The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1876-08-18
Mr.. Knsson of Iowa.

This gentleman courts notice rather
ostentatiously in his late speech, and de-
serves 1t. The right to haraugue ON the
floor of our Congress is an inalienable one,
and must not be impaired.
Mr.. KAssoN ia not widely or well known,
and the general public is not deeply in-
terested in his biographical annals. When
he makes, in his appetite for notoriety
and position, a malignant attack on au
eminent public man, and the candidate
of n great party, such as he has now
made upon SAMUEL j. TILDEN. in which
the leading staple upon which he hangs
his rhetoric is falsehood he cannot escape
criticism or avert Reproduction.
Mr.. KAssoN is of Vermont genealogy, but
emigrated to ST. Louis. Those familiar
with Yankee shoot transplanted 10 a
soil OF serls, have not been slow to observe
that the most determined in advocacy, the
hardest in discipline, aud in general
treatment of slaves the hardest of mas ters.
were Yankees. We do not say tins of Mr..
KAssoN, hut his ownership of negroes we
think is not TO be questioned. Whether or
not he was a member of the Nashville
Convention, a body Of disunionists, IN 1852,
he can answer. There is such n tradition. and
IL may he veracious history. Yet, one of
his calumnies against Gov. TILDEN Is that he
was Democrat. We think, also, that in
Missouri, KAssoS was q Democrat. But the
vista of his future ut ST. Louis was not in
>piring, and he pitched his tent at Des
MONIES, Iowa, then, rs now, n Republican
state. With Il speculative eye he surveyed
the political landscape, and became Il Re-
publican soft in speech. gentle in tread.
and with large snattering of cotton
about his juvenile principles. These, how
ever, grew more robust with the inoreas-
ing majorties of the State.
During the war Of the rebellion he held a
public Office in Washington, but showed no
boldness OF leadership, and chung to hls
tlmid conservatism. After the succession
of JOHNSON 20 the Presidency, tn his friends
he was a supporter OF that eccentric man,
while TO the Republicans he was sympa-
thetic and cooperative, like the bat of
.EsoP lowering over the battlefield of the
beasts and birds TO improve the oppor-
tunities of others victory Two years
ago he was not in harmony with the
Administration, but during the present
Congress he has been early aud constant as
lackey and licksplttle. Returning from
Congress, lac bankers for Executive en-
plovment. His hunger is for tho public
lceding-the OK to his owner and the ass
to his masters crib.
With n specious and pleasing oratory
and an eQuable urbanity Of manner, he
has a cold and selfish egotism in which his
frat and last thouwht il kAS5oN IIia re-
ligious faith, his personal aspirings, his po-
litical creed, every act of his life he
gins, centres, and ends in KAssoS. He may
nave transient suggestions, he possibly
possesses impulsions to good actions but
they are sGcredly confidential to himself.
smooth, lnsnuating, insincere, and with
out convictions, he has made duplicity a
current coin, and hypocrisy legal tender
IN Iowa.
Mr. Cox in his interlude with him incur
red no personal danger. His style of war
fare is the ambush, with tomahawk and
,calping knife, aud not the line OF battle
ana the charge. He is not man to take the
perturbed last hours of the session TO huil
personal missiles at the representative
leader of great party. Cox was the
picador who annoyed his flank, but
HEWITT was the matador whose shining
blade pierced his spinal vertobra.
If Mr.. KAssON is ambitious to use his
catapult, and cast stones at character, he
may find that there are resources of rub
Lles TO hurl at him. He should prefer
prudence and gratitude as the only sure
mmuuities Of his retirement.