Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1876-08-03
PARTISAN ZEAL.
A Specimen Democratic Report.
The Besulf of Seven Months Of
observation-disclosures Admin
istratiOn by Republicans Pro-
we'd Good by Democrats.
Special to the Cincinnati Gazette.
WASHINGTON, July %

The results of the Democratic inves
legations are now before the country
The methods by which the majority o
the inquiries have been conducted ar
set forth with clearness and withou
exaggeration in the report of the mi
nority in the Robson Investigation
This arraignment of the Democratic
majority by Representatives Danford
of Ohio, and Harris, of Massachusetts,
is valuable, not only as true indict
ment of their associates in this partic
uiar investigation, but because it forci
bly, presents the method of Democratic
inquiry which has prevailed at the
capital throughout the present session
1t is true there have been honorable
exceptions, chiefly where the commit
tee rooms have been open to the pub
lie. Those few sentences, however
from the ringing charge of Danford and
Harris may be accepted as presenting
the Democratic methods of the past
winter and spring:
every discharged employee, every
disappointed contractor, every dissatis-
fed officer, who thought or imagined
that his views or his interests had not
been sufficiently considered-in short,
every person who supposed or repre-
sented that he had canse of complaint,
every bitter partisan who supposed or
represented that he had cause of COM
plaint. every bitter partisOn who tho't
he could do injury to the Navy Depart
ment and the present Administration,
every personal enemy who was dispo-
sed to attack its chief or any of it Off
GERS, was encouraged to appear and
give his statement, not only of what
he knew, but what he heard and inn
agined; everything that he thought
might do injury, in secret session,
without fear of intelligent cross exam
ination or opportunity for explanation
of the real facts; and to facilitate all
this the committee was divided up into
subcommittee, and sat in different
parts OF the couatry, apparently that
opportunity might be given for the re-
tail of local gossip or the venting of
petty personal malice.
"During all this time, and until the
Secretary of the Navy actually forced
his way into the committe room, by
appeals to the committee which public
opinion constrained them to regard, mot
only were the persons supposed to be
affected kept in ignorance OF the names
of the witnesses, and the subjects to
which their testimony was directed,
and even of the fact that such subjects
were under investigation, but the
members of the committee themselves,
interested eliciting the truth, while
they were of course ignorant of most
of the matters inquired into, were ex-
cluded from the injunction of secresy
even from seeking the sources of cor
rect and proper information, and were
thus debarred from developing the real
facts, either by intelligent cross exam
ination or explanatory testimony"
AS matter of course this does not
answer any one of the charges of fraud
which are made against Secretary
Robson. 1t does show, however,
how these charges were prepared and
how sustained, and it excites to most
vigorous exercise the keen American |
sense of fair play. 1t properly discred-
its the entire seven months work of
the majority, and raises the strong
that this partisan COM
mittee, working to prepare partisan
literature, did not dare to be
faced by those they were prosecuting
as their work was going on, lest it
might be overthrUwn by the touch
,fnpo nj frnfh (which oautd than 6o,,ol
been constantly applied. When this
work done in the dark was completed
It was impossible, in the time allotted,
or Mr.. Robson and his friends to give
t more than the most cursOry exami-
nation. After this committee had
worked day and night for seven
months here, and subcommittee had
visited Norfolk, Philadelphia, New
York, Boston, and Portsmouth, the
mass of evidence collected
vas, after long opposition on the part
# Secretary Robson to obtain access
o it, turned over to him. He WINS CIV
N the privilege of a very brief time to s
meet what an army of witnesses, of G
he character described by Messrs. Dan. {
ord and Harris, had been able to pour {
through this committee and its sub
ommittees into the Government {
Printing Office in seven months. {
1t is true that inexcusable irregulari- {
les in the great machine which the 7
Navy is have been discovered, and that
candals have been developed among q
nen who had fostered themselves upon 7
he department. But even the majOri- q
y fails to convict the Secretary of per- d
onal corruption, or to charge him with C
except by insinuation.
But this report is valuable to the t
ountry. 1t is the first of the long Sc Is
les of campaign documents which the e
House has prepared at T
normous cost to the country. 1t is a il
sir specimen of most that will . follow
!. Every nook and corner of Republic :,
IN administration has been explored e
Y similar means. Lunatics, thieves, {
he most disreputable gang of detec- "
yes which the country can afford per u
red men, men under indictment, and
Ie very dregs of the political pool b
I'VE all been welcomed, and encoura- d,
'd to talk, and have been treated with fe
ore decency by these committees
an the highest officers of the govern OF
ent. And when the whole work has
en- accomplished, what has been the Lao