The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1878-12-20
SCALPING.

The approach of the senatorial cleo
ton has again caused the scalping knife
to be unsheathed. The Kansas scalping
knife has been a savage, but as a rule, in
effective weapon. All good people will
rejoice when the day comes, if II ever
shall come, when this mode of warfare
shall be no longer known. No man has
run for prominent Office in Kansas,
who has not been denounced as having
attached to his name and reputation all
that is hateful and evil. This has even
been the mode of warfare by those living
in houses composed of the thinnest glass.
AS rule the candidates have run the
gauntlet" of defamation and succeeded
in their ambitions, and the country has
been saved, and we have gone on to pros
perity. The public in Kansas long ago
tired of this thing, not that they are
averse to proper investigation of the
records of officials, or candidates, and
their denunciation if real grounds for &C
cusation exists, and can be sustained, but
of the eternal din and racket which pro-
ceeds from motives of revenge and per
sonal hatred. Election time is too often
made the occasion of settling accounts
or laying bare TO the public private
grievances.
We have for some time expected that
Mr.. Ingalls, would be bounced upon
from some quarter-that some patriotic
paper would endeavor to lift his hair
in the most approved style of the Kansas
art. And it has come. The Leavenworth
Public Press has been uneasy for some
time, and there have been rumblings OF
distant thunder .that was sooner or later
TO burst with what was aimed to be
a crushing effect on the senator's head
A late number OF that paper makes the
specific charge that, since the death of B.
B. Gale, postmaster at Atchison, receipts
have been found among his papers, sign
ed by John A. Martin, showing that
the sum of four thousand dollars was
wrung from him, at different times
as condition of his retaining the post
Office. The Press charges that this money
was black-mail, which Gale was COM
PEELED by Ingalls, to pay regularly, to Sc
cure the Atchison Champions support
OF himself; and that Gale was reduced
from ease to poverty by this constant
matchmaking.
The Troy Chief, an opponent Of Ingalls,
reelection, states that the Press is wholly
unreliable in anything it or its cores
pOndents say Of Ingalls,. 1t should be
borne in mind, also, that the prOprie.
for of the Press has held an important
government office until lately. We do
not know whether he is actuated in the
least by desire to "make 1t hOt'' fOI
Ingalls, from personal motives, but some
have so charged. But it is nothing but
right, and it is expected, that the proof
for these charges will be furnished by the
Press. Otherwise no attentiOnwill be paid
to them. No attention ought to be paid
to them, unless they are substantlated
We are not interested in Mr.. ingalls,
further than any citizen is interested in
an official occupying the high and re.
sponsible Office which we think Mr. Ing
alls has so ably filled for nearly six years
We are bound to say, though, that we dc
not believe a word of the charges pub.
lished by the Press We do not believe
Ingalls, has made merchandise of the of
fees he has been able to bestow, and we
are certain as we are of anything not
absolutely known, that John A. Martin
and the late Ben Gale are as innocent OF
the charges made as is the man who
makes them. Mr.. Martin, and Mr. Gale,
too, have regulations for integrity and
traightforwardness, which cannot be in
jured with those who know them by un-
substantiated accusations of the charac-
ter contained in the Press. If such re-
ceipts as are spoken of are in existence,
we presume they were given by Colonel
Martin for the rent of his building in
which the pOstoffice has been kept for
many years. When these charges come
TO be Investigated we apprehend they
will fly as chaff before the wind.