The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1876-08-02
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in the hearing of Mr.. Robeson's enemies
June that he was allowed to place
his foot in the room of that Committee
| Can this be called an investigation
| The violent men who resort to lynch law ex
| tend to the accused the right to face his ac-
cusers and to be heard in his own behalf.
| Has it come to the pass that Committee of
the House of Representatives does not pos
sess the sense of justice OF the men who
resort to lynch law? The same malignant
spirit is manifest on the part of the majority
of the committee when they leave out of
their report the testimony favorable to Mr..
Robson and exaggerate the scandals and
ISLANDERS of his traducers.
1t is not our purpose to defend Mr.. Robe
son. He may not be a model officer. In
deed, bis own testimony indicates that he
trusted his subordinhtes with too much au-
| thority. But with whatever faults he has,
he has managed the affairs of the Navy as
well as his predecessors well certainly as
the last Democratic Secretary of the Navy
who expended the money which would, at
| that time, have purchased more material and
labor than any appropriation which Mr..
| Robson has been allowed. Nevertheless
when the war broke out, our Navy was not
in a condition 10 fire gun in defense of the
| flag.
1t has been given out that our Navy is
worthless-rotten and unse aworthy. This
is false if the reports of experienced naval
officers are of any account in comparison
with the opinion of the Confederate men,
bers of the committee. To-day our ma
Wy is composed of eighty ships fit for
sea, forty seven of which have been extern
sively repaired and rebuilt during the past
five years. When Mr.. Robson assumed the
management of the Department there were
but eighteen ships fit tor service.
The Confederate Committee charge that
the navy yards have been used TO pro-
mote the interests of the Republican party as
if it had never been done under Demo-
cratic rule. Never was the Navy used
so uuscrupulously as a political ma
chine as under Democratic admin
ministrations. Judge Kelley in his remarks
the other day in the House, declared that two
sloops of war were ordered built at Phiadel-
phia by Democratic administration in 1855
to insure the election of Thomas B. Florence
to Congress. The history Of every navy
yard before the war is a story of its abuse
by Democratic officials.
The Republican members of the House in
the time allotted them set forth the out
rageous character of the naval investigation,
but none did it more effectively than Judge
Kelley in the following words:
L have known Mr.. Robson, in the little city
in which he grew to manhood and has prac-
ticed law, for more than quarter of century,
and aver that in an inqulsiton made in open
daylight where the safeguards of character
established by tradition, law or decency should
be respected, the world may investigate him,
and his integrity will come out without taint or
tarnish What, with strumpets and thieves
and their consorts examined in the darkness
sworn not to reveal what they had testified to,
with even the minority of the committee
bound to the secrecy of the Spanish ipquisi-
ton, what taint you have put upon the name
of an honorable man, know not; but when
the American people know your methods aud
look at your fimsy partisan results, they will
discard your report as do, as a mere olec-
ticneering document made at the expense of
the character of our country and institutions