The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1878-09-20
General Cofroth and the Tribune.

! When the Juhnstown Tribune, i'll its
weekly edition of Friday last, filed nearly
! eighteen of IT'S columns in a labored effort
to show why a. If. Coffroth ought not to
be elected to Congress from this district, 1t
/ publicly proclaimed Jacob Nj. Camp6elIs
/ defeat. When such a fearful charge Is
/ fired from small piece of artillery, the
/ gun is certain to explode With fatal effects,
and although the bystanders may escape
/ the editor and the candidate are always
/ sure to be killed. Several years before his
/ death, Thaddeus Stevens went to the town
+ of Indiana to address Republican mass
! meeting, and Ellis B. Schnabel, then of
( Fhiladelphia-a speaker of remarkable
{ force and power backed with the most
supreme and constituencies impudence-
appeared in the same place to address
meeting of the Democratic party. a COM
mi tee of Democrats waited on Stevens
and proposed a joint discussion from the
same stand bet ween him and Schnabel.
/ Stevens declined, and gave as the reason
for his refusal, that ''Schnabel could tell
! more Democratic lies in one bour, than he
(Sievensl could answer in q aohoyC Soeeb."
And thus in its eighteen column diatribe
against Coffroth, the Tribune has succeed
ed in scattering broadcast an amount of
fiat, stale and Improbable political aud
personal trash, which would require all the
( time from now until the election 10 dissect
and refute, even if it was worth answering
at all. There is nothing whatever in all
that ii says touching Gen. Coffrolh's acts,
either in Congress or in Somerset county,
which requires any notice, with the single
exception OF the charge that while in Con-
gIess lie received SiT, eight, or nine hun
dred dollars, or some other unknown and
indefinite amount, for appointing some
young man to the Naval Academy at An
napolis. When Congress was in session
two years ago. Charles Hayes, a member
from Alabama, was charged with having
sold a West Point cadetship to a young
man from New YoIk named Beardslee, and
tie matter was referred to the Judiciary
Committee for investigation. VIM. Lilley,
cadet broker in Washington city, was
witness before the commit ee to prove the
charge. His testimony was very lengthy,
aud we read it all some time ago. The
committee were not long in coming to the
conclusion that he was a bad egg, and not
a lily of the vale, by any means-didn't be-
lieve bis story, and acquitted Hayes, al
though lie (Hayes) was regarded as the
biggest liar in Congress. During his ex-
animation Lilley stated that be had paid
money to General Coffro'h when he was in
Congress, ga good many years ago." for
a cadetship.
The Tribune in its article has fairly pub
lished everything that Lilley stated about
Gen. COffyoth and the sale of a cadetship,
and now let us see whether jury on such
evidence would hang even a dog. At the
+ outset Lilley states that he paid Coffroth
/ about $500 for cadetship ga dozen years
/ ago''-tlat he don't remember who the
cadet was-afterwards he says lie paid HIM
| 5000, $500, or S900-that he still does not
( know who the cadetship was for, nor where
/ the money was paid-that he lLilley) had
received 81, 200 with which to procure the
cadetship but can't tell who paid it to him.
( but thinks he sold il to ga New York man.
/ repeats that lie can't tell whether it was
( the boys father or mother who gave him
. the 81, ,2OG--that he never saw the boy
don't remember his name-and don't rec
olIect whethe. the boy lived in the city of
New York, or in it's vicinity. This is SUBJ
stantially the evidence of LiIley, upon
which the Tribune asks the voters Of this
district 20 believe that Gen. Coffroth sold a
cadetship. Any man who is 50 disposed
can make such charge, and when it is
unsupported, as this one is, by particle Of
other testimony, the only way IN which it
/ can be met is to do as Gen. Coffroth did
at the Democratic meeting during the first
week Of CUurt in this place, when with up-
lifted hand he sOlemnly declared II san
TO y0u, my fello0 citizens, and call God to
( aoitneSS, that tie man 1cho mentions aay
name az sUch connection as q faLsifer
and the h'utH Is not i7l lin ~ Why is it
that neither the editor of the Somerset
/ Herald, in the columns Of that paper, nor
Geu. KoOntz in bis recent speech at a Re
publican meeting in that place, has re-
peated this charge against Gen. Coffro;h,
unless 1t is because they believe it to be
( vile calumny? Would William j. Baer
stand by Coifroth and urge his nomination
as lie did, if he doubted Coffroth's official
integrity? The editor of the Tribune has
mind capacious of such things, and it
was reserved for him, as he vainly believes,
TO impale Gen. Coffroth. He over-esti
mates mis- strength. and has fatally mis-
taken his mode of warfare. To use a
phrase common among Kentucky negroes,
''He has gone into very big field of corn
with very small hoe"
SINCE the Republican party in Maize at
the late election, for the first time in
twenty years, was ground remarkably
fine between the unner and neither mill