The Portland daily press., 1877-02-14
HHOnpSt Dayy,, Field

David Dudley Field standing on the floor
of the House and squeezing himself very hard
all over in order to bring blush to his cheek
at thought of fraud in Florida is an impress
sive spectacle. The impression is not a
pleasant one. Mr.. Fields virtue is so far un-
like charity that il does not begin at home; it
is hedged in by geographical lines; like the
banana it can only flourish in Southern lands
and can get no root in the cold soil of New
York. 1t is so much akin to the virtue of
some women that the scent of orange BIOS
SONS is necessary to preserve it.
Mr.. Field is man of large ideas. As he
beautifully remarks "the spectacle of the sue
cess of vilIainy is corrupting in proportion to
the extent of the theatre on which it is en-
acted and to the prize which it wins.'' A
villainy must be national to affront him.
The spoliation of the third city in the world
failed TO alarm his virtue; the theatre was not
extensive enough; so he defended the larcen-
les of Tweed and the Tammany ring. The
theft of great railway did not send his hon
esty to arms; the prize was not large enough !;
50 he defended the frauds of Fisk. 1t is not
dishonesty to which he objects but to the
magnitude of its display. And strangely
enough his apprehension of evil begins where
the fears of the common honest man end.
Most people see in Florida a disputed State
in which the vote is so close and the returns
so vitiated by irregularity and fraud that it is
difficult to determine its rightful election and
there is ample room for honest difference of
opinion. By them the decision of the Com
mission if not altogether satisfactory is held
to be an expression of it's best judgment, and
so entitled to acquiescence and respect. Its
establishment was an explicit concession that
questions were involved in the electoral count
upon which there was among honest men an
irreconcilable difference of opinion, and the
fifteenth man was appointed for the sole pur-
pose of obtaining judgment one way or the
other. His judgment may be erring but it is
honest, and by it the parties to the dispute
had pledged themselves to abide. But Mr..
Field only sees in it, to use his own beautiful
figure of speech, Gan endeavor to install a
falsenood in the chief magistracy of the
land" The matter with Mr.. Field is that
honesty is new thing to him, and he is as
delighted as child with its first toy. So he
goes about with it like boy with big drum
making great deal of noise when there is no
call for noise.
Mr.. Field denounces the decision as Gun
founded in morals and unsound in law"
There will be general dsinclnation to ac-
cept the great advocate of Tweed and Fisk as
an authority in morals. As an authority on
legal questions he is entitled to considera-
ton, for he has studied the law as thieves
study house, to learn the weak points of it.
Apparently he has found no way OF breaking
in upon the Florida decision, and so in his
bafled rage hurls epithets at it as the disap-
pointed burglar hurls epithets at the watch
dog and the man-trap. Doubtless the thief
looks upon the spring-gun as Field does upon
the Commission as ''injurious and pernicious
in its consequences" 1t is as true now as
IN the days of McFingal that
"No man ever felt the halter draw
With good opinion of the law.'
and the moose is tightening about the Demo.
crdtlc neck WlIn uncomi0rIaDle raplulty.
But although the sight of David Dudl ey
Field denouncing fraud is not great moral
spectacle, it is in accordance with the eternal
fitness of things that the cause of reformed
Tammany should be pleaded by the reformed
advocate of Tweed, land that the man who for
years has without scruple defended thieves
and swindlers should now invoke honesty in
behalf of a party which for years defended
without scruple human slavery and which
people. Heaven knows honesty is sadly
needed by both. If it has come to that man
and that party the saints may hasten the
stitching of their ascension robes, for the
millennium is at hand.