him, and helping him to get II
before the world. No matter what be-
came of Mr. Kerr, so long B II
injured the Democratic party. Well, the
scandal, so far as it affects the Speaker, is at
an end. 1t has failed. The witness Harvey
goes back to his dislonorable obscurity; his
Custom house friends 20 TO Cincinnati to nomi-
nate Mr. Conkling for President; and Mr. Kerr,