The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1876-10-07
OUR FRIEND HAYES.

One ten. IL. Is. hayes Is tne pallonal Cau-
didate for the presidency He is not known
tor anything good that he has ever did, for he
never did anything in that direction that was
noticeable, and might have lived and died,
known only as tair sort of a state governor,
if it were not that it happened that the thieves
and respectables in the Cincinnati convention
quarreled, in which quarrel the thieves won,
and our friend Hayes was nominated for
President of the United States.
Tie leaders, the honest men-that is, Nor.
ton, Conkling, Don and Simon Cameron,
Babcock, Joyce, Joe Medi!l, all said his
nomination was triumph Of the honest men !;
that 1t guaranteed reform in politics; that
his record was unimpeachable.
! For time the canvass went on quietly.
and people began to think that Hayes, though
weak. minded sort of a man for president Of
the United States, was pretty honest after all,
and that possibly the leaders had mistaken
to his true inwardness began to come out now
and then, like Hamlet's ghost, which have
since become exceedingly bothersome to the
faithful.
Shortly after his nomination little Incl
dent came to light of his having in his pos,
session some $4O0 belonging to "A poor devil
who was shot for desertion No one paid
much attention to 1t till his very flmsy den
al set people to thinking.
Not long after that charge, came the still
more astounding charge of perjury in con-
motion with his personal property tax, and
accompanying it statement of facts and an
array of figures copied from the official re,
cords of Sandusky and Hamilton counties,
that were fairly staggering in their conclu-
siveness, and to this hour the charges stand
unlefuted, albeit what purport to be expana-
lions, but only make bad matter worse, are
from time to time presented to the public by
one of the governors organs published at
Columbus.
1t began to appear that the great unknown"
was not such "friend OF the soldier" not
such God and humanity" man as was
thought; and the purpose of the radical man
ayers to have, II possible, man of their own
character at the helm became startling in its
deformity. The candidate would have died
natural death had nothing further transpir
ed to show him up. But he has still other
charges to reply to before the people of this
country can be convinced that he can be
entrusted with the high office he seeks for
FIRST: How about that 81, 900 he holds, paid
into his hands by Nelson LIE Roy just before
the battle of Winchester, Va? The facts are,
that Nelson LIE Roy paid into his hands tor
safe keeping before this battle $1,000. LIE
Roy was killed, and Hayes held on to the
money. Some years afterwards, to.wit, in
1862 lie Roy's father discovered through
some friends that Hayes had his sons mon.
ey and wrote to HIM about it. Hayes denied
that he ever knew such man as Nelson lie
Roy; but LIE Roy wrote HIM again IN little
stronger style, to which Hayes replied that
he did recollect the man but never received
any money from him and in reply to third
letter from Leroy he said II must say had
LETT with me some of the boys money but twas
all returned TO him before the battle !" Hayes
still holds the money, and apparently intends
to. The charge is well sustained, both by
both documents and by living witnesses who
saw the money paid to Hayes and saw the
soldier die before Hayes could return it. If
Hayes can explain this, let him stand up.
He may be able to explain why he did not
get rid of the money, but why he should lie
about it is harder to tell.
Indeed Hayes seems to be disappearing
from the canvass. The fight Is against Zach
Chandler, and his gang; but If by chance 1t
should happen that Zach. should win, the
credit of the country demands that the nomi.
al president should himself be honest,
thought he were lead around by the nose.
Let Us then have an explanation of these
things, Mr.. Pee Wee.