Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1876-03-16
Belanap and the Party.

f'cCittdIN DtlhLd' : CIllHt Is JLreelOIu: DC
trayal of the President, betrayal of his party,
and betrayal Of his country. False alike to
all, each is alike absolved from ali obligation
to palliate his disgrace or shield him in his
misfortunes If to any he has done fouler
wrong than to either of the others, it is to the
President by whose partiality he had been
exalted and by whose confidence he had been
50 greatly hOnOred. What baser ingratitude
than to requite such measureless kindness
with such odious and deliberate misconduct.
The hand of the homicide is white beside that
of him who thus rewards 50 fast and firm
friend, and so generous a benefactOr If
nothing else could have restrained this ur-
worthy man in his hour of temptation. it
should have been his appreciation Of the per-
sonal trust reposed in him, and his personal
obligations to the man who lifted him to fame
from comparative Obscurity. If so sacred in
conscience and hardened in feelings as to have
grown regardless of consequences to himself,
he should still have hesitated before doing
aught that might compromise the confiding
President, who had committed so much of
his own welfare to his keeping
The dishonor this unfaithful servant has
brought upon his country is scarcely deserving
of more fOrbearance. Better hundred times
that he had taken up arms in rebellion than
that he should have prostituted SO high trust
to such wicked uses. \ rebel may be sincere,
even honest. but not so he who takes advant-
age of public confidence to enrich himself
with ill-gotten plunder. OF all political of
fences that of Mr.. Belknap belongs to the
class least entitled to lenity, Disloyalty may
be the result of mistaken patriotism, but Off
cial dishonesty is wholly without excuse or
palliation. InsuTectiOn and rebellion are open
enemies, but corruption in high places is a
secret and deadly foe which, mining all with
in, infects unseen, and like cancerous hu-
NOR. can only be arrested by heroic treatment
Party tust is not so sacred perhaps, as per-
sonal or public, and yet it is party after AL
that is apt to be held to the severeSt account
for the faults of him who disgraces or betrays
it. As matter of justice, however, Il party
should no more be held responsible than
church for the individual sins of its unworthy
representatives. A clergyman may fall from
his high estate and scandalize his cloth. but
neither his profession nor his sect are blamed
for it. Why should party be subjected to a
different or severer Judgment? There can be
but one reason, if any, and that is that parties
are little too apt. perhaps, through mistaken
ideas of self-interest, TO shelter with, pallia-
tions, preteXts and excuses the faults of dis
tinguished adherents. The only way in which
the Republican party can become responsible
for Belknap's crime is in the impossible event
of its becoming Belknap'5 apologist He is
simply one accidental. individual member of
the party, without fame or fortune except as
the party has conferred it. At the outbreak
of the war sympathizer with the South, he
afterwards became, as did other Democrats,
faithful and useful adherent of the Union
cause, but unlike some other War Democrats.
rendered no such great and conspicuous ser
vice as places his party under any obligation
to take up the cudgel for him in this emer-
gency. He has individually done wrong. and
| individually he should answer for It,
The Republican party is party of honest
people, seeking to place honest men in office.
and if it sometimes fails in this, it fails be-
cause its confidence is betrayed and its honest
purposes thwarted. 1t is just as sincerely the
desire of the party as it is the wish of the peo-
pie and the mandate of the President that no
guilty man shall escape either exposure or
punishment, and that the public service shall
he purified of all unworthy incumbents. The
public welfare demands this, and the Repub-
lican party has no interest to subserve or ends
to accomplish at variance with the public wei
fare. Slow to accept irresponsible and ma
lcious accusations, it is yet swift to punish
the guilty, whether Republicans or Demo-
Gratis, and whether high or low. whenever
they are clearly exposed and unequvocally
convicted. Let the Democratic party defend
its Andersonvilles, apologize for its Tweeds,
sympathize with its jeff Davises. honor its
Hills and apotheosze its Vallandighams, if it
chooses, but be it the glory of the Republican
part to expose, repudidate and punish as
/ they deserve its Joyces, McDonaIds and Belk-
maps. Let no guilty man escape Ohio State
,JOurHol.
| Sir Richard DauiaS Hapuo,, Cb;af