Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1878-11-27
HARD BLOW.
Tho Cipher vllIainy and What
Ought to Be Done.

4 OOROH 10 60 OOu0.
The Rochester Union and Aduertise,,
one Of the ablest and leading demo
cratic journals of New York, indulges
in the following very plain talk on
the wretched scandal developed by
the Tlden cipher dispatches. It
warns its party of the wreck that
awaits ft1f It does not purge itself of
Tilden, his corrupt crew, and the
method of bribery for securing politi-
cal success. It says:
The unpleasant things" of the ci-
pher dispatches must be brought to
light, no matter who Is hurt. The In
terests of the democratic party, not
less than of public morality, demand
it. The democratic party certainly
cannot remain responsible for the
questionable conduct Of those who
represented 1t and are Involved
Principal among those representative
persons are William T.. Pelton, Man.
ton Marble and Smith NJ. Weed. We
do not say that these gentlemen are
guilty of the ofienses alleged against
them. We merely recognize and
treat the fact of the allegation Of the
offenses, and of the presentation of
proof that makes out q prima facie
case of guilt, which fact necessitates
the demand for investigation, that
they, If innocent, may be acquitted,
and if guilty, convicted, and that in
any event the democratic party may
be vindicated, The positions and re.
lations of these gentlemen during the
can vass and electoral count were such
as to render them conspicuously rep
resentative in character. Mr.. PeltOn
is the nephew of the democratic can
didate for President in the election,
and was during all the time mem
Der of his household, his private Sec
retary, and trusted confdant. He
was also the acting secretary of the
Democratic National Committee in
the campaign.
Mr.. Marble has been the editor OF
the leading democratic Journal of the
metropolis, and was a delegate from
the State of New York to the Demo-
cratic National Convention at st.
Louis. Mr.. Weed had also been co.,
spicuous as a leading democrat, and
was also delegate from this State to
the National Convention. During
the period covered by the cipher dis
patches Mr.. Pelton was, as he testifies,
the acting secretary of the Democrat
ic National Committee, as well as the
confidential agent in New York of
the democratic candidate for the Pres
idency; while Mr.. Marble was the du-
~ accredited agent of the candidate
and of the National Committee in
Florida, as Mr.. Weed was such agent
in South Carolina. Such was the stat
US of these gentlemen. Now they,
with others, are openly charged by a
responsible public Journal, as well as
a republican organ, and by the repub-
lican press and republican leaders
generally-by the republican party
with entering into q conspiracy or
conspiracies to bribe and buy the
votes of Presidential electors, and
thus by corrupt means, carry the elec- |
ton of President of the United
States; and proofs, purporting to be
by their own hands, filling more than
two dozen columns of the New York
Tribune, with explanatory accompani- |
ments, are presented to substantiate
the charge. They neither meet the
accusations made against them nor
challenge their accusers 10 an investi-
cation by competent authority. Can
the democratic party, responsible for
them and their acts as theca stands,
longer submit in silence to these ac-
cusations against their representative
men in the Presidential canvass and
count of the electoral vote, and con-
tinue to submit in silence to them,
thus becoming particeps criminis in a
prima facie case of bribery and fraud
attempted but unaccomplished? Wei
say no-that it cannot, and hope to |
live. We say that if it attempted to
go on without the investigation de-
manded, it will, in the elections next
Fall, and in the great Presidential
struggle of 1880, be overwhelmed as
by an avalanche with cipher dispatch
es from the Lakes to the Gulf, and be
buried out of sight In the contest.