New-York tribune., 1878-04-26
CONFESSION.

Have certain offers been made, "incre-
enable slightly, if necessary" or is it only
the effect of Lenten prayer and penanceG There
seems to be a sudden quckening Of conscience
among the hungry and unfortunate. Here is
the Hon. Samuel b, McLin, for instance, MEM
Der of the late State Board of Canvasscrs Of
Florida, who has been a more or less unsuccess-
full office-scekcr ever since the beginning of
the present Administration, and is now, they
tell us, desperately hard up. He begged for a
place, and good-natured Mr. Hayes appointed
him Judge of the TeTitorygOf New-Mexico );
but the Senate rejected the nomination-ior
which New-Mexico evidently has abundant
reason to be than1ful-and the President SEN
sibly declined to send his name in for any
thing else unless he could first satisfy Senators
of his fitness. Going about with empty pockets
and blasted ambitions, Mr.. McLin now COM
plans that "the President has basely betrayed
and merciessly destroyed the Republican
"party of the South and crushed the very men
"who did so much for his election He has
"cowardly abandoned and betrayed his South
Germ Republican friends" lie promised to
take care of them, and he has not done it..
"My contempt for the pitiable litteness of
"tbe man. says Mr.. McLin, g is beyond my
"power of expression" And so Mr. McLin is
impelled by a sense of duty to himself and
others to make confession.
A confession of his own sins? Oh, no;
McI.in is not that kind of a man. He never
did anything wrong. He proposes to confess
the sins of Mr.. Hayes. AS for this Florida
State canvasscr, he seems to have acted in
everything from the highest and hOlest mo-
tives. 1t is true that he may have allowed
his Judgment to be warped occasionally by
partisan feeling; political zeal may have
blinded him to the true character of the bad
men around him. but in cOncurrng in the
rulings and computations which gave the
electoral vote of the State to the Republican
candidate, he "was not at any time conscious
"Of acting otherwise than right and proper"
When he said that the lawful majority was
for Hayes, he believed it. He judged from the
best evidence he cOulds reach, and the most
careful study of the law he was capable of
making. But he is now convinced that Mr.
Hayes knew better. "Reylewing my action at
"this distance of time, with all calmness, with
"my ardor cooled and my partisan zeal chilled
"by the President, l am persuaded that the
FLORIDA canvass was not conducted with that
"coOl, calm Judgment, and honest, unbiased
"decsion that should have characterized pro-
"ceeding involving such vast and important
"interests" Mr.. McLin has now come to the
conclusion that the whole thing was tainted
with fraud. He has no fraud of his own to
acknowledge; no wrong consciously COM
mitted by the Board of Canvassers to atone
for; on the contrary, he declares that the
frauds which he now suspects, or retails upon
hearsay testimony, were not made known dur
ing the canvass. But the President, by "ignor-
"ing his Florida friends" shows that he was
acquainted with the rascality; and therefore
Judge McLin penitently confesses that Hayes
is a monster of ingrattude and an internal
rascal.
Then we have another Florida statesman,
Dennis by name, who was a county super
visor at the time of the election, and has since
been an Office-seeker more persistent and un-
fortunate than even McLin. Dennis in search
of an Office reminds us of fastidious
tramp demanding pie and butter with
the meal he has just begged at the farmhouse
door. al wanted to be an AUDITOR he says |;
"and declined three places holding one only o