Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1880-08-06
The Whisky Ring.

NANssS SAPOSSOO1VA0 VIII fSS ssoN'NsshsAy
realized if Gen. John A. Macdonald
publishes the kind of book
about the whisky ring which he tells
the New York World that he is
about to print. Macdonald having
been a large part of that ring, familiar
with its operations, guilty of its worst
practices, convicted for its frauds and
pardoned by the favor of its friends, he
is at once a we'll informed and a discred-
tied witness. His testimony like that of
any other accomplice can he received
only after abundant corroboration. But
if it can be thus we'll sustained it will be
very much more interesting and valuable
than could be the evidence of any one
less qualified to speak with authority
and from an acquaintance with the facts.
At the time of MacDonald's trial facts
were developed to show the intimate con-
nection existing between him and men
who shared Grant s confidence and favor.
The Shiny trail led up to the very door CT
the White House, and the best that
Grants friends could say for him was
that "his wicked partners took advan-
tage of him. MacDonald's 8 pardon came
under circumstances that looked as if it
had been extOrted.
Now, for some reason or Othcr-it may
be for revenge, for nOtoriety or for
money-MacD Donald proposes to tell it all.
He only follows the unf,iling character
teristic of such men in doing SO. His
announcement that the whisky ring was
formed to raise money for Republican
campaigns will surprise nobody. OF
course it was. 1t was 80 manipulated
| wherever it had its little branches and
the best subscribers to the party pool
| around here were the fellows who used
to get anonymous letters through the
postofiice, with notes Of large size in them
from their beneficiaries, and the partners
of the syndicate who met weekly in "thc
back Office " to get their dividends.
If Macdonald has the veriticatiOn of
his charges of Grants guilty knowledge,
of the pledges made to him by Republican
politicians and of the delays they have
sought to interpose against his publica-
ton, his book will he rare and racy
one. Certain it is that no field of fancy
ever offered such range for an interesting
narrative rs the history of the whisky
ring under Grants administration.
WE trust that we will hear 10 more
complaints from tho Examiner about
anybody giving its party in this county
the deservedly bad name which it has for
all manner of political rascality. The
Examiner has proclaimed to the press of
the state recent most fragrant case of
ballOt-box stufling, of which it may be
presumed to have accurate Knowledge,
since it was done by its political friends,
and in behalf of its political friends. 1t
further declares that no primary election
of its party here is ever held without
fraud. When it is remembered that
these elections are under the general law
of the state to regulate elections, and
frauds at them are punishable under
these statutes, it is manifest that part of
the Lancaster county Republican pOliti-
Clans will commit frauds when they get
the chance and that the other part will
not avail themselves of the legal reme-
diesto prevent and punish the prostitu-
tion OF the ballot box. While the Repub-
lican organs here delight to entertain
their readers with alleged outrages
upon the free exercise of the
right of suffrage in the South the fact
remains that in no section of the coun-
try, according to their confession, is
there greater pollution of the ballot than
here in their own bailiwick. 1t is tolerated
within the party because the devices
which they employ to cheat each other
are in general campaigns turned against
the Democracy, when the ballot-box stuff
ing and return tinkering of the prima-
ries blossom out into the forgery of na-
turalizatiOn papers, tho manufacture of
bogus tax receipts and the fraudulent
change OF ballots. The Examiner has a
good deal of sweeping before its own
door to do, before its broom will find le-
gitimate employment in Alabama.