Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1876-04-19
ONE of the heaviest blows sustained


fallen upon him since his fortunes be.
gan to wane was that inflicted by the
Senate yesterday in the passage of
bill for the Improvement of the Cap
itol grounds, with provision that
none of the money thus appropriated
shall pass through the hands of Gen.
Babcock as Commissioner of Public
Buildings and Grounds. The Demo-
cratic House has already expressed in
o similar manner its lack of conf
dencc, and this action Of the Repnb-
lican Senate is peculiarly significant.
Chicago Tribune.
We have not seen that vote in the
Senate, but presume it took the COM
bined Democratic vote with few
Republicans, to carry It, However
this may be, it is grave matter to
thus condemn q man untried. We
deprecate the idea that many Repnb-
licans are given at once to roll on the
hue and cry that q man Is q rascal
SO soon as grave charges arc brought
forth against him. Babcock may be
a guilty man, but most certainty there
has been no conviction thus far, and
no proof to that end but what has
been SO combatted with negative proof
as to leave the mind free to give a
man the right to the plain principle
of meteing out justice, viz: that he is
innocent until clearly proven guilty.
The fact Of it is, that in these days, it
seems as though it is only nec-
essary to raise the cry Of thief again st
a man to set hungry pack of howl
ers on his path, just as it was next to
death in the days of the Salem witch
craft for a person to be charged with
being a witch. There is kind of
mobocracy running round the circle
that only needs for somebody, no
matter who, to hit a man over the
head with or without cause, and at
once his noggin is the recipient OF
hundreds of shillelahs. Beyond ques-
ton Babcock stands under a clond,
but the first man to deal this last
blow was one who has deliberately
sworn to two different stories. To
use common phrase, without cast
ing any reflection upon Babcock in SC
doing, "let us give the devil his due
This whirligig Of SANDER sent over
: - . d.
the land from the lips Of many wit.
nesses whose moral character is a
pestiferous stencil, and even their
testimony distorted by reporters
gives to villification such free run
that it takes the swiftest winged mes.
senger to keep pace with it. In the
course of these Investigations there
has been some good accomplished
and actual wrongs brought to light
In this the results have been bencfi.
cent, and nobody rejoices more to sec
wrongs exposed than the party in
power, but even in this, only evidence
has been sought after which would
expose Republicans, and In the main
it has been nothing other than a
scramble by Democratic investiga.
tors to peddle broadcast over the land
any kind of story, either true OF
false, which would injure Republic
an Of standing. In this respect It has
been the work of recent traitors In
arms and their abettors, constituting
the head and front of the Democratic
party, to tear from the mind of the
people their own most acenrsed infa.
my, by deluging the nation with some
truthful evidence Of wrong, but &C.
companied with mountain Of false.
hood. This constitutes the presen,
political scheme of ex-rebels and ex'
quasi rebels.