The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1876-09-27
CARP1LGN LIES.

CA1ELIIGA Lies.
When some Macauley writes the
history OF the United States, to be
read by generations in the far-off flu
ture. if honestly he places upon the
pages The truth 10 regard to the Gen.
tennial Year. those pages will be so
blackened and blurred that blush
of shame will suffuse the face of the
American as he reads.
1t will become the sad and pain
full duty of the Historian to write in
the beginning of that chapter some
thing like this:
1.-The party which for several years
prior TO the Centennial year, had had
control of the Government, had become
corrupt, and in all departments of gov
eminent, peculatiOn and fraud were rife
and red-handed The masses of the
people of both parties were honest, it is
true, but the political leaders of the par
ty then known as the Republican party,
made little pretense to honesty. Indeed
when the great contest of that year was
being waged the party known as the
Democratic party, in every public gath
ering of the people, and in every period
ical published in the interest of that par
ty openly and boldly charged the party
in power with the corruptions and NAL
administration which had become so
open and shameless. But no leader was
found in the ranks of the Republican
party who would undertake to defend
his party. On the contrary, that party
attempted to win the campaign by APP
pealing solely to what the leaders sup
posed to be the ignorance and prejudices
of the masses. Their leaders fabricated
and published a string of falSehoods,
which for shameless effrontery nowhere
find their like in history"
Among these false statements we
note that the following, though with
out the shadow of foundation in fact,
were proclaimed as truths all over
the country:
FALSEHoOD-NO. 1.
Zone Samuel ]. Tilden, a citizen of
great wealth, and patriotism, and of IN
bIemished reputation, had been selected
as the Democratic candidate for Presi-
dent, under the lead of a filthy sheet
known as the New York Times Repub-
lican speakers charged all over the cOun-
try that he had perjured himself in re-
gard to little matter of income tax"
FALsEHOoD-NO. II.
The lower house of Congress during
that year was Democratic. In the reOr-
ganiZatiOn of that body, according to
the custom of the times, many Republi-
can soldiers had been dismissed from
minor situations and Democrats put in
their place The Republican leaders
charged that Confederate soldiers had
been put in their places, notwithstand-
ing the fact that the records at Wash
ington showed plainly that in nearly
every instance vacancies so created had
been filed by Union soldiers.
FALsEHOOD-NO. III.
They charged that the Democratic
party intended to pension Rebel soldiers
and pay the Rebel war debt, a charge
which no decent man of any party be-
lieved.
FALsEHOOD-No. ".
They charged that the Democrats
were seeking to re-enslave the African
race. But they did not succeed in in
ducing even the Africans to believe this
charge, as many thousands of them az
that campaign allied themselves with
the Democratic party, and contributed
largely to the overthrow of the Repub-
lican party.
FALSEHoOD-NO. V.
Being utterly unable to excuse or pal
late the recklessness and corruption Of
the Administration then in power, many
of whose members had been openly eX-
posed, the Republicans, especially those
of low order of intelligence, declared
that President Grant-his Secretary,
Belknap, his private Secretary, Bab-
cock, and host of others of their party
were Democrats. This assertion was so
that no man of intelligence
was ever heard to make it. These and
a hundred other falsehOOds of a like ri
character constituted the entire
stock in trade Of the Republican party
during the year in which it met its final
overthrow.
1t speaks well of the Americans of
that day, that their intelligence was
too great to permit them to be duped
as the Republican leaders tried to
dupe them. But the facts herein
recorded prove the oft-repeated axi-
ON, that in a Republic, a party long
in power becomes corrupt and un-
trustworthy