The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1876-05-06
Our WASHINGTON LETTER.
FROM OUR REGULAR CORRESPONDENT.
WASHINGTON. April 20.


ent Investigations are dragging to tn
light. No political party, an1 no partiza
: can honestly assume the role Of tn
2 Pharisee.
The Democrats have it in their powe
70 control and give color to these investi
cations, and history will give them wha
| will venture to call poetic honor for tn,
result, but they nave been embarrassed a.
every step by the beam in their own eye
and notwithstanding the terrible exam
pies of political corruption, and corrupt
politicians, admonishing them to place
none but the clean handed III office, they
are mpeded at the very threshold Of party
success by the antecedents Of their recent
appointees. So prominent an officer as
the door-keeper Of the House of Repre-
sentatives an officer who is elected by a
majority Of the votes of the members,
and into whose character and antecedents,
both from moral and politico- Presidential
motives, there should have been the clos
est scrutiny, has been accused Of some Of
4 the blacklist crimes known to the statute
| books.
It is impossible that this fiery ordeal, to
which both parties and politicians are now
subjected, will not result in puri6cation,
and greater circumspection III the choice
Of candidates for Office in the future.
Mr.. Blaine's vindication from the
charges that have been 50 widely circu-
lated is considered, by both friends and
enemies, most complete. 1t was known
that he was to have the floor on Monday,
at 3 O'Clock, for "a personal explanation.
Nearly all the members were present, as
well as a number Of Senators, and Post
Master Jewell throughout his entire ex-
planation the House gave him the rare
compliment Of silence and attention. He
read autograph letters from the president
Of the Union Pacific Railroad, and from
Col Thomas A. Scott, denying, III the
most explicit and rlnambiguous terms,
that he had ever, directly Or indirectly,
received dollar on account Of the COM
pany. or from the corporation.
Letters from Morton & Bliss, the bank
ers, through whom the draft for S64 900
was said to have been negotiated, were
then read, and they were quite as em-
phatic and unequivocal in denial Of the
charge that he had ever received dollar
from them on account Of the Little Rock
and Fort Smith Railroad bonds.
The Speaker then related how he had
received the bonds Of that corporation by
purchase at the fun market value, a
transaction which, he said, had resulted
in a loss to him of $40, 900.
He gave his reasons for preferring a
personal explanation to an investigation
by committee that he could not await
that wbeH, on former occasion,
rumor had connected him with the
Credit Mobilier frauds he was compelled
| to await in silence, for two months, vim
dication. He concluded by saying that
he had now been for fourteen years a not
inactive member of Congress that during
those years he had said many things in
| the heat Of debate that he would gladly
recall that he had given some votes that
his maturer judgment could not Justify,
but that he had done nothing in his pub
lie career for which he could be put to the
falntest blush in any presence, and for
which he could not answer to his constitu-
ents, to his conscience, and t. the Great
Searcher Of Hearts. Mr.. Blaine was
heartily applauded by the galleries and
the Republican members, and when he
had resumed his seat many Democrats, as
well as Republicans, pressed forward to
take him by the hand.
Ex-Secretary Belknap las fled, through
his counsel, rejoinder to the replication
of the managers on the part Of the House,
in which he denies that he resigned to es-
cape punishment, but atfrms that he re-
signed in order to secure suppression Of
statements that would affect other persons
dear to him, and further, that he resigned,
on an intimation from Hon. Heister ely
mer, that he could, by SO doing, avoid the
inhiction inseparable from a trial III a
forum that would attract the greatest de.
gree Of public attention, and also to avoid
the humiliation Of defense that would
cast the blame on those connected with
him by domestic ties.
The managers, ON the part of the House
have filed a surrejoinder, and when, Oh
Thursday, the Senate will again conve "a
as High Court Of impeachment, tbs
counsel for the accused, it is thought, vii
ask at least two weeks to prepare argu
ments on the issues developed in the
pleadings, so that it will probably be some
time in June before the real work Of i'm
peachment will begin.
While Mr.. Blaine was making his per
sonal explanation in the House, one of the
Nevada Senatorial millionaires (Mr
Jones) was in the midst of five hours
speech, at the other end of the Capitol
the object Of which was to persuade tn,
Government to buy his silver bars anc
make dollars of them. Anticipatory no
tlces of this speech had been circulated b.
the press for a week, and yet there wer,
} only about three newspaper correspond
| ents in the reporters gallery, about fv
i ladies in the Diplomatic and Seuatoria
E galleries, and few louDgers in the publ
: gallery. The Republican Senators po
a htely refrained from reading and writing
t and tried to listen to the representatlv '
t of $50, 900, 900, or, | should say, of Ne
e vada. The speech was read from printe
; slips, in an easy, tiippant way, that shove
if the Senator did not quite understan
its logic and appreciate its beautiful thee
# ries, he had at least conned it until b
,e was quite familiar with the sequence
" words and sentences To those who