New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1878-07-27
A PLAIN CASE.

While our Minister 10 1dIls, tneH lIcSn ~
his post, was trying to represent the United
States in a becoming manner at the opening
of the great Exhibition, he was assailed by
shameful charge preferred in the shape OF a
resolution of the House of Representatives,
and at his own request he was summoned
home by telegraph to confront his acousers.
In Europe the license of partisan warfare is
not absolutely unbridled, and when high
government officer is impeached in this solemn
and formal manner, his position becomes an
extremely painful one. Not only the friends
of Mr.. Noyes but the friends of America IN
all parts of the Old World have awaited the
result of the investigation into his conduct
with deep anxiety.
So far as he is concerned, there Is no sort Of
dispute about that result. The charge against
him was practically refuted before he had
chance TO answer it. The very witnesses OF
the prosecution dsproved 1t; and when Mr..
Moves completed his defence by his very
full, frank, and satisfactory statement,
there was not a man on the committee,
there was not reader of the newspapers who
did not see that the vindication was absolute.
Nobody, Democrat or Republican, now pre-
tends to doubt Mr.. Noyes's innocence. 1t is
very rare indeed that the result of political
investigation is so clear.
One would have thought that in such a case
the committee could not hesitate moment as
to their duty. They owe something to Mr.
NOyes personally they owe something to the
character Of the diplomatic service; they owe
something TO the good name of the United
States. The retractiOn ought TO be as public
and positive as the charge. Yet Mr.. NOyes
returns to-day to his post of duty with an I'M
merited stigma on his good name. Everybody
at home knows that his innocence has been
established. But Europe does not read the
American newspapers every morning; and
Paris only knows that Mr.. Noyes was sum-
moned to Washington to answer criminal
charge, solemnly preferred against him by
name and title In resolution passed by the
popular branch Of the Congress of his own
country, and that he is sent back neither con-
demned nor acquitted.
Now Mr.. Potter, it is time to ask your at
tention to your own reputation. There are
some members of the Democratic party, and
one so-called Republican of the sO-called Pot
ter Committee, to whose scOrn of per-
sonal dishonesty we should not appeal.
There are members of the Democratic
will not sink in public estimation if they
are held authors of a mean and lying SANDER.
Mr.. Potter is none such. He has been the
eminently respectable representative of Demo-
cratic opinion. For his personal sincerity and
honor men have been glad to vouch who had
no liking for his Democratic opinions, and no
sympathy with his course. But 1t is not
thought decent in Union College. it is not
thought decent in Grace Church, 1t is not
thought decent in eminent banking-hOuses,
for man to make charge of crime, to
fail to sustain that charge, and to refuse to
retract it when it is disproved.
The charge was made against John Sher-
man, now Secretary of the Treasury. and L.
+. Noyes, now Minister to France, that they
had conspired with others to perpetrate an
infamous crime. Mr.. Potter knows right well
the meaning of the words used in the resolution
offered by him. He knows, too, that he was
selected to offer it because of his reputation
for personal honor and eminently respectable
affiliations. 1t was thought that such man
could not so degrade himself as to be the
conduit for a low partisan SANDER. When
Clarkson N. Potter rose in his place, and Of
fered the accusing resolution, men who had
no knowledge of the facts were excusable for
thinking. "This cannot be a knayish and lying
"piece of scandal. L. there is not some
Substance here. Mr.. Potter would not
"haye offered the resolution" Every
body knows that the personal reputa-
ton of Mr.. Potter turned the scale, and
caused the final passage Of resolution which
would otherwise have been treated as the