The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1876-05-08
The Scandal Hunt,

1t will not be news to the observer of the
smallest intelligence even, that the so-
called Investigations at Washington are sia ply
scandal hunts, in which names illustrious in
their country's service have been run down by
pack of disreputable and disappointed men
and held up to public execration on the flimsies
evidence, but the dastardly character of tho
business has seldom been so foroibIy presented
as by Senator Anthony, few days since.
Speaking subsequent to Mr.. Morton, who had
just been called to account for assisting in the
salvation of his country, be said:
1 well remember, Mr. President, the bold and
patriotic course that was taken by the Senator
from Indiana, then the governor of that State,
at the interesting period to which ne has re-
ferred l vividly recall the thrill of exultation
which passed through every loyal heart when
he sent bowling to their homes the men who
traitors alike to the General Government and
to their own State, false both to the Union and
to the pretensons of State rights upon which
those who revolted against the Union alone de-
tended themselves, gave aid and comfort to the
common enemy in arms alike against the
United States and against the State OF Indi-
ana.
1t is not strange that that act, as every other
act of every public man, right or wrong, good
or bad, true or imputed, is made the occasion
of vilification; for we live in a time of public
scandal and no man who holds any public
position, scarcely any man who interests him
SELF in public affairs, escapes the general vitu-
peration. Men whose lives have been passed
in the reputable and even in the illustrious SER
vice of their country are held mp to the execra-
tion OF the people whose good will they enjoy
and whose gratitude some OF them have earn
ed. The testimony has been worthy of the
accusation. Discharged employees, broken
down contractors, illicit distillers, disappointed
offce-seekers, men compared to whom Titus
Oates was creditable witness, have been per-
mitted to drag the regulations of honorable
men before tribunals which in their methods
of jurisprudence remind us of the star cham
Der, and whose Interpretation of the laws of
evidence and of the rights of the accused were
borrowed from the Spanish inquistion.
Nav, Mr.. President, the penitentiary and the
mad house have given up their dead in this
general resurrection of falseho0d and perjury.
1t is but few days since the whole country
was startled with the foreshadowiDg of some
terrible revelation against the elected chief of
the Republic. We are told that he bad COM
mitted a crime so atrocious that it could not be
named; that when it was exhibited to the Am
erican people in its unparalleled enormity moth
ing but the shortest methods of the quickest
impeachment would stand between you, Mr.
President, and the White House, which hope,
at some day, you will reach by less circuitous
route.
And, Mr.. President, when this accusation
was put to the proof, when the testimony upon
which all these charges had been made was ad-
duced, 1T appeared that crazy man was ref dy
to testify, with a solemnityl that left no doubt
of the sincerity of his conviction, that the spirit
of Gen. Grant was accustomed to pass through
the key-hole of his chamber by night aud to
stand beside his bed. And upon the promise
of that testimony, and nothing else whatever,
a thousand newspapers opened their batteries
upon the character of the man who had borne
the flag of his country in triumph from the
fallen ramparts of Fort Donaldson to the cap
tured citadel of the rebellion, and who had
been twice elected by the people to the highest
place in their Gift.
The miserable instruments OF all this scandal
will be likely to escape or will be beaten with
'few stripes" Reputation they have none to
be injured generally as poor in purse as they
are in honor, they laugh at fines and confisca-
tions; and 7the universal contempt in which
they are held by those who suffer from them
and by those who employ them will probably
preserve the penitentiary from the contamina-
tion of their presence. But, sir, behind these
are men who have name and a stake in the
country. men who employ or encourage these
miserable instruments in scandals with which
they scorn to soil their own hands, but from
which they expect profit to party Let these
men turn to history. Its pages are full of
Bloody instructions, which, being taught return to
plague the inventor.
And history will be reversed if the poisoned
shafts which they have placed In the hands of
Others are not turned upon their own defense-
less bosoms, if their own regulations do not
suffer by the methods by which they have al
lowed others to be assaled, and if the ldistress
which they have carried to the innocentihomes
of others is not returned to their own.