Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1878-05-23
GAIL HAMILTON.
Goes for a Maine Preacher.
She Reforms the Statements of
an 1ncautlous Reformer, and
Lectures a Frail Divine on
the Keeping Of the Ninth
Commandment.
WORDS OF love AND MEIKNEss.

practice in the Congregational churches is that
well known direction, "If thy brother shall
trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault
between thee and him alone; if he shall hear
thee thou hast gained thy BROTHER" as a men,
Der in good and regular standing of one Con-
gregational church, while you are the brilliant
leader of another, as a native and citizen of
the State which is the affectionate, if some~
times stern, mother of your own State, feel
personal responsibility for your good behav-
Tor and therefore propose, in accordance
with immemorial Congregational usage, to tell
you your fault between you and me alone, in
love and the spirit Of meekness.
The text of your sermon is, "Shall count
them pure, with the wicked balances, and the
bag of deceitful weights ?" This, however, is
not really your text; it is but a catchword.
The actual text whose spirit breathes through
your sermon is: ~ thank thee that am not
as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adul-
terers, or even as this publican in Congress"
THOU SHALT NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS.
When you approach tangible misstatements
il becomes possible to show how glaringly you
are msinformed, how pitably you are unin-
formed, on the grave questions whereof you
assume to teach your own people from the
pulpit, and all people from the newspaper. I
am appalled, when see you lending the weight
Of your respectable name and the influence of
your sacred Office to the assertion that "thois~
ands of Offices have been made solely to provide
places for friends of members Of Congress, and
that millions of money are teuied az taxes upon tie
people annually to feed these supple servants Of
some of our great men," If you, Mr.. Hincks,
believe your startling statement you have not
sufficiently keen seen. for truth to be a safe
spiritual adviser. If you do not believe it,
you become the slanderer Of your country and
of the great mass of its public men-an incon-
ceivable wickedness in clergymen or laymen.
If you give it endorsement and circulation
without knowing it to be true, you assume the
moral responsibility of him who repeats evil
stories concerning his neighbor without in
quiring or caring whether they be true or false.
UNwAkRANrED CHARGES.
Reyered sir, thousands OF Offices" must
mean at least too thousand. Combining your
charge to its narrowest possible limit, tell me
OF how many of these "two thousand Offices
made solely to provide places for friends of
members of Congress" have you personal
knowledge? Can you, aided by all the SANDER
Gus informants who have misled you, name
one hundred of these Offices? Can you name
fiftye Can you name twenty five? Will you
name ten? Will you name FIVE? pray you
to name one And when you name it, will
you add the name OF the particular Senator or
Representative who caused it to be created
for his friend Let US 60 to the very bottom
of this thing, Mr. Hincks, and then we may
perhaps hope to ascend.
Millions of money must mean at least two
millions. That is the annual interest on forty
millions Of our public debt. Do you see the
| magnitude of your accusation, the prodigious
dimensions of the statement it embraces
await with Impotence your proof Or your re-
| traction | am sure the Portland Advertiser
will gladly honor itself by oblging you and
F., beg the same unknown friend who furnished
| me with your sermon to forward me your
manly justification or your still more manly
confession.
have confined your assertions to the mar
| rowest limits your language will allow--two
thousand offices, two millions of money. Do
you know that the popular acceptation would
carry your assertions far beyond these figures?
Did you not intend that your meaning should
be unlimited if not illimtable There are
| no metes and bounds to halsehood. 1t is only
| truth that is hemmed in by rigid lines and inn
passable barriers
| Accepting these limitations of truth, let me
| give you the actual facts, which l did not
know until your wild harangue shocked me
| into a search for them, which put upon your
| statements a more monstrous mendacity than
even | suspected, and which stand over
against them so palpably and defantly as to
cast upon them shadow not only blackening,
| but baleful. l discover, then, upon inquiry,
| that Congressman whom you so dishonorably
| depict, did, during the Administration of Pres
| ident Graht, abolish more than two thousand
offices, and did decrease our taxes for the SAL
aries of these officers by far more than two
L II xhn h.
| ity OF official and undeniable reports, that as
soon as the war closed, the Republicans in
| Congress began the great work Of retrench-
ment, and that every Congress reduced enor>
mously the number of offices, and reduced
taxation in every form; not merely by ''two
Millions annually, but by tens of millions, and
it will not shock your large generic sense of
| arithmetic to hear it-hundreds of millions in
the aggregate of the several years. So that
| not merely is your statement unverified, but
| the opposite of your statement is true. Not
only is it untrue that offices were created and
taxes levied for the support of friends of Con-
gressmen, but these very Congressman abol-
| ished by the hundred and the thousand offices
| held by their friends and repealed by the tens
of millions the taxes levied on the people.
Not only was this true under President Grant;
it was true under the Republican Congress OF
/ 4 TcSlueUb JOUUSOU tllllt. OHUtr every year
of both Johnson's and Grants Administrations
pealed than during the one year of President
| Hayes's Administration.
THE DETERIORATION OF CONGRESS"
Is not this also fancy? You give no reason
for believing that Congress has deteriorated,
except that this Congress has not voted ac-
cording to your views on finance, and scar oh
| your Scriptures in vain for any Divine illumin-
alton On the contrary have lately heard
from the lips Of venerable man, who has
been distinguished alike in the official, the Dip
lomatic, and the literary world, the declara-
ton that Congress had steadily grown in its
average ability; that during the forty years
| since he first entered the public service, the
number of capable men, of large requirements
and great facility in debate, had increased be-
yond all proportion, both in Senate and House.
ave are continually quoting Clay, Calhoun,
and Webster" said my accomplished inform
ant, without detracting from their greatness
in many respects exaggerated-they had
swarms of adherents in Congress who knew
just enough to follow them. No such leader
l chip could be asserted or maintained to day.
This is not proof. 1t is only the opinion of a
man who has been officially and Familiarity as
| ISOLATED with Congress On what personal
| knowledge do you, Mr.. Hincks, base your I'M
modified assumption of the deterioration" OF
Congress? Do you find it in your own dis
trict? In the days before deterioration" did
your Portland send ADLER and stronger men
than the brilliant Mr.. Reed, new member,
who, only last week, made a speech in the
House, that for ability, discrimination, style,
effectiveness and value, would do honor to the
wisest and most experienced statesman? Do
you find it in your own State? Have your
new men generally been more quickly success
full in gaining the attention of the House than
Mr.. Powers, or more marked for dignity and
courtesy and intelligence than Mr.. Lindsey
Are Mr.. Hale and Mr.. Frye, notably in the
front rank of the representatives of forty,fve
millions of people-are your Senators, Mr..
Hamlin and Mr. Blaine, skilled only in the arts
| of the bank robber,-are these men, term
after term, by their corrupt "village post
masters" claiming man down in the interior
of Matte some brighter than they, while their
own lives are sedulously devoted to Congress
sional deterioration? If so, let Maine arise in
her might and send that superior man to Con-
gress, and give Washington the luxury Of a
genuine surprise
And while you are about it, Mr.. Hincks, be