The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1877-07-28

(rrom the New York Tribune.]

inc Now 1Oxk
It = diMcult 70 believe that Grover, Of Ore
any thing Inconsistent with his attitude Of
unselhsh devotion to the cause Of Reform.
We can hardly bring Ourselves to entertain
for moment the suspicion that Grover
bought his election Is Senator from Oregon.
But they seem not only to be suspecting. II
Members Of the Legislature, who had been
pledged to vote for Mr.. Nesmith, Familiarity
known as " Old Nes," and who repudiated
the pledge and voted for Grover without any
visible cause, were subsequently found to be
taking up mortgages in . surprising man
ner; purchasing saw-mills In such abrupt
and unexpected fashion as to excite remarks
from their neighbors, who never supposed
that, II steamboats, were selling fer cent
apiece, they had money enough to buy q
gang-plank; showing up twenty dollar gold
pieces, and doing all the other ridiculous
things that men drop into with the posses
sion of unusual and doubtful ducats. Then
there were impecunious members seen com.
ing from Growers room counting up sums o.
Nesmith with corrupt proposition, and
said at the same time that he could
get money for his vote and thought it was
right to take it, has skipped into the noun
tain Businesses, "a hundred miles from
home" to elude the vigilance OF q
witness. All these things have bad look
for Grover, and what is worse, the persons
conducting the inquiry announce that they
are as yet only on the threshold OF the in
yestigati0n. So that, notwithstanding our
faith in Grover, and our unwillingness to
suspect him of securing by. purchase
the seat in the Senate he promises SO greatly
to adorn, we must confess that things look
"squally" for him SO far as heard from.
We remember Grover with pride as the
inventor of CrOniu, and the Cronin ElectOr-
nj COllege-that intelligent body which, be-
ginning with Cronin alone, grew up by grad
ual accretions and Cronin's natural selec-
hold a certificate with a grant, and have q
claim for mileage. It was Grover whose
progress eastward Just behind Cronin was
hourly telegraphed to the country from his
embarkation at Portland till his arrival at
Washington. 1t was Grover who was sere-
naded ut San Francisco and made speech I;
who was greeted at various points on the
route by large numbers of the friends Of
Tilden and Reform, and upon each occasion
attested his devotion to the cause of Political
Purity; who was received and entertained
at Washington as the very Apostle Of Re-
form, and who was everywhere hailed as the
Political Deliverer Of Democracy. And now
to think that at the very moment he set sail
down the Pacific coast, exciting the grateful
emotions of the whole country watching his
progress, he should have been himself q
Standardized by purchase. 1t is hard to be-
lieve it of him. He seemed so great and mo-
BILE and pure, and talked so good to all the
Populations that waited on him, and the
brass bands that serenaded him, that such a
bought votes away from "Old Nes'" ap-
pears incredible. II Mr.. Tilden had known
what manner of man he was he would un-
doubtedly have forbidden his nephew, Col.
Pelton, from telegraphing him In cipher,
and perhaps have carried his opposition to
fraud SO far as to have refused to give the
celebrated Cronin a cent.
Out of it all, however, this satisfaction re.
mains: The Democrats in the Senate will
have the opportunity afforded them to I" re-
buke fraud" when the report in Growers
case is received. They have been banker
ing for such chance for months. They will
embrace it eagerly. There have been cases
heretofore in which persons elected to the
Senate have been suspected of purchasing
their seats. For instance, there was Patter-
son Of South Carolina. Democratic states
men and Democratic newspapers took high
ground upon that question, maintaining
with great earnestness that it was the duty
of the Senate to refuse to accept his creden-
tials because Of the faint Of corruption upon
them. They said the Senate ought to vindi-
cate its own dignity and maintain the purity
Of elections by DENYING PattersOn's claim to
a seat. Uncharitable persons in the Oppo-
sition said then that it made all the differ
ence in the world whether the claimant was
a Democrat or Republican, and that the
Democrats never would have hesitated a
moment in Patterson's case if he had been q
Democrat. There is now an opportunity to
repel all such insinuatiOns and establish a
precedent and record for the party. 1t is
a pity to lose Grover and the moral effect of
his example as q Reformer, but If it affords
the Democracy an opportunity to attest its
sincerity and exhibit its consistency no one
will ov,,nlaiu