The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1876-03-30
A wRETcHrD pLrA.

n BALTIMORE gazette SAWS
The plea that is urged by some of the
administration organs in defense of
Belknap, that he was led to ruin by
the extravaganza Of his wife, so far
from helping him oily makes his
present attitude the more paltry
and degraded. This plea is as old
as Adam, as that was the meanest
of his fall: "The woman tempted
me and I did eat"-pah! The ex-
cuse is worse than the sin. Cracks
men and burglars and murderers
very often say on their road to
punishment, that Moll or Sal was
the cause of their misery; but who
would have expected this plea to be
grayely urged by sensible people in
favor of a cabinet officer.
Why should Mr.. Belknap have
desired to see Mrs. Belknap shine
in large solitaire diamonds, costly
'laces, silks, satins and furs on a
salary of eight thousand a yearr
Was not that of itself a shame and q
lie and a fraud on the face of itp
There was not the least necessity
for him or her to shine society. He
was hired as a public servant at so
much per annum to administer GER
tain specific duties, not to dazzle
the eyes of Europeans by the splen-
dor of his Injuries. 1t may be said
in favor of Belknap that he was not
alone to blame; that he was part of
a system; that he was no worse
than those around and above him,
except that he was found out be-
yond question; that he has the justi-
fcation Of example and custom all
around him, and that it is his mis-
fortune to be the scape-goat of the
whole-all this may be fairly urged
in his favor; but we cannot see that
the fact that his wife was a fraud
makes him any the less so. 1t
makes not a particle of difference
whether she swindled first, or
whether he swi.dled first, or whether
they mutually and reciprocally, joint
ly and seyerally swindled together;
it is all the same. What we want
now is somebody and his wife who
do not swindle at all, and that is the
thing which the country in its
present temper is aiming to get.
We want an honest man ard an
honest wife for Secretary and Sec
retariess of War. There is not the
necessity for her to wear
laces and diamonds, and she will be
all the better if she doesn't wear
them. But this much, at least, is
certain-she must not wiring the
money that buys her jewels from
the poor private soldiers and subal-
tern officers at frontier posts by
charging them two dollars a gallon
for coal oil that costs twenty cents
so on.
The fall of Belknap is a good
thing. 1t was when he was not fall
len that he was bad. 1t is no dis
grace to the country; it disgraces
nobody but the Republican leaders,
and it disgraces even them chiefly
because they defend him and ex-
cuse him. But in no case do they
place Belknap and his allies in.
such a wretched position as when
they dress them in the ~petticoats
and rufiies and laces of Mrs. B.
The administration party frequent
" alludes to the oft-refuted lie that
Mr.. Jefferson Davis was captured
dressed in his wife's clothes. Har-
per's Weekly last week had a pic
ture of Mr.. Davis in a hoop skirt.
But how does it look now when
Grant and Belknap and all the rest
are hiding behind Mrs. Belknap's
petticoats? They try to defend
Belknap by proving that he Was not
a robber but a sneak thief.
NE~